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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Thanksgiving

After Last Year’s Thanksgiving Disaster, I Bought a Combustion Thermometer. The Result Was Juicy, Just-Right Turkey

In 2021, I hit a Thanksgiving home run.

After deciding to brine a turkey for the first time, the results were much better than expected. Guests were happy, compliments were given, and when I learned we were hosting again last year, I figured it’d be easy to replicate the juicy, delicious result.

But I was wrong. Last year’s turkey was a disaster, so overcooked that the thing was pretty much an inedible piece of gristle.

What happened? After reviewing the steps and comparing them to the previous year, I realized I simply left the turkey in my old oven for too long without taking the bird’s temperature. When I did take it out to check it with my old-school thermometer, it had an internal temperature of 200 degrees and was climbing quickly. Experienced hands will know that’s WAY too hot – over 35 degrees hotter than the suggested cooking temperature – and the results were what you’d expect: a turkey was so overcooked it was all but inedible.

Needless to say, this year, I wasn’t taking any chances. I was going to invest in a smart thermometer and keep track of the bird’s temperature in real-time.

Which one? I decided I wanted to go with the Combustion because I liked the idea of keeping an accurate read on the bird’s temperature from core to surface (as well as ambient temperature) via the thermometer’s eight sensors. I also wanted to take advantage of Combustion’s predictive technology, which would give me a countdown and notify me when it would hit the target temperature.

I took the Combustion thermometer out of its bright yellow box on Thanksgiving morning. I’d downloaded the app to my phone a day prior, enabled it to connect via Bluetooth with the Combustion app, and ensured the thermometer was fully charged. I estimated the turkey would take about four hours to cook at 300 degrees (that’s with convection – if I didn’t use convection, I’d have cooked it at 325). I put in a target temperature of 160 degrees, knowing the bird’s core temperature would continue to rise after I took it out of the oven and waited.

After about 30 minutes, the Combustion gave me an estimate for when the turkey would hit my target temperature. Unsurprisingly, it was cooking slightly faster than my initial estimates, but I was prepared because I had the Combustion.

I watched the countdown clock tick downward, and when it hit 160 degrees, the app told me it was time to pull out the turkey. I double-checked the temperature with my old school thermometer and it matched the temperature reading on my Combustion thermometer. I put foil over the bird and let it sit for about 45 minutes before carving it up.

The result? A juicy, just-right turkey.

You’re probably asking why I didn’t use a smart thermometer before, and it’s a good question. The answer is I should have, but I figured at the time I could just do the math myself. As it turns out, however, older ovens can be a bit unpredictable (as can turkey cooking time estimates), and now the Combustion will be a permanent fixture come turkey cooking time.

Could I have used another thermometer? Maybe, as long as it has enough sensors to measure the core, surface, and ambient temperatures. While the original Meater had two sensors, it couldn’t measure core, ambient, and surface temperatures. However, Meater’s latest thermometer, the Meater 2 Plus, has five internal sensors and an ambient sensor, so I figured that would have worked great as well.

But after my experience, I recommend the Combustion predictive thermometer. The company tries to get you to buy the pair of the thermometer and the yellow kitchen clock, but I found the app works just find (and meant less clutter on my counter). You can buy the thermometer by itself right now for $119, or buy the thermometer and clock for $159.

The Three Stages of Thanksgiving Connected Cooking Grief

In retrospect, I was too cocky this Thanksgiving. Backed by cooking technology and cloud connected apps, I thought making my first turkey would be a breeze. I’d turn a dial, tap a button on my phone and voila! A perfectly cooked turkey would emerge.

Like some folktale about technology versus tradition, I was wrong. While the turkey did come out beautifully, it had almost nothing to do with any connections built into my appliances. In fact, the technology I used almost created more stress than relief.

Thanksgiving is already a stressful holiday. You want your guests to eat on time and enjoy delicious food and, especially with a turkey, you want to make sure no one gets sick. That is partly why I armed myself with so much technology when smoking my first turkey. I had the Traeger Pro 575 WiFire wood pellet grill and a Meater block of WiFi enabled meat thermometers.

