Behind the Scenes at the Butterball Turkey Talk Line

Four weeks before Thanksgiving, the Butterball Turkey Talk Line was already buzzing. On the first day the turkey producer’s help line was open for business, a half dozen women were parked in front of sleek Dell monitors on the fifth floor of the company’s suburban Chicago offices. As Thanksgiving draws closer, more than 50 people will be on staff to answer calls, e-mails, Tweets, and Facebook messages from novice chefs and curious cooks to Butterball’s popular help desk.

For 35 years, Butterball, the producer of turkeys and meat products most likely to land on your table at Thanksgiving, has serviced more than 50 million customers through its Talk Line (the number, for reference, is 1-800 BUTTERBALL). Though the advice on thawing, cooking, and storage hasn’t changed, the manner in which it’s dispersed —via social media, video, Instagram— has adapted to the times.

The Butterball Talk Line headquarters is open for business on Nov. 2. Credit: Stephanie Smith

Butterball’s Talk Line launched in 1981 when a half-dozen home economics teachers were hired to answer calls to a newly created telephone number. Soon, they recruited friends and neighbors. One of them was Marge Klindera, a white-haired mother of three and grandmother of four who was recruited by one of the original six on the Line. “We were both home economists,” she explained. “But my oldest daughter was just coming home for her first Thanksgiving from college. I turned my friend down, but the next year, she convinced me.” Thirty-four years later, Klindera mans a corner desk near the window.

Carol Miller, a 32-year veteran of the Talk Line who also has a degree in home economics, started working after a neighbor who was working on the Talk Line asked her to join.

“I got married, and my husband got drafted in Vietnam, so I followed him around the country. I couldn’t get a job because military bases didn’t hire wives because they’d come and go,” she explained, a pair of wishbone-shaped earrings dangling from her ears as she spoke.

Miller joined in 1983, the first year the Talk Line used computers. Now flat screens line the walls with tables of thawing time and cooking times according to the turkey weight. Cooking techniques that aren’t memorized in the Talk Line employees’ encyclopedic memories can be found in online guides, a step up from the oversized binders that used to store information. Four people also answer inquires via social media, e-mail, and via the company web site throughout the holiday season.

Over the years, the Talk Line staff has remained largely female. The first male Talk Line employee was hired just three years ago, and this year three men of the 50-person staff will answer calls. Only a quarter of those inquires are now being placed by men. “Times have changed,” says Miller.

The age of employees ranges from fresh out of college to seniors, but the average tenure of a Line expert is about 16 years.

Each Talk Line member goes through a day of training in Butterball’s test kitchen, located next door to the Talk Line, for the first three years they join the team. The day consists of cooking and testing turkeys seven different ways, including grilling, roasting, and cooking the bird in an oven bag.

I learn how to properly carve a turkey from Talk Line veteran Carol Miller. Photo credit: Stephanie Smith

Butterball experts often give up full-time jobs as dietitians, culinary professors, food stylists, food scientists or other industry 9-to-5 jobs to work in eight-hour shifts during the holiday season, talking home cooks through the meal — or off the ledge.

“We wear a lot of different hats counselors, mediators educators, medic,” said Tara Rose Groberski, a 12-year Talk Line veteran.

The most popular inquiries center around thawing, but no question is too silly or too arduous. “Most questions are more heartwarming than they are crazy,” explained Klindera.

One caller of note was a young man trying to impress his mother by cooking dinner. “He was was bragging that his turkey was too big for the pan, so he wrapped it in a towel, stomped it, and broke some bones, and then it fit!” Klindera explained. “He thought he was pretty smart. I have no idea what the turkey looked like, but it worked apparently.”

Sue Smith, a co-director of the Butterball Talk Line, can determine a tricky inquiry from the jump. “You always know it’s a good call when you answer it and a man and a woman are on the call,” she explained. “Because he’s like, ‘No, it’s like this,’ and she’s like, ‘No, it’s like this.’ You’re like, ‘Oh boy.’”

For more turkey talk, check out these stories:

Everything You Need to Know About Turkey

Super-Fast Roast Turkey Recipe

Should You Stop Stuffing Your Thanksgiving Turkey?