Turkey gets all the credit this time of year, but I want you to focus your attention on the real star of the Thanksgiving show: the stuffing. The glorious, salty, carbohydrate-y, mushy, gravy-welcoming stuffing.
Most people know by now that putting the stuffing inside the turkey is a dangerous proposition. Either the juices from the raw turkey can get trapped in the stuffing, inviting food poisoning, or the cook must blast the heat on the turkey for a longer period of time, possibly turning the whole thing into a dried out affair.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and since some people cling to the stuffing inside the turkey mentality (for extra flavor!), we’ve seen several turkey stuffing patents cross the desk of the USPTO.
Stick around with us and you can see some of these clever ideas, plus a bonus stuffing recipe courtesy of one patent application!
The first approach when it comes to solving this safety vs. moisture issue is to seal the cavity, preventing undue moisture loss while still letting extended elevated temperatures take care of any lingering bacteria.
US 2006/0030252 A1 – Poultry Shield by Tiemann discloses a poultry shield that is placed inside and surrounding the cavity opening, clipping into place.
I imagine this is quite a bit of work to place properly if the opening is rather small!
The insertion of this shield replaces the “lacing” step usually used to close the cavity opening. You also might be able to use it as a clipboard in the off-season, too.
US 2,708,769 A – Stuffing Shield for Roasting Fowl by McLean shows a similar shield technology, but externally affixed and from back in 1952…this isn’t a new problem by any stretch of the imagination!
This “oldschool” invention is simple without too much finagling.
Much easier than shoving a shield up into the cavity, but possibly less secure, is the idea of simply staking the barrier to the outside of the opening.
US 2012/0048126 A1 – Cooking Utensil by Tweed has another idea: create a barrier inside the cavity that prevents the stuffing from soaking up the raw juices from the turkey.
It’s labeled HOT so you know it’s bringing you that smoldering stuffing.
This device is sort of an encased stuffing football–perfect for the holiday. The design claims to mingle the flavors of both turkey and stuffing without the food poisoning risk. The downside seems to be the even further limited amount of stuffing one could cram in there.
Feeling extra brave this Thanksgiving? You could try out the cornbread stuffing recipe by Moore in US 2006/0062882 A1.
Don’t throw out those gizzards!
You’ll have to take a look a the full application to get more ingredients and instruction, but that seems like a good start.
If you use that recipe, we’d love to hear about it!
Thanks for reading, as always, and happy holidays to you (even if you’re not in America, we welcome you to join in on celebrating)!
This post was contributed by Intellogist Team member Chris Jagalla. The Intellogist blog is provided for free by Intellogist’s parent company Landon IP, a major provider of patent searches, trademark searches, technical translations, and information retrieval services.
Filed under: Items of Interest | Tagged: patent, patents, stuffing, thanksgiving, turkey |
The Intellogist Blog 
while i don’t want to turn this into a cooking show, and i won’t be cooking a turkey or two for a month yet, the best thing to do is put the stuffing under the skin of the turkey breast and leave the cavity empty.
Please, feel free to turn it into a cooking show! :)
[…] people enjoy spending hours lovingly preparing their meals (whether that meal involves gourmet turkey stuffing or home-style barbecue), and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m just the type of person […]