[Anecdotal Subject Introduction]
Ever cooked a hot dog without an external heat source? Once, way, way back in the 1970's, I built a cooker from 2 16 penny nails, a board and a power cord. The nails were driven completely into the board about 5 inches apart so that the point and majority of the nail were exposed. One conductor of the power cord was connected to each nail. The hot dog was impaled on the two spikes and was cooked when the power was applied. (Later, we had a commercially produced model, "Hotdogger" by Presto that cooked 5 hot dogs at once but had almost no electrocution potential and so was not nearly as entertaining.)

[Problem Statement]
I like the fact that all of the heat involved in cooking the hot dog was generated within the hot dog instead of using a resistance element as an external heat source. The thing I don't like about the aforementioned cooking method is that significant charring takes place where the spikes are inserted into the hot dog.

[Solution]
The electrical contact needs to be spread out over a larger area to eliminate the burning. Two parallel, motorized metal rollers might do the trick. The rollers would be maybe 1" diameter, 1/2" apart, similar to the heated rollers on a conventional roller type hot dog warming apparatus. Instead of being warmed internally by heating elements, the rollers would be electrical conductors connected to household alternating current, one to "hot", one to neutral.

The cold dog placed on the rollers would complete the circuit and current would flow through the soon-to-be-hot dog, thus warming it. It may be necessary to have a third, weighted roller pressing down on the dog to improve the contact with the electrodes/rollers.

The whole "path of least resistance" thing being what it is, might require that only one dog per set of rollers be cooked at once in which case the rollers would only need to be as long as the dogs themselves.

[Summary]
Because the point of electrical contact would be constantly changing, the extreme, localized charring would not occur. Hopefully, some carmelization would still occur on the surface though.
-- half, Aug 19 2003

And all this time I thought the human race, after 100,000 years, had mastered the art of cooking hot dog.
-- DeathNinja, Aug 19 2003


// third, weighted roller pressing down on the dog //
That would be the 3-phase 220 volt model?
-- lurch, Aug 19 2003


Rollin, rollin, rollin.
Keep them doggies rollin.
Man my wieners voltin.
Rawhide.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 19 2003


Gorgeous.
-- bristolz, Aug 19 2003


Yes. But a Darwin Award waiting to happen.
-- Cedar Park, Aug 19 2003


// Once, I built a cooker from 2 16 penny nails, a board and a power cord //

Could I ask - "Why?".

Dogs are also known as Bockwurst, so how about Shockwurst?
-- sild, Aug 19 2003


[lurch], nice addition.

[UB], there actually is a pop-up hot dog toaster that cooks 2 dogs and toasts 2 buns at once.

[sild], Because I had a hammer, nails, wood, a power cord and a hot dog. What else could I have done with that stuff?
-- half, Aug 19 2003


I think you baked it. But this re-volting food may well be worth a bun. +
-- k_sra, Aug 19 2003


Glad I was not the only one to cook dogs this way!
-- scarkner, Aug 19 2003


// Night Of The Weiner //

Is this in the horror section or the porn section?
-- DeathNinja, Aug 19 2003



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