Tips For Cooking The Perfect Bird This Thanksgiving

Help is available to cook your Thanksgiving feast.

Although there are plenty of helpful hints for preparing the perfect turkey this Thanksgiving, they come mostly from Dad or Grandma or Aunt Louise. But what do the real experts say?

The main advice is to wash your hands constantly. Before you take the turkey out of the plastic wrap, wash your hands. After washing the bird inside and out? Wash your hands. After stuffing the poultry, wash your hands.

You get it. Wash your hands, A LOT.

Other advice includes thawing your bird for 24 hours for every five pounds. And when it comes to cooking, you can call the Butterball Turkey Hotline. The hotline has been around since 1981, when a small group of home economists answered the phone over the holiday season, taking 11,000 calls about cooking turkeys. Now, more than 50 people handle the phone lines, taking more than 100,000 calls. In addition to phone lines, the Butterball website also has a turkey calculator on how long to thaw, depending on your bird’s size; and how long to cook your turkey, based on his size.

If you need a little extra help this holiday, the Butterball Turkey Hotline is 1-800-288-8372 or 1-800-Butterball.