Butterball, probably the most recognized turkey brand in the US, has kicked into Thanksgiving high-gear with a 24-hour hotline for turkey thawing, cooking and slicing dilemmas that may occur in the middle of the night.

The turkey hotline has been a Butterball feature for nearly 30 years, with calls jumping from 11,000 the first year of operation to 200,000 each Thanksgiving now. (The line is manned with food experts, half of whom hold a Master’s degree in some food-related discipline.) But the advice service for those cooking turkey, something many Americans only do on Thanksgiving, has expanded in recent years to reach out to a more tech-savvy audience.

The staple brand is coaching customers on Twitter, offering tips like using oil instead of butter to brown the bird to avoid burning “milk solids.” Facebook users can also reach Butterball support staff on their page, where wall conversations are currently addressing issues like turkey brining, a practice that has become popular in recent years due to geek cooking icon Alton Brown. (Butterball says brining their turkeys is unnecessary, but offers directions on Facebook to those who wish to brine their turkeys anyway.)

Butterball’s use of social media is a good case study for more established brands to model, as it balances an established identity with effective use of the services very well. Consumerist managed to get a list of the five most absurd questions asked of the turkey experts each year, which was as follows:

*Is it okay to thaw my turkey in the bathtub while bathing my kids?

*Can I brine my turkey in the washing machine?

*Can I use my oven’s self-cleaning cycle to speed up the cooking process?

*If I cut my turkey with a chainsaw will the oil affect the taste?

*Can I take my frozen turkey into my sauna to thaw it faster?

Butterball re-launches 24-hour hotline, Twitter support for confused cooks is a post from: The Inquisitr

After I posted my extensive guide to turkey support outreach in the internet age and how not to die in a fire deep-frying a turkey, another quick Thanksgiving reference came to my attention.

I mentioned the Butterball helpline (1-800-Butterball, which on a cell phone will have to be 1-800-but-terb) but if you don’t want to drop the phone in vat of boiling gravy while trying to hold for help- did you know you can get turkey help on Twitter?

Avid tweeters hosting Thanksgiving this year may want to follow and converse with @Butterball on Twitter. The helpful person or persons manning the customer service account have been tweeting turkey advice all morning to panicked Twitter users in need of a helping tweet:

Turkey still frozen?Quick thaw -place breast side down in lrg container, fill w/cold H2O.Takes 30 mins per lb &change H2O every 30 minutes.

The Turkey Talk-Line will receive more than 10,000 calls today – will you be one? 1-800-BUTTERBALL #Thanksgiving

http://bit.ly/2pnclh @SpendLessTV We recommed cooking it breast side up and covering it 2/3 the way through

RT @acharpen:shotout 2the @butterball operators who take turkey day 2answer all kinds of crazy questions& attempt 2make our kitchens safer.

Happy Thanksgiving! The Turkey Talk-Line is open today from 6-6 CST to answer all your turkey related questions. 1-800-BUTTERBALL.

@xtinar about 4 hours. Check the calculator on butterball.com

@DebJorge we get 4.5-5 hrs at 325 but call 1-800-BUTTERBALL and ask them about the conve oven

@SuzanneBoyd let it rest for about 15 mins

@DelaneyKirk without stuffing 4-4.5 hrs with stuffing 5-5.5 but check out the calc on butterball.com too

@ladybugsgrama if its still frozen get it in a large tub and thaw 30 mins per lbs

Let’s Tweet Turkey? is a post from: The Inquisitr

As technology advances, sometimes it’s the little things that remind us what a pain in the ass some tasks used to be before the internet.

Roasting your first (or 50th) Thanksgiving turkey used to be a bit of a hassle, especially because- let’s face it- turkey kind of sucks and no one ever eats it besides on Thanksgiving unless they’re in Frontierworld in Disneyworld or on some kind of a sad, tasteless diet. No one knows how to thaw a turkey or what turkey cooking times are, much less how to brine a turkey so it doesn’t taste as much like dry sponge.

Nowadays, resources to help you cook your turkey without setting the kitchen on fire or overcooking the outer parts while giving the whole family salmonella abound. Hands down, the best one-stop shop for turkey morons is on Butterball’s site.

Butterball’s Tips section has a handy calculators page to provide specific information based on the amount of guests you’re hosting and tells you what size turkey you’ll need. And based on whether you’re defrosting it in the fridge or in cold water (you’d better get cracking either way), the site lets you know exactly how long that will take.

Interestingly, the site still says it’s okay to stuff a turkey, and even tells you how to brine a turkey- although that takes at least six hours. If you’re too much of a pretentious foodie to listen to Butterball and you enjoy building things before shoving food into your face, you can always check out Alton Brown’s turkey recipe.

Lastly, if you’re too overwhelmed and effing up Thanksgiving for the whole family, bear in mind you can call a real live human at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372).

Techie Turkey Tips is a post from: The Inquisitr