Stage 1: Excitement

My initial plan was to use the Traeger app to monitor and control the cooking and the Meater thermometer to ensure that the bird was cooked thoroughly. Easy peasy.

In my previous tests with the Traeger, I noticed that while the accompanying app was useful for remote monitoring and control of the grill, the guided cooking features were a little too automated and on the rails. There wasn’t a place to pause the cook program, so it would just barrel through to the next step (like raising the temperature) even if you weren’t ready. I needed a little more flexibility with a 14-pound bird on a cold day.

For extra accuracy, my plan was to use the Meater thermometers not only to monitor the internal temperature of the bird, but to also help ensure accuracy of the ambient temperature inside the cooking cavity. This backup would just help make sure the grill was cooking at the right temperature.

I’ve used Meater before and found it to be a great experience. The app is intuitive, and while the probe itself is a little thick, it’s easy to set up and use. Or at least it was before. Almost immediately I had issues connecting my Meater app to a thermometer, and even when I managed to do so, that connection was lost as soon as I placed it in the grill and shut the door. After a half hour of re-starting and re-connecting, I just abandoned the Meaters altogether.

Stage 2: Mild Panic

Suddenly, I was left to my own devices and not the ones I thought were going to save me.

Again, this is the first time I’m making a turkey. I wanted it to be done and I didn’t want to get anyone sick. With its slick interface, tons of data and directions on when to pull out the turkey to let it rest, I was counting on the Meater to help me through. But now that was out of the picture.

And the Trager app wasn’t much help, either. The recipe had two main instructions: cook on low heat for a few hours and then move the bird into a foil pan and ratchet up the heat when the color of the bird looked right. Looking right may be the sort of vague direction that works for people with confidence in their cooking, but I only had sort of an idea of what a smoked turkey should look like two hours in.

As a result, I kept opening up the grill to look at the bird, which dropped the temperature of the grill each time and made the cooking process longer. Finally, after a few hours, it looked good and I covered it in butter, wrapped it in foil, set it in a pan and put it back in.

I had started the process at 8 a.m. and it was coming up on noon. Guests would arrive in an hour and we were eating at 3, and this bird was nowhere near done.

Long story short: while the recipe said it would take five hours, the cook actually took more like seven hours, and I had to make adjustments like turning up the heat beyond what was instructed to get the internal temperature to a safe 165 degrees.

Stage 3: Relief

Despite technological shortcomings and my steady worrying, the turkey came out beautifully and was delicious. Really. Not to brag, but it tasted better than the turkey we cooked in a traditional oven and was so good that I’ll probably smoke another one next year.

What I learned is that I can’t rely on gadgets to make it happen though. The connected kitchen still has lots of idiosyncrasies to work out. Devices should connect without hassle and the design of apps should not be an afterthought.

Hopefully the industry can come together to create technology that helps cook the turkey — not be the turkey next Thanksgiving.

The Spoon’s Black Friday 2019 Food Tech Deal Roundup

You may not have fully digested that pumpkin pie yet, but it’s time to start shopping for Black Friday deals.

To help makes things easier, we’ve put together the top food tech and kitchen tech Black Friday deals in one place. We’ll be updating this post throughout the next couple days, so make sure to check back.

If you see a good deal you think we haven’t mentioned yet, drop us a line.

DrinkWorks Home Bar for $199 (50% off)

If you’re lucky enough to live in a state (Florida, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania and New York) where DrinkWorks has began selling its pod-based home cocktail robot, you can take advantage of a half off deal for Black Friday. Prices goes up on Cyber Monday, but those same residents can still save $100 on the Home Bar through December 31st. To take advantage of 50% off pricing, use discount code BLACKFRIDAY on the DrinkWorks website.

Terra Kaffe TK-01: $100 Off

While some of us are still waiting for our Spinn coffee machines, those of you still in the market for a do-everything grind and brew coffee machine can take advantage of a $100-bucks-off Black Friday deal for the Terra Kaffe TK-01. Use discount code BF2019 at checkout on the Terra Kaffe website for a limited time to get this barista-in-a-box for $675.

Nomiku Meals: 40% Off

While still selling its consumer sous vide appliance, Nomiku has largely pivoted to focusing on its sous vide ready meals. This week the company is selling all of its meals for 40% off. Use discount code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout.

