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Jean Schnelle
interviewed by Brian Hecht on 22 November, 1995
"We go to Butterball U. We actually do!"
Jean Schnelle began as one of the original staff members of the first and largest Turkey Hotline in 1981 ... and now she is the chief Turkey Talker.
Tripod: Could you just set the scene for me? What's it like over there, the day before Thanksgiving, at the famous Butterball Turkey Talk-Line?
JS: Busy would be an understatement! We have 48 home economists. Everyone works an eight-hour day here at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. We opened at eight o'clock this morning, central standard time -- actually we opened early at seven, just because we knew there would be people waiting to talk to us and we wanted to help as many people as we could. And we've been talking steadily.
We will talk to, probably, seven thousand people today in person. About three times as many, when they call in, will opt for the taped information. Many people, to tell you the truth, are getting a busy signal. This is the day before Thanksgiving and things are frantic in terms of suddenly deciding they need to ask a question. And there are 48 [people working here]. But when you take the entire population of the United States, that's a lot of calls per person. And we're doing a great job. The ladies are just going at it! They're all professional home economists and, except for three new ones this year, all of the 48 are people who have worked here for many years.
Tripod: How do you train someone who is, I guess, a general home economist, to be an expert in turkey issues?
JS: Well, we go to what we call Butterball U. We actually do! We each cook at least one turkey. We cook turkeys in a variety of ways so we can observe and taste and test the contrast between the different cooking methods. We have a huge, great, thick notebook with 62 categories in it, anything and everything people you would ever want to know about turkeys. And people say, "What's there to know, it's so easy to cook a turkey..."
Tripod: Oh, no it's not.
JS: But it is! It is! It's easy, but people are unduly intimidated by it.
Tripod: Why do you think that is? The bird is so big? Or there's so much mythology around it?
JS: Both. The expectations of perfection. The fact that this is the one time all year when you get out your good tablecloth, your shiny crystal, and to go along with it, you want everything to be the very best. It's a very strong traditional time. It's a very strong time for having your very favorite most loved ones with you. And all of these things make it a goal to have it just so. And that makes for stress.
Tripod: What's the most common question you get?
JS: We've been talkin' turkey on an 800 number since 1981, and we were pioneers. Back in 1981, no one had heard of a 1-800 number. They were just so thrilled to make a long-distance call to Chicago that wouldn't cost them any money. But over the years, the number-one question has been "How do I cook a picture-perfect turkey? I want a perfect turkey." But last year, for the first time, the number-one question was "How should I thaw my turkey?" And so far, this year, that's outranking everything else too. But how to do the perfect turkey is number two.
Tripod: Yes. Someone in our office just read one of the one guidelines, that you should thaw a whole day for every four pounds of turkey, and realized that if she started now she would be eating next Wednesday.
JS: Well, if she is in the office now, when she gets home, she should leave her turkey in its original plastic wrapper and submerge it in cold water. Do you know how big her turkey is?
Tripod: No, I wouldn't know that kind of thing.
JS: Let's say that it's an eighteen-pound turkey, that would take nine hours in cold water. So the minute she gets home, even before she checks the mail, she better get that turkey submerged in cold water, and keep checking the water to make sure -- I don't suppose she's going to be up for nine hours, that's where we're going to run into problems ...
Tripod: Oh, she might be up. You never know.
JS: She's kind of a night owl? It's not good to leave it in cold water and go to bed because the water's going to get warm, and that's not good for the week. Keep it in cold water as long as she can and it should be alright in nine hours.
Tripod: Thanks. I understand there was a major revision in the cooking recommendations a few years back. What was that all about?
JS: Well, we discovered that the thawing was taking a little longer than our charts had been saying. And we wanted to adjust it. We did a major test in our test kitchen and cooked over 200 turkeys, and took temperatures and all kinds of stuff to make sure that what we say in our directions are absolutely correct. And we found that the thawing times are a little longer than we had been saying. We don't know why, but we think it's possibly because the new refrigerators are more efficient. And the glass-shelved refrigerators don't have as much air circulation, particularly the bottom of the turkey that's sitting on the glass shelf. seems to thaw out slowly.
And then the roasting time, we found, didn't have to be as long as what we were saying. And we're not really sure about that except we know that it's true. We think it has something to do with the contour of the birds. People want more white meat, so the birds have been bred to have longer white breast meat muscles, instead of thicker.
Tripod: Wow. Who'd have thought?
JS: Yeah. Who'd have thought. So if you have an old cookbook, the instructions are probably obsolete.
Tripod: So what are you, personally, going to have on your Thanksgiving table tomorrow night?
JS: I'm going to be working here. We're going to be open for twelve hours.
Tripod: Hmm. Butterball is trying so hard to help the spirit of Thanksgiving, but it has a lot of people working ...
JS: Well, we're going to have a turkey dinner here. Butterball is providing us with a turkey dinner. We're going to have cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Of course, we can't all eat at the same time. We can't have a pilgrim feast together because -- what, you would call us up at a certain hour and we would just have a message on that says, "Sorry! We're all out eating our own turkey dinners!" That wouldn't go over too well. So -- this is pathetic sounding -- but we each have to heat our own plate in the microwave. But that's better than not getting turkey at all.
Tripod: But I'm surprised that the connoisseurs will settle for the microwave.
JS: When you're working twelve hours and talking turkey, you get hungry for turkey. You really do. In any form.
Tripod: I'm hungry thinking about it right now. What's the most unusual question you've gotten this year?
JS: Today, a woman wanted to know what the date of Thanksgiving was.
Tripod: Oh! And to think, she called just in time.
JS: Somebody that was even more confused than we are.
Tripod: Well, honestly, this interview has gotten me very hungry and I think I want to go have a snack.
JS: Yeah, I'm going to have a little turkey sandwich myself.
You can reach read more about Jean Schnelle and her turkey talkers on the Butterball Web Site. Or you can call the hotline at 1-800-323-4848. Who knows? You might just get Jean herself!
Happy Thanksgiving from Tripod!
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