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Injector plunger

Check valves and T joint

Masterflex silicone tubing

The average home oven is rated at 40,000 BTU/hour energy consumption.

The BTU content in natural gas is 100,000 BTU/therm.

Let’s conservatively estimate that the average cost of gas in late November is $1.00/therm.

Let’s estimate that the average American bastes their Thanksgiving turkey twice per hour, for a total of 10 times in 5 hours.

Let’s estimate that opening the oven adds about 5 minutes each time to the overall cooking time, for a total of about 60 minutes, or one hour.

If a therm costs $1.00, and we consume 40% of a therm every hour we cook our turkey, and we add an additional hour of cooking time by basting twice an hour, we each spend $.40 extra to cook our turkey.

$.40 x 45,000,000 = $18,000,000

That means that as Americans we waste $18,000,000 worth of energy on Thanksgiving day, whereas we could have been eating a finer turkey in less time by simply using the Überbaster!

Audience: Cooks of any skill level.

Materials: Marinade injector, silicone tube, vinyl tube, T joint, two check valves, stainless steel skewer. Assembles in just a couple minutes.

Format: Roasting meats

Technology:

• What hardware and software are optimal? Oven, food, roasting pan, basting liquid
• Any constraints? None yet.

Design: Exposed functionality with familiar pumping action

What is the ideal style? Attitude? Industrial yet playful.

Why? The industrial look and feel of the baster suggests that it works. The playful character behind the website is designed to remind people that yes, cooking is fun, and it’s OK to have fun pumping a big syringe too.

Prior Work: Inspired in part by remote probe thermometers that require the remote wire to be closed into the door.

Setting: Home

Any special needs or requirements? A flavorful basting liquid.

Constraints: Need provisional patent ASAP. No budget. I am the sole expert on remote basting.

II. Usability/User Testing, Prototyping, Audience Feedback

Note: Test users have been issued basters. While the basters are being tested, users are encouraged to use them as built and then, if necessary, modify them to work to their own specification. This technique will allow me to modify my design and study how they would use such a device were it a real product. Basters are still out and research has not yet been gathered.

Small groups of the target audience perform representative tasks with product prototypes (i.e., sketches, paper prototypes, video prototypes, parts of fully functional prototypes) while developers watch and assess problem areas, refine the prototypes based on this feedback, re-test, etc. Methods include observation, interviews, user diaries, self-report, think-aloud protocols, focus groups, pre/post questionnaires. Factors observed include:

Appeal: Is it engaging? Do they like it? Is it relevant to them? Is it useful? What don’t they like?

Comprehension: Do they understand it? What do they take away from the experience? What do they learn? Does it meet their expectations? What is confusing to them about the content, message, goals?

Usability: Can they use it? Is it easy to use? Is it responsive enough?
Is it flexible? Adaptable? Consistent? Is the interface clear
and accessible? Does it take too long to figure it out?

III. Technical Testing, Software Testing, Debugging
Performance Rigor:

Does it work? Yes.

Is it internally consistent? Yes. Rock solid construction.

Reliability:

• Does it hold up over time? So far, so good.
• Is it robust? Yes.

Extensibility:

• Does it work in multiple environments? Yes.
• Is it transportable? Yes.
• Is it scalable? I suppose with a longer tube you could control the baster at a further distance from the oven. It is also possible to automate with electronic pumps.

I’ve been running some tests on various Scriptaculous animation functions using some placeholder images.The library is much easier and more fun to use than I anticipated. The tests are being conducted at uberbaster.com. Feel free to check in there to see how it’s coming along.

Josh’s Chicken Salad

• 1 Josh’s Roasted Chicken, deboned and chopped
• 2 tbsp highly concentrated pan juice
• 3 small roasted potatoes, quartered
• 1 jar Kalamata olives, drained & sliced
• Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
• 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• Salt, pepper & olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Mix ingredients and serve with Italian bread.

It was a timely dream. Earlier in the evening turkeys all over the world sensed a strong foreboding; a new device that would threaten their population had come into existence and proven itself in practice. Such a device would send consumers back into supermarkets demanding anything they could baste. The device is the Überbaster, and it works.

The chicken I roasted was basted about 12 times on its journey to 165°. It really could not have been simpler to operate, though I need to work on a better way to attach the tube to the bird in the oven. The skewer worked, but a brace with at least another prong would keep it in place much better. The images indicate that the stock was distributed over the whole bird, though I can’t be entirely sure since the oven I used had no window.