Instant Vortex Air Fryer: $79

You finally joined the pressure cooker crowd last holiday season, so isn’t it time you try an air fryer? Walmart is offering $40 off on the Instant 7 in 1 air fryer for Black Friday.

Tovala Connected Steam Oven: $99

As Chris wrote about earlier this week, the Tovala connected steam oven is on sale through Black Friday for $99 (regular retails is $299), provided you buy a minimum of six meals for the scan and cook appliance.

PicoBrew Pico C Beer Brew Appliance: $150 Off

PicoBrew products are perpetually on sale nowadays, but you can pick up an especially good price this Black Friday by scooping up a Pico C for just $249, which is $150 off the list price. You can get this and lots of other deals on the PicoBrew offers page, no promo code needed.

Brava Smart Oven: $250 Off

Brava just got bought by Middleby, so it looks like the company’s celebrating by dropping the price on its smart oven. You can pick up the Brava oven “Starter Set” for $250 off the regular price of $1095 over on the company website.

Anova Pro: $100 Off

Anova usually has a bunch of Black Friday deals on offer and this year is no exception. The sous vide market leader’s latest product, the Anova Pro, is on sale for $299 this Black Friday, $100 off the list price.

Free Impossible Burger at BurgerIM

If you want to step away from your computer on Black Friday (we recommend it), new burger chain BurgerIM is offering a free Impossible Burger to any guest with the purchase of a BurgerIM burger. The chain has 212 locations and you can find out if one is nearby on their website.

Suvie: $200 Off (Black Friday Only)

If you want a home cooking appliance that truly does it all, you might consider the Suvie multi-zone cooking robot. The appliance can cook a protein, starch, veggie and sauce all the same time and has a built-in refrigerator to keep things cool while you’re away. All that functionality isn’t cheap – the Suvie is normally $1,199 – but for today only you can get $200 off by using the discount code BF200.

Cinder Precision Grill: $80 off

Chris had the Cinder precision grill as one of his food tech holiday picks, so if you want to give this unique dual cooking surface precision heating appliance to the foodie in your life, you can pick one up today for $349, a full $80 bucks off full retail. The deal is Black Friday only, so better hurry.

ckbk: $24.99 (50% off) for the ‘Spotify of Cookbooks)

Why just buy someone a cookbook when you can buy them pretty much every cookbook under the sun? The ckbk service is aptly called by some the Spotify for cookbooks, giving the subscriber access to over 400 cookbooks. You can get a year subscription to ckbk for $24.99 or a six month subscription for $14.99 through this week.

Meater Connected Thermometer: 20% Off

The Meater connected thermometer is one of those gifts that seems like they were designed in a lab to perfectly fit the tech-forward griller in your life and today you can get 20% off the Meater or any other product in the Meater store.

The Food Tech Show: Editor Roundtable, Thanksgiving Edition

Like most Americans, the Spoon crew is busy preparing for Thanksgiving, but before we headed off our separate ways to overdose on home made cranberry sauce and tryptophan, we decided to get together to catch up on some of the news of the week.

Here’s the stories we discussed on this week’s show:

That’s it. Time to go make some Instant Pot cranberry sauce (here’s the recipe, btw).

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

As always, you can listen to the Food Tech Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download it directly to your device or just hit play below.

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Companies are Developing Plant-Based Turkey Options for the Center of the Thanksgiving Table

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving, odds are at least one of your guests (or maybe even you!) doesn’t eat meat. That means you have to find something to stand in for the holiday’s traditional piece de resistance: the turkey.

Of course you could just have your meat-free guests make a meal from sides (my personal preference). Or you could also try to make a stand-in protein with one of the plant-based substitutes on the market.

When it comes to meatless turkey offerings, Tofurky is, unsurprisingly, the first name that comes to mind. The company has been making its portmanteau tofu turkey for 25 years. However, if you’ve ever tried a tofurky, you know that, while tasty, it doesn’t for a moment fool you into thinking you’re eating the real bird.

