Anyone can cook a great turkey and brining can turned a cheap turkey into the best bird you've ever tasted. It's so easy I don't understand why people don't do it. You will always end up with a moist, flavorful, bird if you do this.

1. Buy a 5 gallon bucket at the local hardware store. Wash it.

2. Have your turkey thawed the day before you want to cook.

3. Put a gallon of vegetable or chicken broth in a pot on the stove, add big chunks of the following:

Carrots
Onions
Celery
Oranges or apples if desired

Spices according to taste:
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
Savory
Ginger

Add one cup of Kosher salt. This is the most important ingredient. Kosher salt has large crystals that will draw the moisture out of the bird and that moisture will be replaced with the brine solution via a process called osmosis.

Bring to boil and simmer for a half hour or so then allow to completely cool.

Place bird in the bucket, then pour the brine solution, and all the stuff you put in it, in with it. Add enough ice water to cover the bird. Refrigerate overnight.

Bake or deep fry as usual.

Two hints for a great bird; don't waste your time basting. It doesn't actually do anything and all that opening and closing of the oven door makes the temperature uneven. That's not good. I know it's not the same, but cook the "stuffing" separately.