Nov 25, 2020

Worried about a Thanksgiving dinner disaster?

Posted Nov 25, 2020 6:20 PM

By AMY RICKER
Great Bend Post

Thanksgiving is this week, and with the pandemic, some families will be choosing to have a virtual holiday with relatives. Because of that, it’s logical to assume that people who haven’t cooked a turkey before will be attempting it next Thursday morning.    

Cooking a turkey may sound simple enough, but once you get down to it, you may learn how significant the margin for error is. Thawing a turkey ahead of time only to find out it’s still frozen solid when you preheat the oven. Do you stuff it or not stuff it? Then there is the thin line between the turkey being over-done or undercooked.    

One way to get questions answered is by calling the Butterball Turkey Hotline at 1-800-Butterball, which has been in existence for almost 40 years.    

Butterball Talkline Turkey Expert Karen Wilcher says that their hotline has been extremely busy this year due to people not traveling and preparing their first turkey ever. Wilcher says the most common question she is asked about cooking a turkey changes from week to week.    

“The kind of questions I get trend depending on where we are in the month. At the beginning of the month, you have many people calling in asking about how much turkey to buy. Right now, a lot of inquiries are about how long will I need to thaw my turkey and how long I can keep it in the refrigerator. We also discuss the big difference between fresh and frozen,” explains Wilcher.  

Wilcher explains that over the last 10+ years of working the turkey hotline, she has heard it all, but all questions are good questions.    

“One of the ones that always made me chuckle a few years ago was I had someone call me and say they were thawing their turkey on the deck. They had a visitor, a raccoon, nibbling on the part of their turkey. They were curious if they could still use the bird for their Thanksgiving meal. Now, while we always think it’s a good idea to share during Thanksgiving, I did have to let that caller know it was not a good idea to go ahead and serve that turkey to guests,” said Wilcher.   

Wilcher says their message this year, especially to those who haven’t prepared a turkey before or it’s been a few years, to go big. She says Thanksgiving leftovers are just as much fun, and there are a wide variety of recipes to use up the extra meat.    

If you have questions or encounter problems with your turkey, you can talk to a Turkey Talk-Line expert and get assistance by calling 1-800-BUTTERBALL.