Tofurky would tell you that that’s the point; their products are made for vegetarians and aren’t trying to fool anyone into thinking they’re meat. But for the growing number of flexitarians out there, there’s a market for a more realistic turkey alternative.

Protein companies are trying to fill that need. Impossible Foods has stated that it’s developing its own plant-based turkey product. Big Turkey is also entering the race. According to Reuters, Butterball, Perdue and Tyson are all developing vegetarian turkey options, though none have committed to a timeline for release.

It’ll probably be a while yet before we see a whole plant-based bird on grocery shelves. Unlike burgers or chicken nuggets, which are one type of “meat,” turkeys are structurally complex and have different cuts of meat — plus bones — to deal with. It’s more likely that we’d first see a plant-based turkey breast or drumstick first before someone comes out with the whole bird.

Most of us only eat turkey on the third Thursday of November, so there’s not really a huge market for realistic plant-based turkey year-round. That could mean that it’s relatively low on the R&D totem pole for alternative protein companies. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised that if by next year there’s an Impossible Turkey Leg or Tyson Turkey Breast offering available in your supermarket.

For now, though, vegeterians and flexitarians can get their plant-based turkey fix with Quorn’s Turk’y Roast, Gardein’s Holiday Roast, or Field Roast’s Celebration Roast. Or just stick with the classic: Tofurky.

Three Last-Minute Bits of Kitchen Tech That Could Make Your Thanksgiving Easier

If you are having stress dreams about hosting the Thanksgiving meal this year, take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay because we at The Spoon are here to help. While we can’t provide another pair of hands, we can point out some connected kitchen gear that could make your cooking easier and can still be overnighted to you in time for the T-Day.

MEATER THERMOMETER
The Meater is a connected meat thermometer that will let you keep track of your turkey’s internal cooking temperature via its mobile app. The device has a “whole turkey” setting, so you can stick the probe in and monitor your bird without having to open up the oven (losing all that heat) a bunch of times. You can buy a single Meater for $69, or the Meater Block ($269), which has four probes in case you’re cooking more than one turkey or need to coordinate the cooking of more than one meat.

The Anova Nano

ANOVA NANO SOUS VIDE
While you could certainly sous vide a whole turkey, that would take 24 hours and you’ve got enough going on. No, you can use the Anova Nano ($79) to help with other duties like keeping mashed potatoes warm. Make them the day before, and when it’s time to serve them up, load the potatoes into a bag and keep them at a precise temperature in the water bath to free up your oven for other cooking duties .

FOOD NETWORK KITCHEN
If you’re looking for inspiration or need some helpful tips with your trimmings, the Food Network Kitchen app delivers Food Network shows and live instruction from Food Network celebrity chefs. Tomorrow (Tues., Nov. 26th), for example, Martha Stewart will teach you how to make Herb Roasted Heritage Turkey, and Giada De Laurentis gives a class on making a holiday salad. You can watch on your iOS or Android device or on an Alexa Show. Even better, you can try Food Network Kitchen for free for 90 days ($6.99/month after that), so Thanksgiving and all your holidays are covered!

Do you have any bits of food tech that can alleviate the stress of Thanksgiving? Leave a comment and let us know!

Newsletter: A FoodTech Thanksgiving, China’s Robot Restaurants, and Taste Copyright

This is the post version of our weekly newsletter. If you’d like to get the weekly Spoon in your inbox, you can subscribe here.

Greetings all!

Here in the States, it’s the calm before the storm. I’m referring, of course, to Thanksgiving — the meal where we get together with family and friends, give thanks, and have a mild panic attack while cooking a turkey (and sides, and pie, and…).

Not this year. This year I’m following the lead of my colleague Chris and leveraging food tech to make Thanksgiving a breeze. From smart meat thermometers to alterna-meat stuffing to an eternally warm cup of coffee, he’s got the guide for letting technology help make this year’s feast the best (and easiest) one yet.

But if all that sounds too complicated, Jenn has compiled a list of companies that will deliver the Turkey Day spread to your door, in full or in part. We don’t judge.

Speaking of the kitchen, this week Brava shipped its countertop oven that cooks with light (yes, light) and can supposedly heat up to 500 °F in one second flat. Lately there’s been a wave of connected countertop cooking devices, such as the June, Tovala, Suvie, and the Amazon microwave, so we’ll have to see if Brava’s can break away from the pack and carve out space on our kitchen counters.

