Don’t panic! Carving a turkey doesn’t have to be scary. Here’s how to do it:

Every year at this time, cooks begin to panic about how they’re going to roast their turkey. All that anxiety is misplaced. Roasting a turkey is easy: You simply salt it, roast it and rest it. It’s the carving that will kill you.

The first time I carved a Thanksgiving turkey was at my mother-in-law’s house. Kathy and I had just started dating and her mother thought it would be nice for me to do the honors — despite the fact that my cooking skills at that time were minimal at best. Either that or she had a wicked sense of humor. I suspect the latter.

Halfway through the carving, I called Kathy into the kitchen: “Where does the dark meat come from?” I whispered hoarsely. As I recall, our guests that day dined on turkey rags and shreds.

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But carving doesn’t really need to be that scary. Take it one step at a time and you’ll be fine. (And it really helps to practice at least once on a roast chicken.). Start with the right tools. You’ll want a good-sized carving board (preferably with a deep groove around the outer edge to catch juices), a carving fork and a short, sturdy carving knife. Forget about those long flexible knives you use for carving roast beef and ham — you need to work around too many joints with a turkey.

Make sure the turkey is well-rested after roasting. Waiting 45 minutes or even an hour will firm up the meat and dramatically decrease the amount of juices that spill from the bird. Begin carving with the wings. Cut a deep slit through the base of the breast just above the wing’s “shoulder” joint. Flex the wing backward and cut through the joint. Hold the wing upright and cut straight down through the “elbow” joint to divide the wing in half. Repeat with the other side.

Now remove the legs. Cut through the skin between the breast and the leg. Flex the leg down to pop free the “hip” joint and then cut around it to separate the leg completely. Hold the leg upright by the drumstick and cut straight down through the “knee” joint to divide the leg in half. Use a carving fork to pin the thigh to the carving board and cut away as much of the dark meat as you can in long clean slices. Then repeat with the other side.

Finally, carve the breast. Feel for the keel bone, the long, sharp bone that runs down the center of the breast, and cut straight down on one side until you feel the ribs underneath. Use the carving knife and fork to follow the bones, lifting the breast off in one piece. Now carve it in cross-wise slices and repeat with the other side.

Arrange the meat on a warm platter as you go, putting the dark meat at one end and the white at the other, to make choosing easier. If the legs look a little underdone, pop them back in the oven for five minutes while you finish the rest — and if anything looks a little dry, spoon over a little of the pan juices or gravy.

One last thing: Forget that Norman Rockwell painting of the carving done at the dinner table. Because watching the carving without being able to eat is just going to drive everybody crazy. Plus, it’s nice to have a little privacy in case things don’t go as smoothly as planned. At least now you know where the dark meat comes from.

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