Turkey Talk-Line Open for Business

by Susan on 11/24/09 at 9:34 am

Butterball to the rescue

It’s nice to know that you’re not alone should you run into trouble with your turkey on Thanksgiving Day. The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is open for business 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Eastern Time, to answer any last minute questions or address any turkey disasters. Since 1981, the operators at 1-800-BUTTERBALL have been fielding questions from frantic cooks who need some friendly and non-judgmental advice about the care and cooking of a defrosted or rock-hard bird.

Butterball began their turkey hotline with six, trained home economists, answering phone calls from cooks who had questions about techniques, timing or any other turkey-related issue. During the first year, they fielded 11,000 calls. Today, there are more than 50 professional bi-lingual home economists and nutritionists responding to more than 100,000 questions each November and December.

Although most questions relate to defrosting and cooking the turkey, the Talk-Line team has received a number of questions that were a bit out of the ordinary. One caller wanted to know if it she could defrost a turkey on her car’s radiator; another caller was distraught because her Chihuahua had become “stuck” in the turkey’s cavity; and another caller washed her turkey with dish detergent and wanted to know how to stop it from bubbling. So it appears there is no question too difficult for the Talk-Line team to tackle.

So if you’re in trouble, whom do you call? Try 1-800-B-U-T-T-E-R-B-A-L-L.

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