Got turkey trouble? Butterball Turkey Talk-Line experts have an answer

It’s Thanksgiving morning and in a few hours, guests will gather around your table anticipating a perfectly cooked turkey.

That pale, cold bird is sitting on your counter — mocking you as you wonder aloud how exactly to cook it. What’s a nervous Thanksgiving host to do?

Call the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line experts at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (or 1-800-288-8372).

Tucked away on the fifth floor of a Naperville office building, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has been helping hosts work through their Thanksgiving feast dilemmas since its first call in 1981. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, the line’s experts will help more than 100,000 callers from across the U.S. and Canada with questions ranging from what to buy to how to tell if that turkey is done.

“We give them solutions for their table,” said Gwen Carlyle, a 12-year veteran of the talk-line.

Since its inception, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has helped millions of hosts around the country. The line first started with six home economists who fielded 11,000 calls. By the time Carlyle joined, Butterball had 40 to 50 experts who took phone calls and relied on a large binder to help them provide answers.

Today, experts take questions over phone, social media and through online chats via the talk line’s website.

Questions about thawing are the most common, Carlyle said. Pro-tip: If you don’t have your turkey in the fridge thawing by now, you may want to consider a cold turkey bath to get the star of your meal ready for the big day.

After that, questions about roasting and how to tell if the turkey is done are the most common. And though the name of the line — Butterball Turkey Talk-Line — would imply the questions are just about cooking turkeys, talk-line experts get questions about the all important side dishes, too.

Nothing is off limits — except maybe questions about other meats like ham or lamb. You don’t even need to have a Butterball turkey to get help.

“We do not discriminate against turkeys; we take them all,” Carlyle said with a laugh, noting that callers with other another brand often confess that they didn’t purchase a Butterball.

The experts, all trained at Butterball University, take the calls in stride — asking callers questions, prodding to get information that will help come up with a solution.

“It’s very much thinking on your feet,” Carlyle said. “We literally are (saying) ‘OK, tell me more, tell me more.’ Let me figure out how to help you so you’re not in a bind.”

Some of Carlyle’s most memorable calls include a recently widowed father who was making Thanksgiving dinner for his children for the first time. Carlyle doesn’t remember how long the calls lasted, but she stayed on the line to answer questions about the turkey and all the sides.

Another caller from Michigan left her turkey out on her back deck to thaw and feral cats had gotten to it. The caller, who had a good sense of humor about the situation, inquired if they could just cut off the part of the turkey the cats got into, Carlyle recalled.

Another host wanted to know if the material in a sink stopper was safe. In the rush to pull the turkey out water in the sink, they did not notice the stopper was stuck under the wing. They discovered it when they were carving the bird.

In both cases, Carlyle could not recommend eating the bird.

“I always feel bad when people have to dispose of their turkeys,” said Carlyle, who is unsure what became of either meal.

More often than not, Carlyle and the turkey talk-line experts are able to find solutions and give advice to make that Thanksgiving meal delicious.

As for her Thanksgiving Day plans, Carlyle will be doing media interviews for Butterball. And given that she already prepared a brined turkey for her Butterball Turkey Talk-Line homework earlier this month, her family will be feasting on something besides turkey.

But she’s grateful for the opportunity to help others solve their turkey conundrums.

“It’s part of my Thanksgiving tradition,” she said.