There are many different ways to cook a turkey, and even more tips and tricks to cook a turkey without drying it out. One such tip is to cover the bird with foil after it comes out of the oven in an effort to prevent moisture loss and keep it warm until serving time. Not only is it unnecessary, it is detrimental to your turkey eating experience.

I’ve always been a skin eater, much to my mother’s chagrin. “That’s not good for you,” she’d say as she peeled the browned, tanned skin off a Costco rotisserie chicken. “I don’t care!” I’d scream, trying to grab it off her plate before she threw it in the trash.

Skin tastes good, and I love eating it. If I’m roasting some kind of bird and can’t eat the skin all at once, I save it and re-crisp it in the air fryer, then crumble it onto salads or pile it into sandwiches. So it’s out of love—a love of crispy poultry skin—that I implore you not to wrap your turkey in foil after you take it out of the oven (or the grill or the deep fryer).

A turkey, fresh from the oven or grill or deep fryer, is hot. It’s steaming hot. Wrapping your hot bird in foil after cooking not only traps heat, it traps steam. And steam is the enemy of crispy skin. Steam softens the skin, making it soggy and mushy, undoing all your hard work.