The kitchen may be filling up with smart devices, but in the restaurant world there be robots. And soon there will be a lot more — at least in China. This week Chinese e-commerce company JD.com opened the first of its planned 1,000 XCafe robot restaurants, in which ordering, food prep, and serving is all taken done by robots. China is jumping into the robot restaurant biz with both feet: JD.com and Haidilao, which is planning a chain of automated hotpot restaurants, have over 6,000 in the works combined. If the U.S. wants to stay relevant in the automated foodservice game, they’ll have to step up.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (no shade), you heard the news this week that Amazon announced its new HQ2 locations: New York City and Arlington, VA. Which is no doubt a big deal for things like housing prices, but we here at the Spoon are more interested in what it will mean for food tech. Hint: more Amazon Go stores, more drones.

And now onto our favorite topic: cheese. Earlier this week, an EU court presided over a case was between two cheese companies, one of whom argued that the other was copying its signature taste. The conclusion: taste cannot be copyrighted, because it “cannot be identified with precision and objectivity.” But Mike thinks that technology could change all that.

What about a nice Camembert made from cow-free milk? Perfect Day, which uses fermentation to make dairy without the animal, has partnered with food giant ADM to scale up production and enter the market quickly. Which means that in a not-too-distant future you could be snacking on cheese (or yogurt, or ice cream) made from milk created entirely without a cow.

If you’re in the LA area, we’re headed to you on November 27th! We’re putting on a half-day event with hardware VC firm Make in L.A. to explore the world of food tech, from restaurants to robots to investment. Join us for this event to hear from the CEOs of Ordermark, Kitchen United, Pathspot, Somabar & DishyDivvy, all while enjoying a free taco!

And finally, if you haven’t heard we are bringing the latest in foodtech to Vegas next year with FoodTech Live. If you want to show off your foodtech or smart kitchen product to the world’s leading business and tech journalists, you can inquire about sponsorships here. Don’t have a product to show, but just want to just come and check out the latest foodtech from the cool startups we’ve lined up? You can request a pass here.

Have a great weekend,
Catherine

Image credit: Flickr user Niklas Morberg under creative commons

EU Court Rules Taste Can’t Be Copyrighted. Will Tech Someday Change That?
Can taste be copyrighted? According to an EU court, the answer is no (or at least not yet). At least that’s how they ruled this week in a court battle between two cheese companies. But will technology open up new doors to taste copyright?

My Food Tech Plans for Thanksgiving: Delivery, Caffeine, Meater and More
The Spoon Head Editor Chris plans to leverage food tech to make his Thanksgiving run smoothly, from smart meat thermometers to connected countertop ovens.

Video: To Succeed in the Smart Kitchen, “You Have to Get Multi-Model Fast”
In this video from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, experts in voice and connected appliances discuss the role that voice tech will play in the kitchen of the future — and how it has to work with screens in order to be successful.

Groupe SEB Acquires Cooking Site 750g
Groupe SEB, which owns a portfolio of small appliance and cookware brands, announced this week that it has acquired French recipe site and digital media publisher 750g International.

Perfect Day Partners with ADM to Scale up Production of Cow-Free Dairy
Perfect Day, the startup which makes milk without the animal, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with global food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Together the two are hoping to scale up Perfect Day’s tech and produce animal-free whey over the next few years.

There Are a Ton of Ways to Get Thanksgiving Delivered to Your Door This Year
Amazon’s not the only one peddling Turkey’s in 2018. From grocery delivery to meal kits to ordering in, there are a few ways to get some help with your Thanksgiving feast.

Would You Rent (and Return) a Coffee Mug to Reduce Waste?
In Colorado, Vessel Works launched a beta program which lets people “rent” reusable stainless steel coffee mugs for free and return them to kiosks around town. CupClub in London is doing something similar — but will this trend catch on enough to combat paper coffee cup waste?

Uber Q3 Earnings: Eats Grows 150 Percent YOY, Does $2.1 Billion in Gross Bookings
Uber released its third quarter earnings this week, which revealed that its food delivery business, Uber Eats, generated $2.1 billion in gross bookings — an increase of 150 percent over the same time period last year. Uber is trying to emphasis the success of Eats as its expected to go public in 2019.

Video: Food Blockchain — Just Hype, Or True Path To Food Transparency?
Blockchain is everywhere, from currency to copyright protection. In this video of a panel from the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit, executives from Walmart and Ripe.io discuss how blockchain can help increase food safety and promote customer knowledge in the kitchen.

Apples to Apples: Agrofresh’s Tech Optimizes Produce Freshness Along the Supply Chain
Agriculture technology company Agrofresh helps optimize produce freshness along the supply chain, from post-harvest to the grocery shelves.

My Food Tech Plans for Thanksgiving: Delivery, Caffeine, Meater and More

Before I begin this post, let me be completely honest. Thanksgiving is the domain of my wife and woe be to those that try to interfere in her preparations. Unlike previous years, however, I’m no longer completely useless in the kitchen because now I’m packed full of food tech know-how. Here are some of the gadgets, devices and gizmos we’ll be using in the Albrecht house to make Thanksgiving 2018 that much easier.

Skip the Store (for Bulk Items)
Grocery stores are madhouses this time of year. Who needs to deal with that? Not you, thanks to the billions of dollars poured into delivery startups this year. While you’ll still want to pick out your turkey and veggies in-person (probably) there are plenty of items you can order online sight unseen. Get your potatoes, rolls, paper towels, sodas and more delivered to your door in advance to save yourself (and your arms) at least one trip to the store.

Get Ready (by Getting Caffienated)
Thanksgiving is a long day, and before you can entertain a house full of people, you need to prepare. And by prepare, I mean, wake up. And by wake up, I mean, get that coffee flowing. To maximize your caffeine intake, I recommend the Ember coffee mug. Embers ain’t cheap ($80 for the mug), but they keep your cup o’ joe at the same hot temperature until the bitter (but so delicious) end.

Keeps Tabs on that Turkey with Meater
The appropriately named Meater connected meat thermometer lets you wirelessly keep tabs on your turkey’s cooking temperature without the need to open up the oven door (which makes you lose all that heat). I like Meater’s mobile app, which charts your turkey’s temperature in real time, as well as its cooking guidance tips (like telling you when to rest the meat). And the one drawback — it’s as big as a nail and leaves a pretty sizeable hole in your meat — won’t be as noticeable with a whole turkey. Meater even has instructions to help you cook a classic turkey on its blog.

Use that June
My love for the second-gen June is well documented here, but I think it will actually come in extra handy this Thanksgiving. We now essentially have three ovens in the kitchen (two traditional + the June). The big one will be for the turkey, and now we don’t need to rotate stuffing or sides through the other oven. We can cook two more things at the same time and have everything served piping hot. Plus, with the June’s presets, roasting carrots or broccoli or beans will be a one-button snap.

Alterna-Meat Stuffing
Speaking of sides, this isn’t a gadget, but I saw that Beyond Meat posted a recipe for meatless stuffing. I’m not a vegetarian, but Beyond Meat ground/crumbles have evolved to the point where they can effectively act as a tasty “meat” component in stuffing. Bonus: Now there’s one more thing your vegetarian guests can enjoy.

All of this tech should help make this year’s Thanksgiving the best. One. Ever! The only gadget still on my wish list for the holidays is the Apple iWatch Series 4. I could use a device to help me keep track of all the exercise I need to do after all that pumpkin pie.

Smart Kitchen Curious? Here Are Some Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals For You

Want some new smart kitchen gear? Now might be a good time to pick up a new gadget or two given, well, BLACK FRIDAY.

Below is a quick list of some Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals we’ve spotted for smart kitchen gear from around the web. (If you see any other screaming deals for smart kitchen gear, let me know via Twitter and I’ll keep this list updated):

Mellow 

The Mellow smart sous vide appliance just started shipping and is getting some decent early buzz. The good news is you can pick up this sous vide appliance with built-in refrigeration for $299, a hundred bucks off the list price. Better hurry, the deal expires after Monday.

