“We’re all in our home kitchens,” she said.
These days, home cooks with a pressing question, cooking mishap or general holiday recipe query can not only call the Talk-Line, but they can text and also visit butterball.com to live chat, send emails, watch videos and get a variety of recipes.
Robinson said, in light of the current situation with the pandemic, holiday celebrations will be “different” this year. The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has as its current theme “Celebrate the Good.”
The turkey expert said the Talk-Line receives 15,000 calls on Thanksgiving alone, which is the busiest day, and about 100,000 calls throughout the season. The Butterball Talk-Line, this year, began operations in early October and will continue through Christmas Eve.
Robinson stresses the experts always stress safety in cooking.
“We get a lot of creative calls,” Robinson said, with a chuckle. “The biggest question is about thawing the turkey,” she said. Some callers have asked if they can thaw the turkey in a hot tub or bathtub.
Robinson mentioned that Butterball has deemed Nov. 19 to be National Thaw Day. She said the most popular turkey sizes are 12 to 16 pounds. And to thaw correctly, home cooks should “allow for four pounds a day” thawing time.
Calls come in from all over the world, Robinson said. She remembers a call that came in from Dubai. “They were young engineers in Dubai and they wanted to know how to cook their turkey right,” Robinson said. The engineers told her the turkey they bought was $7 a pound and they didn’t want any mishaps.
