This is my favorite video showing you how to truss your turkey.  Do you have to truss a turkey? No. I truss my bird to make it more attractive and for a more compact shape.

I started trussing the turkey a couple of years ago. Sure I’d always tie the legs together, but the wings always went cockeyed when it was time for the turkey to come out of the oven.

I’d seen trussed turkeys, but never could figure out how to tie the bird properly. Enter Good Eats, one of the greatest cooking shows of all time. I happened to come across a Thanksgiving episode and lo and behold, I learned how to truss a turkey.  Well thanks to the magic of YouTube, that video is online.

Also if you cook your turkey in a bag (don’t laugh, it’s easy and makes a very juicy bird!), trussing the bird makes it easier getting it into the bag.