Because so many of us are staying at home and cooking for ourselves, many people are cooking their first turkey ever! It's 2020 and certainly a year of "firsts" for many of us. The Butterball Turkey Talk Line is experiencing their busiest phone traffic in almost 40 years. Turkey Expert Tyler Loranger tells about one of her favorite callers. "She called very concerned because when she was unloading her turkey. It fell out of the trunk and rolled down the street. The packaging opened and she thought she had damaged her Thanksgiving bird!" Tyler compassionately walked her through cleaning the turkey and told her he was OK to put it in the oven.
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Tyler has been an on-call turkey expert for years and enjoys helping first time cooks and sometimes wondering why the caller called them. "Rather than putting their turkey in the refrigerator or thawing it in cold water, this couple of callers put their turkey outside in the snow. They called the Talk Line because they needed help finding the turkey! We told them to first, find a shovel."
For real turkey advice call them at 1-800-BUTTERBALL.
Here are the Four 'Ts' Rules of Turkey Baking
- Thaw. - If you’re running short on time, you can speed up the thawing process with the cold water method: Simply submerge the frozen turkey, still in its packaging, in cold tap water. Change out the water every 30 minutes, and estimate roughly 30 minutes for every pound of turkey.
- Temperature - When done, the turkey breast should be 170 degrees and the thigh 180 degrees.
- Two Hour Rule - Only 2 hours should elapse between pulling the turkey out of the oven and finishing the meal and storing it away safely in the fridge.
- Three days - You have three days to safely consume those leftovers. They can be stored safely in your freezer for up to three months.
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