Thanksgiving: the turkey stress-factor

By Barbara Wege Nov 23, 2011, 16:48 GMT

Washington - A dry turkey: an American's nightmare on Thanksgiving. A tough bird in the oven, the in-laws at the door, now what?

Have no fear, the turkey hotline is here. Those who call on Thanksgiving Day get a nice helping of relaxation. 'Take a deep breath,' suggests Alice Coffey, 62, a tele-consultant for poultry producer Butterball. And save what there is to save. 'You can still make a delicious casserole or chili out of a dry turkey,' she says.

Thanksgiving is one of the most important American holidays, and commemorates the first harvest of the Plymouth pilgrims in New England in 1621. A turkey belongs to Thanksgiving like a goose belongs to Christmas in Germany. According to the National Turkey Federation, nine out of ten Americans ate turkey on Thanksgiving last year, totaling around 46 million birds.

Around 100,000 Americans call Butterball's toll-free hotline for turkey cooking tips every year. 'The holiday is very emotionally charged,' says Coffey.

When family and friends turn up for a meal, it means a lot of anxiety for unpracticed chefs. 'Many don't learn to cook from their parents anymore. Some are not accustomed to preparing a complicated meal for many people,' Coffey says. An average turkey weighs just over 7kg. The first challenge frequently begins with fitting the bird into the oven.

Support is not just available by phone, but also via a number of tech platforms. The Thanksgiving smartphone app, 'Thanksgiving Planner,' lists more than 160 topics. From invitations to pre-ordering the bird all the way to serving. Cooks can even watch instructional videos on a tablet-PC right at the stove.

A search for 'cook turkey' on Youtube yields 8000 hits. Amanda Haas teaches her audiences to start by covering the turkey breast with aluminum foil. She comments delightedly, every step of the way, 'wonderful,' or 'perfect!'

If the turkey is already in the oven, the 'iGrill' app can help. A 100-dollar thermometer is shoved into the oven with the turkey, and the cook is informed of the meat's temperature on a smartphone. This way hosts can entertain their in-laws in the living room without really leaving the kitchen behind. When the bird is done, the phone rings with turkey calls downloaded from the internet.

Even when something goes awry, there's almost always a solution. Coffey says she has saved the holiday for hundreds of people for the past 16 years. Once, during a power outage on the East Coast, just as thousands of Thanksgiving roasts were smoldering away in ovens, Coffey suggested, 'out of the oven, onto the grill with that turkey!'

Sometimes, though, even the expert is powerless, as she was with a young caller form New York whose turkey was trapped in his oven. The overwhelmed cook had pressed the cleaning button, which locks the door before heating the oven to more than 500 degrees. A charred bird emerged when the fiasco was over. When neither app nor telephone expert can help, Coffey suggests buying a pre-made turkey.