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Refresher courses focus on Thanksgiving’s main course
MCT
Photo
Trainees stand behind their cooked turkeys awaiting critique during training for Butterball talk-line employees on October 20, 2010, in Naperville, Illinois.
By Emily Bryson York
Chicago Tribune
The bottom line from my eight hours attending Butterball University: It’s pretty hard to foul up one of their turkeys.
Of course, many cooks have managed to do just that, and some will accomplish that feat this holiday.
But the secret I learned at the university in Naperville, Ill., is this: Because Butterball injects its birds with a brining solution (mostly water and salt), the meat is likely to be juicier and more tender. Occasionally, the meat may taste saltier, but the brine also contributes to the distinct taste of Butterball’s turkeys.
Recently, I attended Butterball University 101 for “freshmen,” the prelude to Butterball’s mandatory annual refresher seminar for its Talk-Line experts, including its bloggers and those people who will work the phones and have less than three years’ experience. More-seasoned experts join in on day two, and then participate in the “advanced training session” on day three.
I attended the first day, run by two Talk-Line supervisors, and learned 11 ways to cook a turkey, including oven roasting, grilling, smoking and microwaving, which is the least-popular method. Butterball teaches a microwaved preparation not just because it was the rage in the 1980s, but because it’s popular among college students and sometimes necessary if an oven breaks on Thanksgiving Day. It’s edible, I found out, thanks in large part to a browning solution.
Butterball’s preferred method is an oven-roasted turkey done in an open pan. The two turkeys prepared that way were the most camera-ready, but one was very salty. Supervisor Carol Miller said occasionally a turkey may absorb more salt as part of the brining process.
The grand finale is a “turkey lineup,” followed by a tasting of the various preparations. I preferred the open-pan turkey over most of the others, although the same preparation done in a large electric toaster oven produced similarly tasty results. After some discussion, we’ll be doing an open-pan turkey at my house this Thanksgiving, but I look forward to cooking a turkey on the grill someday.