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Folks at Butterball Turkey Talk Line Want to Help

Aired November 27, 2002 - 13:43   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: If you don't want your Thanksgiving dinner to turn out to be a real turkey, the folks at the Butterball Turkey Talk Line can help. Yes, there is a turkey talk line. And if someone tells you to go stuff it, don't be offended, just do it.
Pete Inske's (ph) Oppenheim and the operators are standing by at the Talkline headquarters in Downers Grove, Illinois. Anything but a downer. I bet business is very good, Keith, huh?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, business is very busy at Butterball today, Kyra. They have a number of callers in this room, as you can see, and they are taking in thousands of calls. And as you might expect, some of the callers are just getting a tad freaked out, because we're getting very close to Thanksgiving. Time is running short. So the Talkline staff have to have various scenarios ready for that caller in crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERLEEN CLAUSEN, CULINARY SPECIALIST: In this day and age, we're not used to cooking that large of a piece of food, at least not very often.

OPPENHEIM: Sherleen Clausen makes it her business to cook turkey very often. In fact, all those smart people working the phones on the turkey talk talkline

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our preferred method is the open pan method, yes.

OPPENHEIM: They get their turkey tips from a yearly class Sherleen teaches. It's called Butterball University.

CLAUSEEN: Blot turkey with paper towel.

OPPENHEIM: The idea is to figure out ahead of time solutions to turkey troubles, like what you do when precious preparation time is ticking away.

CLAUSEN: We experiment with different cook methods to work up some times and to be able to share with our talkline staff how long cooking turkey by different methods will take.

OPPENHEIM: So the answers given here...

It doesn't hurt, as far as food safety is concerned. OPPENHEIM: ... are based on turkey trials here, with the hopes that, in the end, the cook who called gets to parade a mighty fine- looking brown bird.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM: Now, Kyra, most of the questions that folks get are about fairly basic things like what's a safe way to thaw a turkey, what's a good way to roast turkey. But people also ask about what's a good way to carve a turkey, and here's a familiar face from our piece, Shirleen Clausen.

Hi, Shirleen.

CLAUSEN: Hi, Keith.

OPPENHEIM: She's a culinary specialist here at Butterball. And can you just take me through the basics of carving here?

CLAUSEN: Sure. It's very simple. First of all, after cooking the turkey, you want to let it stand about 15 to 20 minutes. And then the first key is to free the drumsticks. And we're ready to cut the skin between the leg and the body and we're going to pull it down.

OPPENHEIM: You just open it up there.

CLAUSEN: Open it up, and at this point, you can totally remove the leg and drumstick. The other then key to carving breasts is to make a long horizontal cut through the breast meat to the cavity. And then when you make your breast slices, they will just fall free at that long horizontal cut. And it's an easy way to make beautiful breast slices and to have them come to an end point, without feeling that you're keeping on carving and it's never ever going to end.

OPPENHEIM: So this is just sort of basic turkey physics here, that if you make that horizontal cut in the right spot...

CLAUSEN: Right.

OPPENHEIM: ... at bottom of the breast, you just have to...

CLAUSEN: Just above the wing joint.

OPPENHEIM: Then you can just make your thin slices.

CLAUSEN: Right, right.

OPPENHEIM: Yes.

CLAUSEN: And so, then you carve one side. And then after needing more, you just go to the other side and do the very same thing.

OPPENHEIM: When people call to the talkline are they generally calling about preparation or is it also about some carving questions, too, do you think? CLAUSEN: Well, especially tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Day, there are some times where we just know that when we're talking to people, they have the speakerphone on the table, and we're coaching them, one by one. Or, you know, another suggestion is to go to Butterball.com. And we do have a little carving video there, too. So if you want to see how it's done, check that out beforehand.

OPPENHEIM: So that can be a helpful website.

CLAUSEN: That can be another help.

OPPENHEIM: Good recipes, too. So I -- Kyra, I guess what we're really conveying here, that Butterball -- the Butterball Turkey Talkline is not just facts, but it's a little tricky psychiatry going on, I think, as well.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Keith, I want to know if you're going to be making the bird this year? Can you hear me, Keith? Oh, can you hear me? No, we lost him. All right. Keith Oppenheim. Good advice on how to make that turkey.

