Everything Thanksgiving: Get all our Thanksgiving recipes, how-tos and more !

Cooking a beautiful turkey is easy. Learning how not to massacre it with your carving knife is a more difficult ordeal.

Last Thanksgiving , Americans cooked and consumed over 46 million turkeys. Unfortunately, very few of them are ever carved in a stress- and mess-free manner that doesnt waste most of the precious meat on your carefully prepared bird.

So we asked chef Adam Gabriel of Baltimores Heritage Smokehouse to show us, step-by-step, the best way to carve a Thanksgiving turkey. Sharpen your knife and get to work.

Bon appetit!

Step 1: Rest the turkey