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CNN Live At Daybreak
Look at Butterball Talk Line
Aired November 27, 2002 - 06:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we haven't finished with the topic of food just yet, especially on this eve of Thanksgiving holiday. Just imagine your in-laws arriving in four hours and the bird hasn't thawed, you don't know what to do with the giblets. What do you do? Well, you call the 1-800 Butterball talk line, of course.
Keith Oppenheim is live at the company's phone center in suburban Chicago.
I've always wondered what that place looked like. I've called that number before with a turkey emergency.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh...
CALLAWAY: It looks kind of quiet in there right now, though.
OPPENHEIM: Yes, the staff haven't arrived yet. But they're going to be here pretty soon and it's going to be a very busy day.
I'm going to give you a little tour of this place. This is the nerve center of the Butterball turkey talk line, where for the past 21 years people have been calling when there has been trouble in turkey land. Let's give you a little wide view of the now empty establishment here. The staff, who are going to be piling in, all have advanced degrees in food science and home economics, and boy, are they going to be busy today. Last year they helped more than 160,000 callers, 8,000, more than 8,000 on Thanksgiving day alone.
And to keep everything consistent, the talk line staff will use a couple of different resources of information. They use this bible, this manual of information which has all kinds of turkey facts in it. They have their computer screens that they can also rely on. And they can rely on some additional special training that they get every year to deal with poultry problems that are a little less obvious. That's called Butterball University.
It's a training program required for all who work the phone lines here in November and December at Butterball U. The talk liners go through various scenarios, in other words, they test how to prepare a turkey when time is running out, which is a frequent problem for the sometimes frantic caller.
But the most often asked set of questions are pretty basic stuff. It's about what's the best way to thaw a bird and what is the best way to roast one. And it turns out I have learned a thing or two about thawing turkeys in the fridge. And here is the rule. It is one day for every four pounds of turkey. So that means if you have a 20 pound bird, it actually takes five days to thaw that turkey in the fridge, a fairly long time. However, if you are running out of time, you can also use a faster method, and that is taking the turkey and putting it in cold water and then you can do 30 minutes for every one pound of bird.
And here's another good friend of yours, if you are trying to figure out how not to overcook. It's the meat thermometer. You stick it in the thigh or in the stuffing and if it's an unstuffed bird you keep it in the thigh, wait till it gets to 180 degrees, in the stuffing you wait till it gets to 160 degrees. That meat thermometer is the sure way to make your bird juicy, not overcooked.
CALLAWAY: Yes, Chad's already established that because he does not like an overcooked turkey.
All right, thank you very much.
OPPENHEIM: Sure.
CALLAWAY: I know we're going to come back with you in just a little bit.
Thank you very much, Keith Oppenheim standing by at the Butterball hot line center.
If you have some questions about how to cook your best bird ever, you can e-mail us at cnn.com. We already have a few. I made some jokes a minute ago about people up already working on their turkey, but truly, you know, if it's frozen, you've got to get it in the refrigerator already.
We will take as many questions as we can and get Keith to talk turkey with the people over there at Butterball. They should be arriving there any second now. That's coming up in 20 minutes. Stay with us for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 27, 2002 - 06:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we haven't finished with the topic of food just yet, especially on this eve of Thanksgiving holiday. Just imagine your in-laws arriving in four hours and the bird hasn't thawed, you don't know what to do with the giblets. What do you do? Well, you call the 1-800 Butterball talk line, of course.
Keith Oppenheim is live at the company's phone center in suburban Chicago.
I've always wondered what that place looked like. I've called that number before with a turkey emergency.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh...
CALLAWAY: It looks kind of quiet in there right now, though.
OPPENHEIM: Yes, the staff haven't arrived yet. But they're going to be here pretty soon and it's going to be a very busy day.
I'm going to give you a little tour of this place. This is the nerve center of the Butterball turkey talk line, where for the past 21 years people have been calling when there has been trouble in turkey land. Let's give you a little wide view of the now empty establishment here. The staff, who are going to be piling in, all have advanced degrees in food science and home economics, and boy, are they going to be busy today. Last year they helped more than 160,000 callers, 8,000, more than 8,000 on Thanksgiving day alone.
And to keep everything consistent, the talk line staff will use a couple of different resources of information. They use this bible, this manual of information which has all kinds of turkey facts in it. They have their computer screens that they can also rely on. And they can rely on some additional special training that they get every year to deal with poultry problems that are a little less obvious. That's called Butterball University.
It's a training program required for all who work the phone lines here in November and December at Butterball U. The talk liners go through various scenarios, in other words, they test how to prepare a turkey when time is running out, which is a frequent problem for the sometimes frantic caller.
But the most often asked set of questions are pretty basic stuff. It's about what's the best way to thaw a bird and what is the best way to roast one. And it turns out I have learned a thing or two about thawing turkeys in the fridge. And here is the rule. It is one day for every four pounds of turkey. So that means if you have a 20 pound bird, it actually takes five days to thaw that turkey in the fridge, a fairly long time. However, if you are running out of time, you can also use a faster method, and that is taking the turkey and putting it in cold water and then you can do 30 minutes for every one pound of bird.
And here's another good friend of yours, if you are trying to figure out how not to overcook. It's the meat thermometer. You stick it in the thigh or in the stuffing and if it's an unstuffed bird you keep it in the thigh, wait till it gets to 180 degrees, in the stuffing you wait till it gets to 160 degrees. That meat thermometer is the sure way to make your bird juicy, not overcooked.
CALLAWAY: Yes, Chad's already established that because he does not like an overcooked turkey.
All right, thank you very much.
OPPENHEIM: Sure.
CALLAWAY: I know we're going to come back with you in just a little bit.
Thank you very much, Keith Oppenheim standing by at the Butterball hot line center.
If you have some questions about how to cook your best bird ever, you can e-mail us at cnn.com. We already have a few. I made some jokes a minute ago about people up already working on their turkey, but truly, you know, if it's frozen, you've got to get it in the refrigerator already.
We will take as many questions as we can and get Keith to talk turkey with the people over there at Butterball. They should be arriving there any second now. That's coming up in 20 minutes. Stay with us for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