PicoBrew

If you or one of your loved ones has made a new year’s resolution to become a home brewer, now might be a good time to pick up a PicoBrew brewing appliance. You can get the Pico C right now for $399, a hefty $150 off of the list price of $549.

Hestan Cue

Want to cook like a chef? Try a Hestan Cue guided cooking system. The device, which was just named one of the best tech gifts of 2017 by the Wall Street Journal, is available now through December 3rd for a hundred bucks off. Use the discount code “blackfriday” at checkout.

Instant Pot

If you haven’t become part of Instant Pot community, what are you waiting for? With the 5 quart Instant Pot available right now for only $50 right now over at Walmart, you really have no excuse.

Anova

The leader in home sous vide circulators has dropped the price on their flagship product ofr Cyber Monday week. If you want to pick up a circulator, you can do so now for $99 over at Anova.com.

ChefSteps

If you’re reading this on Thanksgiving, you might want to give thanks for a true Black Friday deal coming your way. ChefSteps will be selling both models of the Joule for $30 off, with the Joule Stainless on sale for $169 and the Joule White for $149. Just head over to the ChefSteps Joule page and use the code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout.

HOPii

If you’re willing to wait and want to try out the HOPii home fermentation system, the HOPii folks are offering a “secret perk” right now through Indiegogo which allows you to have a HOPii system for 50% off. Go here to get access to the deal.

Nomiku

Nomiku has a bunch of deals on its sous vide gear and meal delivery service for Black Friday and cyber Monday. The company’s 2nd generation circulator, the Wi-Fi Nomiku, is on sale for $99 and their newest appliance, the Nomiku WiFi Smart Cooker, is available with $50 worth of meals for $179.

A 21st Century Thanksgiving Meal

Every year my grandfather spends about three days making the perfect turkey for Thanksgiving: He picks out a bird carefully, brines it in his own special salt mixture, seasons it, and lovingly places it in the oven. He even has special oven mitts that can only be used on Thanksgiving, by him (warning: do NOT try to touch them). Seven hours after he’s delivered it into the fire, it emerges, bone-dry and ready to scratch our throats with its parched flesh.

There has to be a better way! And fortunately, this year, there is. Here are seven new-school ways to make old-school Thanksgiving favorites, with the most cutting-edge devices on (and off) the market.

Turkey

First get yourself a connected oven, which you can preheat from your phone and which boasts sensors that calibrate oven thermodynamics and help cook your bird evenly. Just in case, test the meat with a nifty connected thermometer, which is much fancier than you really need but is actually pretty fun to use.

Or if you’ve gone the tofurkey route in the past, treat yourself with some SuperMeat, created by culturing a biopsy of an animal so that everyone can stay happy and alive.

Sweet Potatoes

Make sweet potatoes easy by putting whole potatoes in a pressure cooker and letting them go. They’ll come out soft and supple, ready to be combined with some browned butter and whipped into oblivion.

Stuffing

Why stuff breadcrumbs inside a bird when you can stuff them in a plastic bag and tepid water? Grant Achatz from Alinea prefers to sous vide his stuffing, and we’re totally on board.

Pumpkin Pie

Leave the whipped cream in the past and top your pie with sage foam, made by putting fried sage leaves and water in a sous vide, then whipping the mixture into stiff peaks.

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries should not be can-shaped. Modernist Cuisine’s recipe turns the traditional one on its head by putting fresh berries and juice in a sous vide and then carbonating them in a siphon charged with carbon dioxide. Tangy and bubbly!

Gravy

No one likes lumps in their gravy. Use Dave Arnold’s new centrifuge to maximize flavor and create a smooth, silky texture.

Green Bean Casserole

First grow your own green beans and onions with a SproutsIO system, which helps you become a green thumb by giving you a nifty device that fits in your home, guiding you through the process, and monitoring your success. Next, dehydrate those onions with a DIY connected food dehydrator. Combine with centrifuged cream of mushroom soup and bake in your connected oven for about half an hour. Easy!

Butter

Start with great butter. Then make the butter-passing robot from Rick and Morty. Last, spend the entire Thanksgiving meal moving the butter away from your obnoxious brother-in-law.