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 - 13:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: If you don't want your Thanksgiving dinner to turn out to be a real turkey, the folks at the Butterball Turkey Talk Line can help. Yes, there is a turkey talk line. And if someone tells you to go stuff it, don't be offended, just do it.
Pete Inske's (ph) Oppenheim and the operators are standing by at the Talkline headquarters in Downers Grove, Illinois. Anything but a downer. I bet business is very good, Keith, huh?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, business is very busy at Butterball today, Kyra. They have a number of callers in this room, as you can see, and they are taking in thousands of calls. And as you might expect, some of the callers are just getting a tad freaked out, because we're getting very close to Thanksgiving. Time is running short. So the Talkline staff have to have various scenarios ready for that caller in crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERLEEN CLAUSEN, CULINARY SPECIALIST: In this day and age, we're not used to cooking that large of a piece of food, at least not very often.

OPPENHEIM: Sherleen Clausen makes it her business to cook turkey very often. In fact, all those smart people working the phones on the turkey talk talkline

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our preferred method is the open pan method, yes.

OPPENHEIM: They get their turkey tips from a yearly class Sherleen teaches. It's called Butterball University.

CLAUSEEN: Blot turkey with paper towel.

OPPENHEIM: The idea is to figure out ahead of time solutions to turkey troubles, like what you do when precious preparation time is ticking away.

CLAUSEN: We experiment with different cook methods to work up some times and to be able to share with our talkline staff how long cooking turkey by different methods will take.

OPPENHEIM: So the answers given here...

It doesn't hurt, as far as food safety is concerned. OPPENHEIM: ... are based on turkey trials here, with the hopes that, in the end, the cook who called gets to parade a mighty fine- looking brown bird.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM: Now, Kyra, most of the questions that folks get are about fairly basic things like what's a safe way to thaw a turkey, what's a good way to roast turkey. But people also ask about what's a good way to carve a turkey, and here's a familiar face from our piece, Shirleen Clausen.

Hi, Shirleen.

CLAUSEN: Hi, Keith.

OPPENHEIM: She's a culinary specialist here at Butterball. And can you just take me through the basics of carving here?

CLAUSEN: Sure. It's very simple. First of all, after cooking the turkey, you want to let it stand about 15 to 20 minutes. And then the first key is to free the drumsticks. And we're ready to cut the skin between the leg and the body and we're going to pull it down.

OPPENHEIM: You just open it up there.

CLAUSEN: Open it up, and at this point, you can totally remove the leg and drumstick. The other then key to carving breasts is to make a long horizontal cut through the breast meat to the cavity. And then when you make your breast slices, they will just fall free at that long horizontal cut. And it's an easy way to make beautiful breast slices and to have them come to an end point, without feeling that you're keeping on carving and it's never ever going to end.

OPPENHEIM: So this is just sort of basic turkey physics here, that if you make that horizontal cut in the right spot...

CLAUSEN: Right.

OPPENHEIM: ... at bottom of the breast, you just have to...

CLAUSEN: Just above the wing joint.

OPPENHEIM: Then you can just make your thin slices.

CLAUSEN: Right, right.

OPPENHEIM: Yes.

CLAUSEN: And so, then you carve one side. And then after needing more, you just go to the other side and do the very same thing.

OPPENHEIM: When people call to the talkline are they generally calling about preparation or is it also about some carving questions, too, do you think? CLAUSEN: Well, especially tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Day, there are some times where we just know that when we're talking to people, they have the speakerphone on the table, and we're coaching them, one by one. Or, you know, another suggestion is to go to Butterball.com. And we do have a little carving video there, too. So if you want to see how it's done, check that out beforehand.

OPPENHEIM: So that can be a helpful website.

CLAUSEN: That can be another help.

OPPENHEIM: Good recipes, too. So I -- Kyra, I guess what we're really conveying here, that Butterball -- the Butterball Turkey Talkline is not just facts, but it's a little tricky psychiatry going on, I think, as well.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, Keith, I want to know if you're going to be making the bird this year? Can you hear me, Keith? Oh, can you hear me? No, we lost him. All right. Keith Oppenheim. Good advice on how to make that turkey.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com