The chicken was perfect. The skin was crispy and delicious. The meat was moist. It is at least as good as any chicken I have ever roasted, and it tasted better than chickens I’ve roasted in recent memory. I believe that keeping the oven door closed contributed greatly to the overall quality of the chicken, and frequent basting clearly helped too. It went very nicely with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. I will continue to roast this way while I work to improve the baster. Video, Images

Josh’s Roasted Chicken

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 lemon
• Several sprigs of rosemary
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 1 stick of butter
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375°. Wash the chicken inside and out. Let chicken dry. Mince the leaves of a few sprigs of rosemary and a few cloves of garlic. Mix rosemary and garlic with half a stick of softened butter. Put the butter mixture under the skin of the chicken breasts. Rub olive oil and/or remaining butter on the outside of the chicken. Coat the inside and outside of the chicken with salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice of a lemon inside the bird. Stuff the bird with the lemon and remaining garlic and rosemary. Roast the chicken to an internal temperature of about 120°, then crank the heat to 425° to finish. Baste frequently.

Here are some facts about the way you currently baste your roasts:

1. You lose 25-50 degrees for each few seconds the oven door is ajar
2. You add several minutes cooking time (figure 5 minutes conservatively every time you open the oven, plus time you spend basting)
3. You waste energy in the form of electricity or gas
4. You lose money
5. Your roast is prone to dryness

Here is what the Überbaster gives you:

1. Better heat retention
2. Faster cooking time
3. Savings in energy and money
4. Beautiful presentation
5. Preservation of moisture while adding flavor

Points 1 and 2 may be the most important advantages of basting from outside the oven. Prolonged cooking time and fluctuations in temperature are the biggest contributors to dry food. The added bonus of the extra flavor basting yields is icing on the cake. You won’t drop any steamy roasts on the floor, and you won’t burn your hands from lifting the roasting pan. If you use the Überbaster and your roast is dry, it was destined to be dry. I guarantee that if you use proper cooking techniques with quality ingredients, your food will be as moist as it possibly can be.

To clean it, run a light soapy solution through the baster until free of basting liquid. If any solids remain inside the tube, rub the tube between your fingers to loosen it. Then run some clean water through it to rid the tubes of remaining soap.

The heart of the baster is Masterflex Platinum L/S 16 silicone tubing, shown below. It is heat resistant and oven safe. When the tube is closed into an oven door, the rubber gasket around the door maintains its seal, keeping the heat in.

During the early stages of development, if you would like one please contact me and I will make arrangements to get you one. I am more than happy to supply you with a free baster in exchange for your experience with it.

Additional Reading
Quick Tip: Keep the Oven Door Closed! – thekitchn.com
Basting Questions – howstuffworks.com
Timing the Perfect Turkey – exploratorium.edu

1. Injector: Suck juices in, squirt juices out.

2. Silicone tubing: Heat resistant and oven safe. One tube hangs over the roast while the other remains fixed in the bottom of the pan or outside the oven to insert external basting fluids

3. One-way check valves: Allow fluid to flow in one direction only. Valves are positioned and attached to the corresponding tube to allow fluid to flow in one direction.

The Überbaster is the only turkey baster that permits basting without opening the oven. It is the first to break existing models like the brush and bulb-and-barrel basters. The Überbaster is a simple device that is as easy to operate as existing models and resolves potential complications such as dry poultry and extended cooking time stemming from other basters. Besides solving such problems, it allows for frequent basting that aids in the development of a rich, colorful and crispy skin.

Rationale

Why is your project important? Interesting? Relevant? Why now? Personalize if possible.

My project demonstrates a helpful technological advance in a field flooded with ripoff gadgetry. It is useful not only for turkey but also for chicken, ham, and any type of roast. It has few parts. Once set up for cooking, the cook needs only to squeeze a bulb outside the oven as frequently as he or she desires or as often as there are pan drippings available.

I have been interested in using my experience and resources available at ITP to create some kind of kitchen solution. After exploring various ideas with software I decided that none had the potential to make the great impact on cooking that I sought. I will argue that most solutions that require software or excessive electronics do not belong in the cooking sphere because of the low-tech nature of the activity itself and the satisfaction it can provide by using the fewest tools possible.

