WEBVTT - How Do Pop-Up Turkey Timers Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum here. American Thanksgiving is the kind of family

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<v Speaker 1>feast that everyone has slightly different traditions around, from what

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<v Speaker 1>desserts are must have, as to whether football is really

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<v Speaker 1>the main event, to exactly what kind of potatoes are

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<v Speaker 1>being served Boil them, mash them, stick them in the stew.

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<v Speaker 1>But one thing that's near ubiquitous on Americans Thanksgiving tables

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<v Speaker 1>is turkey. As of twenty twenty three, eighty nine point

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<v Speaker 1>seven percent of people surveyed said that turkey was part

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<v Speaker 1>of their main course plans for the day. The tradition

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<v Speaker 1>is a slightly strange one. The turkeys are native to

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<v Speaker 1>North and Central America, but whether or not they were

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<v Speaker 1>part of the first Thanksgiving feast among pilgrim colonists and

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<v Speaker 1>Native Americans in the sixteen hundreds is a complicated question

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<v Speaker 1>because there are several candidate dates and locations and peoples

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<v Speaker 1>who might have been involved in the first Thanksgiving, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's no really solid documentation of any of these feasts.

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<v Speaker 1>We basically got the idea that turkey is necessary from

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<v Speaker 1>a woman in eighteen hundreds by the name of Sarah

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<v Speaker 1>Josepha Hale, who thought the myth of the First Thanksgiving

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<v Speaker 1>was a really nice idea and that it might bring

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<v Speaker 1>people together surrounding the contentious times leading up to the

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<v Speaker 1>Civil War. A lot of our concepts of Thanksgiving come

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<v Speaker 1>from her and the recipes of her time, including yes,

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<v Speaker 1>roasted turkey, but also stuffing or dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy,

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<v Speaker 1>cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. As many of us know

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<v Speaker 1>from personal experience, roasting a whole bird that's as large

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<v Speaker 1>and dense as a turkey is a difficult prospect because

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<v Speaker 1>most ovens heat food from the outside inn so by

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<v Speaker 1>the time the inside is cooked to a safe temperature

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<v Speaker 1>a witch for turkey is right around one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>sixty five degrees fahrenheit or seventy three celsius, the outside

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<v Speaker 1>of the bird might be a bit dry and overdone.

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<v Speaker 1>There are lots of ways to combat this. Dry brine

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<v Speaker 1>is my personal favorite, and that's a separate episode. Go

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<v Speaker 1>on and google it right now if you need to.

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<v Speaker 1>But we can also roast a little easier, knowing that

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<v Speaker 1>we have access to several temperature reading technologies to keep

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<v Speaker 1>track of the internal temperature of the bird as it cooks,

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<v Speaker 1>so that you don't let it go longer than necessary.

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<v Speaker 1>There are simple and expensive meat thermometers that you can

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<v Speaker 1>leave red in the oven and check periodically, and fancier

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<v Speaker 1>probe style thermometers with digital readouts on the outside of

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<v Speaker 1>the oven so you don't have to keep opening it,

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<v Speaker 1>and even ones that connect to apps so that your

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<v Speaker 1>phone will give you an alert when the turkey hits temperature.

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<v Speaker 1>But a lot of turkeys come packaged with an incredibly simple,

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<v Speaker 1>inexpensive device that gives you a visible queue when the

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<v Speaker 1>bird is done, the pop up timer. If you've never

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<v Speaker 1>seen one, they usually look like a skinny ballpoint pen

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<v Speaker 1>with a point at one end and a red teb

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<v Speaker 1>visible at the top of the other end. If it's

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<v Speaker 1>not pre inserted, which it often is, You stick the

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<v Speaker 1>turkey with the pointy end, placing the device deep into

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<v Speaker 1>the innermost part of the turkey's thigh and wing or

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<v Speaker 1>the thickest part of the breast, and then set your

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<v Speaker 1>oven temperature. Then all you have to do is watch

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<v Speaker 1>for that red indicator stick to pop up out of

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<v Speaker 1>the case and you know the inside of the bird

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<v Speaker 1>is cooked. But how does it know okay? Pop up

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<v Speaker 1>timers consist of four main parts. The outer case with

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<v Speaker 1>the point the red stick that pops out of it,

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<v Speaker 1>a coiled spring putting tension on the stick, and a

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<v Speaker 1>small bit of soft metal similar to solder that's basically

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<v Speaker 1>gluing the stick down into the point of that outer

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<v Speaker 1>case despite the push of the spring. That soft metal

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<v Speaker 1>is solid at room temperature and colder, but it will

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<v Speaker 1>melt and become liquid at right about one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>sixty five degrees fahrenheit or seventy three celsius. When it melts,

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<v Speaker 1>it releases the red indicator stick, and the spring pops

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<v Speaker 1>the stick out of the case. This ingeniously simple and

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<v Speaker 1>single minded thermometer first popped up in the nineteen fifties

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<v Speaker 1>as the result of a serious brainstorm session conducted by

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<v Speaker 1>the California Turkey Producer's Advisory Board. Basically, they'd been receiving

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<v Speaker 1>complaints from consumers saying that even though they had cooked

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<v Speaker 1>their turkey according to a reliable recipe, it still came

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<v Speaker 1>out overcooked and dry. The advisory Board was worried that

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<v Speaker 1>their good product was getting a bad name. The way

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<v Speaker 1>I've heard the story told, they were sitting around their

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<v Speaker 1>office at their wits end when one of the board

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<v Speaker 1>members looked up and noticed the fire sprinklers in the ceiling,

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<v Speaker 1>which are triggered when a material inside heats up from

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<v Speaker 1>a fire and reaches a particular temperature. Inspiration hit and

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<v Speaker 1>now pop up timers are just about as ubiquitous as turkeys.

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<v Speaker 1>One little known fact is that these timers are reusable.

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<v Speaker 1>If you dip the tip in hot water, it will

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<v Speaker 1>remelt the metal and you can push the pop up

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<v Speaker 1>piece back into place. Then let it cool and the

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<v Speaker 1>piece will be stuck back in its original position and

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<v Speaker 1>ready to use again. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article how pop up turkey timers work on HowStuffWorks dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Marshall Brain. Brain Stuff is production of by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and

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<v Speaker 1>is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows.