Working holiday
When the turkey turns on you
Yes, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line staffers are available right through the holiday season: Monday through Friday, December 1 through 30, you can reach them from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. On December 23, they start at 7 a.m. All times Eastern Standard. 800-323-4848.
By Ramonica Rice
CNN.com/career Associate Editor
(CNN) -- "We call it 'turkey trauma' and we're here to ease it."
Jean Schnelle and her cohorts are like emergency room doctors on call and standing by to handle all turkey-related crises that may occur in the kitchen during the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Don't do anything. Don't cover it, don't wrap it, don't bag it, don't baste it, just leave it in the oven," says Schnelle, stressing how simplistic it is to cook a bird.
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Slow cooker: The 48 career home economists at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line have a combined 405 years of experience.
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As director of Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line, Schnelle and 47 other home-economics careerists dish out advice to distressed callers all over country on how to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey.
Why the need for a turkey hotline?
"These college girls called," says Schnelle, "and they were cooking turkey in their dorms. The instructions said, 'Roast the turkey, breast up.' The girl says her roommate was on the floor trying to take on the same posture as the turkey because they couldn't figure out which side was breast up."
What are we teaching them on our campuses today?
"There's nothing difficult about cooking a turkey," Schnelle insists. "One of our major challenges here is talking people out of the very complicated ways they want to cook the turkey. Sometimes they get angry because they remember their grandmother laboring in the kitchen over the wood stove and think it has to be the same for them."
 Two decades of talk
For 20 years, Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line has given millions of callers in November and December the chance to save their birds from being over-cooked, under-cooked, or not cooked at all. Schnelle, a former newspaper food editor, was among the first six staff members to offer free advice to perplexed chefs struggling to serve up the perfect poultry.
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QUICK VOTE
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"It was the first time a company offered a free telephone call to people to call for advice, help and counseling," she says. "We were pioneers, not knowing whether or not it would work." At its inception in 1981, line received a surprising 11,000 calls, Thanksgiving Day being the busiest.
Butterball, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, says it staffs the phones with professionals in home economics, dietetics, nutrition and food safety. Workers are given a 3-and-a-half-inch-thick ''turkey bible" and hands-on training at Butterball University. Their curriculum has them practicing various ways to cook a turkey, sharpening their problem-solving skills and learning how to quell the fears of many anxious cooks.
On the receiving end of all those calls for help, "it can be stressful," Schnelle says, "but with the experience and years working here, people who answer calls are able to stay calm, reassuring and help people feel less stressed.
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Turkey Terrific Day: On November 24, 1994, the Turkey Talk-Line took a record 30,458 calls.
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"Each and every caller has a different problem, a different angle, something that they've done to the turkey and wonder if it's safe," says Schnelle who says she can talk turkey to 6,000 to 8,000 people a day during the holiday season.
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Jean Schnelle, Butterball
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"You have no idea how important Thanksgiving is to people. It's a very strong tradition and the hostess wants it to be wonderful."
Especially young couples, new brides and grooms, feeling the pressure as they plan to cook their first holiday meal.
"You're nervous about your mother-in-law's opinion of your cooking or your mother and your mother-in-law are disagreeing over whether the turkey's done," says Schnelle of one scenario. (Try using the thermometer to determine the answer.)
Schnelle says it's middle-aged women who frequently call the Talk-Line because they're virgins when it comes to preparing Thanksgiving dinner.
"So many women say 'I'm 56 or 42 and I've never cooked a turkey before. I've always gone to my mother's or sister-in-law's,'" says Schnelle. "You're not always young when you cook your first turkey."
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The Talk-Line has delivered 9,003 hours of kitchen wisdom in its 20 years on-call.
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Carol Miller, a supervisor at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line and 17-year veteran, says they receive queries from people of all ages.
"A retired gentleman called and said he was going to cook Thanksgiving for his ex-fiancée, who was from 30 years ago," says Miller. "They were rekindling over turkey dinner and he hadn't really cooked before."
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Carol Miller, Butterball
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Even experienced chefs who may have forgotten the basics turn up at 800-323-4848.
Another call came from a father in Milwaukee who was in charge of putting the turkey into the oven on Thanksgiving Day. His wife went into labor. It was clear that her project would be done before the turkey was.
"Periodically throughout the day," Schnelle says, "we heard from him as he was going back and forth between his kids at home and the hospital. By the end of the day, he called to say he had a new baby boy and had served Thanksgiving dinner to the kids."
Miller says she remembers advising a young man who wanted to propose to his girlfriend on Thanksgiving and bury the diamond ring in the stuffing of the turkey.
"Amazingly all I could think of was the bride biting down on the turkey and chipping a tooth or something," says Miller. "I tried to think on the spot and told him, 'When the turkey's done, get a pretty little ribbon, tie the ring on the drumstick and present it to your bride-to-be.'"
 Carving and cursing
Schnelle says they rarely receive negative calls. But she says there are a few -- mostly men -- who call to offer their special turkey cooking advice to the Talk-Line staff.
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TURKEY TEST
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How many of the Top 10 Butterball Turkey Talk-Line questions can you guess? Get five or more and you might just have a future in turkey-talking careers. Gobble up the knowledge.
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"They feel their own way is better," she says. "They're very firm in their own ideas and a lot of them are good. I had a dispute with a man who called about submerging a turkey in water. He wrapped the turkey in his T-shirt and anchored it with a rock."
The Butterball home economists probably have heard it all -- stories galore -- most with happy endings. It's the tales, adventures and gratitude from callers that Schnelle says keep her and Miller returning to the Talk-Line every year.
"We're invited right into their home," says Miller. "You know how many grandkids are coming, who likes dark meat and who likes light meat."
When these specialists aren't talking turkey for Butterball, they're working as food writers and stylists, hospital dieticians and consultants, recipe developers, home economic teachers and stay-at-home moms. The Talk-Line gives them the flexibility to perform other jobs.
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Nothin' says lovin: The Turkey Talk-Line averages 5,000 calls daily.
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But on Thanksgiving Day, while their families are home preparing the holiday feast and watching the parades on television, you can find the Talk-Line staffers on the phones working feverishly to help save turkeys in trouble.
"We have some real heroic women," says Schnelle about her staff who works all throughout the day.
"These women have been up since 4 in the morning and they're here until 6 at night. It constantly astonishes me and brings tears to my eyes because they're smiling and laughing. It's a great sense of satisfaction."
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