The Story of the Perfectly Cooked Turkey

In the late 1960’s the California Turkey Producers Advisory Board, a former state government agency, realized the holiday turkeys were being overcooked -- emerging from the oven dry and tasteless.

Leo Pearlstein, a 93 year old public relations man and one of the original members of the turkey board, recalled: "We were always getting complaints that the turkeys were overcooked. Dry turkeys. People would bitch about it," he said.

The would-be inventors failed to get the state government to pony up some research money, Pearlstein said, so they formed their own inventors' club, Dun-Rite Co.

One day, a team member looked at the ceiling sprinklers and realized they were triggered by flames melting something inside. "Why can't we use that principle in the turkey?“

The group spent almost a year testing what temperature best cooked turkeys and determining the alloy that would melt at the right temperature. "We finally got a prototype built, and it worked."

In 1973, the team sold its company to the giant firm, 3M, in return for stock. In 1991, 3M sold Dun-Rite to Volk Enterprises. Today the gauge has been placed in more than 2 billion turkey products and Volk Enterprises has annual revenue of over $100 million.

Now every year, millions of people ‘pop’ for moist and delicious turkeys.

Happy Thanksgiving from Storytelling4

May this be the beginning of a joyous holiday season!

www.storytelling4.com

Sources

www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Eugene-Beals-inventor-of-turkey-pop-up-timer-2603566.php

home.howstuffworks.com/pop-up-timer1.htm

latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2011/11/the-genesis-of-the-pop-up-turkey-timer.html

fm100.com/?sid=121875&nid=46

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