Software is basically useless in an activity that requires hands-on practice that leads to the intuition that makes a great cook. Resources like Epicurious.com that provide tutorials, articles, and thousands of recipes online for free are valuable and existing.

Few electronic gadgets aid the cooking process. The instant-read thermometer and remote probe thermometer are probably the only two electronic devices a cook will ever need. The hand mixer and stand mixer are important as well, but such devices will be considered tools in this discourse. Gadgets like the Quick Chop are the type of which we need fewer. The Quick Chop intends to replace a required skill of cooking: chopping. Poultry basting on the other hand requires no skill; it is merely a minor step in cooking certain dishes. Thus the Überbaster will not detract from the joy and practice of cooking.

Goals

What problem are you trying to solve? What issue are you exploring? What are you trying to find out or achieve? What do you want people to get out of using/experiencing your project? Goals can be creative, technical, business-oriented, social, etc.

Using proper techniques, a competent cook can already roast a perfectly fine turkey at home. The Überbaster simply attempts to make the dish more delicious. With the Überbaster the user will be able to baste as frequently as possible – yielding tastier skin – by operating the baster from outside the oven. Keeping the oven door closed, critically important throughout the entire roasting process, external basting will make the bird as juicy and moist as possible.

I would love to see the Überbaster for sale on the market, but I currently have no plans to market it. However a delicious turkey in every American home on Thanksgiving, with the help of the Überbaster, must be the ultimate goal. The potential to use the Überbaster in everyday cooking is also an important feature and underscores its versatility. The Überbaster is used mainly in large meals that feed more than one. A table full of happy eaters is implicit in the baster’s goal.

Audience

Who are you creating your project for?  What are their unique characteristics that will inform your design (interests, age range, language, geographical location, culture, etc.)? Will it be used/experienced alone?  In groups? With guides, teachers, signage, or other assistance?

The Überbaster’s user base is potentially vast. Cultures all over the world use ovens and eat meat. Anyone responsible enough to operate an oven is qualified to use it. The cook will use the baster, and those who eat the food that it assists in preparing enjoy its results.

Location

Where will your project be used/experienced (homes, galleries, public spaces, outdoor areas,
theaters, offices, schools,  etc). Is it a repeatable experience or a one-time experience? How will these inform your design and process?

The Überbaster is intended for use at home. It has potential to be used in restaurants, but as someone who has no experience inside a professional kitchen, I feel unqualified to guarantee its value in such a setting. I wager that it will be just as useful in a restaurant that is not achieving desired results using in-house cooking techniques as at home.

Description of Core Features and Functionality

What do you plan to build? What is the intended effect? What is the intended nature of the user’s experience? What will people do when using it? What is the attitude? The look and feel? The content or theme? Will it have a point of view? What kind of media will be used – graphics, video, animation, sound, photographs, projections, etc? What kind of technology will be used? What kind of materials?  Describe the functionality of the piece. What will the interface be like? What are the components of your project?

The Überbaster will be composed of silicone and stainless steel. The core functionality is in the external bulb and two silicone tubes equipped with check valves. The check valves allow for liquid to flow through the tubes in one direction only. Both tubes are attached to the bulb and extend into the oven through the oven door. One tube draws pan drippings into the bulb, and the other tube distributes them over the roasts. Hence one basting action requires the same action as existing basters: one squeeze of the bulb to draw liquid in and one squeeze to squirt it back out. The internal end of the in tube is fixed to a section of the roasting pan that is angled to let pan juice flow to it. The internal end of the out tube is attached one of two possible ways: either a brace attached to the roasting that has an arm that extends over the roast, or simply a sturdy steel skewer that sticks directly into the roast. The out tube squirts its juice through something not unlike a shower head to maximize distribution.

Success Measures/Future Plans

How will you know your project is complete? What will be the success measure(s)? (ex. It works, people like it, it’s easy to use, people find it insightful, it helps them, it’s valuable, it’s controversial, it’s inspirational it’s fun, people learn something, etc). How will you measure this (user testing, technical testing, etc). What are your future plans for this project?

The Überbaster will be complete when it achieves the best results with the fewest components combined with the greatest ease of setup. Operation will never change in any instance, so it is important to be able to easily set up the Überbaster to promote frequent and long-term use.