Discover the Secret to Cooking the Perfect Turkey

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For Christmas this year, Thermapen, the UK’s #1 food thermometer, has released a Christmas video with support from ASMR* expert Dr Giulia Poerio to reveal the secret to getting the perfect #JuicyBird on the table… in the form of a 4hr ASMR cookery video.

Thermapen has created a Christmas cookery video that shows anxious cooks how to cook a turkey from scratch using the sights and sounds of ASMR. Research shows that 58% of Brits find cooking the Christmas stressful. With the help of ASMR, Thermapen is calling Brits to cut the stress and listen to the relaxing sounds of a turkey being prepped and basted, before being carved to perfection. To view the full 4hr hour real time video visit: https://thermapenblog.com/juicybird-2020-the-campaign-against-dry-turkey/

1. 58% of Brits find Christmas stressful

2. Nearly half of us (46%) don’t know how to cook a succulent turkey

3. Over a third (35%) of Brits find cooking Christmas dinner ‘extremely stressful’, with under-cooking being a huge concern for at-home cooks on the big day

Dr Giulia Poerio comments on the stats: “Scientific research supports claims that ASMR is something that can make people feel relaxed. People with ASMR show significant reductions in their heart rates when watching ASMR videos, reductions comparable to other more well-established stress alleviating techniques such as mindfulness and music therapy. We now have more objective evidence that ASMR is relaxing (it’s not just people telling us that ASMR makes them feel relaxed - their physiology is telling us the same thing too). I’ve teamed up with Thermapen to create an ASMR video, to help anxious cooks this Christmas feel calmer when cooking their festive feasts.”

Dr Giulia Poerio, psychology researcher at the University of Essex, debunks the ASMR stats:

➜ ASMR is the 2nd most searched term on YouTube worldwide: https://ahrefs.com/blog/top-youtube-searches/

➜ ASMR is a relatively new term, coined in 2010 in an attempt to make the sensation sound more scientific. But the feeling of ASMR existed before it had a name – many people report experiencing ASMR since childhood and there are even ASMR-like descriptions in novels like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway.

➜ ASMR is intended to induce a relaxing head-tingling sensation which is why it is often colloquially referred to as ‘brain tingles’. The feeling, that not everybody experiences, is a tingling sensation that often begins in the crown of the head and can spread down the limbs - it is a pleasant, relaxing feeling that can feel very trance-like.

➜ Although people have their own particular tastes, there are remarkable consistencies in ASMR triggers. Common triggers include whispering, soft-speaking, close personal attention, delicate hand movements, and crisp sounds.

➜ Because so much ASMR content is on YouTube people often forget that ASMRcan be experienced in real life situations like watching someone cooking and also that touch (e.g., somebody stroking your back) is often something that induces ASMR.

➜ ASMR videos allow people to experience the feeling ‘on demand’ and with greater longevity and intensity. This has meant that people use ASMR videos for insomnia, to reduce stress and anxiety and even to provide relief from loneliness.

➜ ASMR-tingling is associated with increased activation in brain regions involved in emotion, empathy and affiliative behaviours. As a result, ASMR has been likened to caring and grooming behaviours – suggesting that ASMR activates neurological pathways involved in socioemotional bonding. This idea is somewhat supported by research showing that ASMR videos increase feelings of social connection.

➜ Overall research suggests that people who experience ASMR have a greater propensity towards immersive or absorbing experiences. People with ASMRscore higher on personality dimension of ‘openness to experience’, which reflects imagination, intellectual curiosity, and appreciation of aesthetic experiences. ASMR-sensitive individuals are also more empathetic - at least on two measures of empathy measuring compassion and concern for others and the ability to immerse oneself in imagination and fiction.

➜ One fascinating aspect of ASMR that makes it different from experiences such as the pleasant feeling when you get a head massage is that it often involves a crossing of the senses. For example, auditory/visual stimuli (e.g., whispering) are creating tactile sensation (tingling) and associated feelings of calm and relaxation This has led to suggestions that ASMR might be a form of sound-touch synaesthesia where ASMR triggers elicit a feeling of touch (tingles) in the absence of actual touch.

➜ ASMR videos are often most effective when they involve a layering of ASMRtriggers - Thermapen’s ASMR video of the cooking process of a Christmas turkey does this by including lots of layered triggers such as softly-spoken instructions, sounds of vegetable chopping, and delicate careful hand movements.

The Thermapen has an ‘easy-to-read’ display which gives a quick and accurate food temperature in less than three seconds, meaning less time worrying about your food and more time serving up succulent and safely-cooked food for guests. Thermapen digital thermometers are available in a variety of vibrant colours, priced from £51.60.

Thermapen Professional Thermometer – has all the benefits of the Thermapen Classic with the addition of a patented, automatic 360° rotational display with an auto intelligent backlight, waterproof case and motion sensing sleep mode.

Thermapen digital thermometers are available at www.thermapen.co.uk

*Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) describes the relaxing sensations many people – thought to number in the millions – experience in response to certain visual or auditory triggers. Think of a crispy, juicy turkey being sensuously sliced with a sharp blade; or the slow, smooth scraping of metal on a parsnip … Well, Thermapen have created a video that involves just that. The breathy narrator slowly talks the viewer through how to get the perfect #JuicyBird on their table this festive season in a gentle whisper, capturing every bubble, carve and baste in alluring ASMR detail.