Thaw your turkey now, and don’t put a diamond ring in the stuffing

Thursday was National Thaw Your Turkey Day, so if you haven’t done it yet, you’re already behind on your Thanksgiving dinner.

Maybe you bought a fresh turkey, or maybe you’re planning to dine in a restaurant or get takeout. But if you have a turkey that’s of the frosty persuasion, you’d better move it to the fridge right now. (Don’t thaw it on the counter, as it could lead to foodborne illness.)

Phyllis Kramer has been providing tips on the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line for 18 years, and if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that people wait too long to thaw their birds.

“Many people do it over the weekend and it’s too late,” she said. “Partially thawed is what we get calls about on Thanksgiving morning. We would like to help you do the cold-water method,” which involves leaving the turkey in the wrapper and placing it breast side down, completely covered with cold water, and changing the water every 30 minutes, with a minimum estimate of 30 minutes per pound. (See why it’s so much easier to use the fridge?)

But often, she said, people aren’t willing or able to wait that long. You can roast a partially thawed turkey without any serious compromises, she said, but then you’ll have to increase the roasting time, and will have to guess at the total.

In 18 years, she’s had some memorable calls, none more than the one from the young man who was calling for advice on hiding an engagement ring in the stuffing, inside the turkey.

“Well, you know, let’s think this through,” Kramer remembers telling him. “Let’s think of a way you can still present this ring but not in the turkey. She’d never forget wiping off that ring.”

Another time, a man who she said had a pronounced New York accent called and said, “Hiya, doll. You any good at mashed potatoes?”

But he had a turkey question as well. He wanted to know if he could put mayonnaise on his turkey, something Kramer had never encountered. After thinking about it, she told him that while it wasn’t one of Butterball’s tested and approved methods, she didn’t see why not.

“Sure, because it’s a really nice oil kind of mixture,” she said. “I do mayonnaise when I cook salmon.”

This year, she said, the Talk-Line is getting a lot of calls from first-time cooks as bigger celebrations are being split because of social distancing. Many people are asking about grilling or frying their turkeys outdoors, following a trend to shift the location of the celebration into the open air. And she’s gotten a lot of questions about smaller forms of turkey, like boneless or bone-in turkey breasts.

“My advice is to go big,” she said. “Turkey’s inexpensive; it’s such a good value. For many people, times are tough. It’s an inexpensive source of good protein.” And it keeps well in refrigerator or freezer; it can even be roasted the night before, she said, as long as it’s carved before being refrigerated.

She said one maybe surprising reaction from callers is gratitude.

“People are so grateful,” Kramer said. “When I say, ‘Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, how can I help you?’ they say, ‘Is this a real person?’ They’re expecting to push 1 and then push 7.”

Butterball’s message this year, she said, is “celebrate the good.”

“What I really like to do is tell people to relax and enjoy the day,” she said. “I think I can help them understand that the turkey should be the simplest part of dinner. If you want to stress over something, stress over the mashed potatoes.”

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.