Logan native invents efficient way to cook a turkey

The world of turkey is taking a revolutionary step toward juiciness as the holiday season approaches, thanks to a Logan native and his associates who invented a quicker and simpler way to cook the traditional turkey.

The Turkey Cannon is a new cooking tool that infuses moisture into the turkey, cooking it from the inside out in less than half the time, Ty Meason, president of Camp Chef in Logan, said.

“Everybody I know who has one loves it,” Edward Quinlan, Camp Chef director of communications, said. “You don’t have to wait for hours to cook it.”

The Turkey Cannon contains a long cylindrical tube made of double-plated steel. A cup of of beer, soda or other liquid mixture is placed in the cylinder and then the turkey is placed over the reclined cylinder, breast up, Measom said.

The idea for the invention was fashioned after the another Camp Chef invention called the Beer Can Chicken, which uses a can of beer under a squatting chicken to speed-roast the bird on an outdoor grill.

“The genesis of the idea was to do a turkey instead,” Measom said.

The Turkey Cannon can cook any poultry up to 24 pounds in the oven or the outdoor grill. In a normal oven, an average-sized turkey can cook in about 1 1/2 hours and not the 6-8 hours that is usually required, Quinlan said.

Wendy Johnson, a junior majoring in French, was impressed with the invention and is planning on giving the Turkey Cannon to her mother as a gift.

“I thought it was innovative,” Johnson said. “It was so good; it was the juiciest turkey I’ve ever had.”

The product was put into production in September and is already in stores throughout the nation.

“It’s distributed nationwide, but it has a strong core in Utah and will hopefully spread from there,” Measom said. “

With the upcoming holiday season, Measom and Quinlan hope that the product will become more popular as the months go by.

“Usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see a spike in sales,” Quinlan said.

Camp Chef, which was established in Logan, has been in business since 1990 and is the nation’s leader in outdoor cooking, Measom said.

The company sells a variety of outdoor cooking tools. For more information about the Turkey Cannon, visit www.campchef.com.

-mmackay@cc.