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Over the years, the Butterball
Turkey Talk-Line staff have had their share of memorable
calls -- inquiries that stand out from the crowd because
they're heartwarming or amusing. We asked some of the
veteran staff members to tell us their favorites plus,
we rounded up a bunch of our own personal favorites from
the Talk-Line archives. Its hard to beat the call from a
trucker who planned to cook his Thanksgiving turkey on
the engine of his truck ("Will it cook faster if I drive
faster?"), but some of these come pretty close. Warning:
do not attempt to adjust your screen -- these are real
incidents, true stories -- from the front lines!
Home alone, a Kentucky
woman was in the doghouse when she called the Butterball
Turkey Talk-Line. While preparing the turkey, her
Chihuahua jumped into the bird's body cavity and
couldn't get out. She tried pulling the dog and shaking
the bird, but nothing worked. She and the dog became
more and more distraught. After calming the woman down,
the Talk-Line home economist suggested carefully cutting
the opening in the cavity of the turkey wider. It worked
and Fido was freed!
Birdie, eagle and turkey?
Roasting a turkey doesn't have to interfere with the
daily routine, so said a retired Floridian. He called
"Turkey Central" for turkey grilling tips while waiting
to tee off from the 14th hole.
Taking
turkey preparation an extra step, a Virginian wondered,
"How do you thaw a fresh turkey?" The Talk-Line staffer
explained that fresh turkeys aren't frozen and don't
need to be thawed.
Don't wait until the last
minute! On Thanksgiving Day, a Georgian woman took the
"Be prepared" motto to heart. She had just agreed to
host Thanksgiving Dinner and called the Talk-Line a year
ahead of time for turkey tips.
Happy
Thanksgiving, President Clinton! A Southern woman called
to comment, "On Thanksgiving Day, the Butterball Turkey
Talk-Line is more important than the President. He can
take the day off, but the Talk-Line staff can't." (The
Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is open Thanksgiving Day, 6
a.m. to 6 p.m., Central Standard
Time.)
Thanksgiving Dinner on the run. A
woman called 1-800-323-4848 to find out how long it
would take to roast her turkey. To answer the question,
the Talk-Line home economist asked how much the bird
weighed. The woman responded, "I don't know, it's still
running around outside."
Tofu turkey? No
matter how you slice it, Thanksgiving just isn't
Thanksgiving without turkey. A restaurant owner in
California wanted to know how to roast a turkey for a
vegetarian menu.
•White meat, anyone? A West
Coast woman took turkey preparation to extremes by
scrubbing her bird with bleach. Afterward, she called
the Talk-Line to find out how to clean off the bleach.
To her dismay, she was advised to dispose of the
turkey.
•A young girl called on behalf of her
mother who needed roasting advice. To provide
approximate roasting times, the home economist asked
what size the turkey was. Without asking her mother the
little girl paused, then replied,
"Medium."
A novice turkey-cooking chef
wanted to know if the yellow netting and wrapper around
the turkey should be removed before roasting.
Envisioning a melted plastic turkey blob, the home
economist responded, "Yes," then offered complete
roasting
directions. |
