Table salt, kosher salt, and fancy sea salt are the most common types of salt we can use to enhance our food. If you want to know more about this magical rock for cooking, The Virtual Weber Bullet is your guide.

The site offers an overview of different types of edible salts, including the three mentioned above, and, more importantly, when to best use them. For barbecue cooking, for example, table salt in a rub is good for uniform distribution especially if you have other finely ground ingredients. For coarse rubs, use kosher salt: a coarse, flaky salt that is easier to pick up and sprinkle with greater control.

Just as Cooks Illustrated previously suggested, The Virtual Weber Bullet says table salt is good for everyday cooking and baking. It adds that fancy sea salt is a good "finishing salt" on cooked dishes.

A very useful chart in this article is the salt equivalent measures. If you're going to brine a turkey or other meat with salt, know that table salt and kosher salt don't have the same saltiness, so you have to measure them differently by volume to get the same effect. Use the chart to adjust accordingly.

All About Salt | The Virtual Weber Bullet

Thanksgiving is coming up, and if the presentation of your last few turkeys has been less than stellar, it's probably a good idea to brush up on proper turkey carving method. Here's the easiest way to do it.

There are a number of different ways to carve a turkey, but you can't go wrong with this method from kitchen hacker extraordinaire Alton Brown. Follow along with the video above, and go through these steps:

1. Take the turkey out of the oven and let it cool before you start carving. It'll be easier to carve if it isn't straight out of the oven. Also, carve it before you take it to the dining room. Tradition may say "carve at the table", but it'll be a lot easier—not to mention less messy—to carve it in the kitchen on a cutting board.
2. Cut a straight line from the bird's sternum all the way down to the bottom of the turkey. Then, disconnect that breast from the thigh by cutting through the skin in between, and you should be able to remove the breast completely and slice it up at your leisure.
3. Next, pull back the drumsticks and find the joint. All you need to do is cut the joint connecting it to the thigh and it should slide right off. If you find yourself sawing it like a Christmas tree, you're probably cutting the bone instead. Move down to the joint and cut it apart there. If you're having trouble, see the video below for more tips on finding the joints.
4. Flip the turkey over and cut the wings off just like you did the drumstick. Pull it away from the body and cut through the joint. Again, if you're putting a low of elbow grease behind it, you're probably too close to the bone.
5. Next, cut off the thigh. This is similar to cutting the breast, in the sense that most of it is attached to the rest of the body, so get as much meat off as you can. Then, as you reach the end, pull apart the joint like you did for the other pieces and cut through it. If there's only one thing I'd disagree with in the above video, it's never to cut toward yourself—but that's because I've learned that the hard way.
6. Before you slice the thigh, you'll need to take out the bone. The easiest way to do this is to turn the thigh over and slice it out with your knife. Cut along the sides of the bone to remove it from the thigh, then start slicing.
7. When you slice the thigh and breastmeat, slice against the grain for maximum tenderness. And remember—the thicker you slice, the longer the pieces will stay warm, so it's okay to go against the more traditional "thin slice" method here. Stick everything on a platter and serve.

Alternatively, if you prefer to slice the breast lengthwise, you can skip the first step, remove the thigh, drumstick, and wing as described above, then slice the breast right off the bird itself (as demonstrated in the video to the left). It'll give you larger, thinner slices (perfect for those post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches). Plus, dark meat will stay moist a bit longer than white meat, so if your turkey's in danger of being a bit on the dry side, this'll help you keep the breastmeat moist as long as possible by cutting it last.

Got any of your own turkey carving tips? Share them with us in the comments.

Crash Course is a series of guides to life skills everyone should know but you may have been afraid to ask. Do you have an everyday problem you wish someone had taught you to solve? Let us know at tips+crashcourse@lifehacker.com.

If you don't often have many occasions to get up on a ladder, you may not know that it can be dangerous if your ladder isn't angled properly for the distance you need to climb. When placing your ladder, remember the four-to-one rule: for every four feet of height you have to climb, move the base one foot away from the wall.

This tip comes from This Old House, which has a number of other ladder safety tips. This one stood out, though: It's easy to remember, and perfect for home improvement novices who only get on a ladder once a year to clean the gutters or hang lights for the holidays. If you take our advice and get started now on those home improvement projects you may have let languish, stay safe and keep this rule in mind. Photo by Ruthanne Reid.

Angle It Right – How to Use a Ladder Safely | This Old House

Perhaps the only thing more annoying than the the "dry clean only" label on your clothes is the "hand wash only" label. How exactly should you wash those delicates? Are you supposed to use soap? How much? Hand washing delicates is actually pretty straightforward, once you have the instructions:

1. Use a clean sink or other large basin filled with lukewarm water.
2. Put in a few drops of mild detergent such as Woolite (Textere Silk also recommends Ivory Liquid soap or baby shampoo).
3. Gently swirl the clothing in the sink or knead it (like you're kneading bread) for a minute or two just enough that they get soaped up.
4. For silks you could add a few drops of hair conditioner to the final rinse to add extra silkiness.
5. Rinse thoroughly then gently squeeze out the water.
6. Lay flat to dry.

Here's a (somewhat bizarre) video demonstrating how to hand wash clothes, just in case you want some more visual information.

Of course, if the clothing doesn't say "hand wash only" specifically, but is delicate, you can safely wash it in the gentle cycle, as Woolite says:

Use the gentle cycle when washing better garments. It's often as gentle and effective as hand washing while the agitation of a regular washing cycle may be damaging. What goes in the gentle Cycle? Your favorite washable silk blouse, cotton knit (unconstructed) dress, spandex bike shorts - all the clothes you don't want to take a chance on. What doesn't go in the gentle cycle? Ordinary detergents, which may work great on grass-stained jeans but may be too harsh on your finer clothes.

Crash Course is a twice-weekly series of guides to life skills everyone should know but you may have been afraid to ask. Do you have an everyday problem you wish someone had taught you to solve? Let us know at tips+crashcourse@lifehacker.com.