Hot Dogs: Execution via Electrocution

[Kilroy08]

I'll never forget the day I discovered the joys of electrocuted hot dogs.

It was a slow day at the shop and the subject of hot dogs came up. The Old Man brought up the subject of cooking them with electricity. Well, a couple of 3" stainless steel screws with the top third machined smooth and filed to a point, a piece of oak, and a PC power cord later, we were in business.

We chose to live dangerously and not incorporate a power switch. Just make sure you unplug it before you go to grab your dog!

The possibilities of a unit running on a three phase power source were discussed, it was shelved after concluding an Oscar Meyer would most likely not be able to handle 480 volts of AC power.

I prefer to use a propane torch to lightly char the outside of the dog. It gives it that extra kick.

The prototype cooker has been lost to the ages. I'm thinking a newer model is due. A power switch, an on light, heck, even throw a ground fault circuit interrupter in!

Sure, I could buy an old Presto Hot Dogger off eBay. But I think building my own is much more satisfying.

Who else has done the electrocuted hot dog thing

 

[PugslyCat]

When I was a kid we had a hot dog cooker. Even at 110 volts it had a tendancy to rupture the dogs...

 

[Jim]

Add a reostat for that perfect dog. Which BTW is not from the supermarket, get some from a real butcher whom makes them.

 

[ylekot]

We had one of those Presto ones when I was a kid......We all thought it made the hotdogs taste funny....

The BEST way to cook a hotdog is on a stick over a campfire

 

[Slash McCoy]

My Dad liked using ours, when I was a kid. It kind of creeped me out, since electrocution was the usual method of executing condemned criminals at the time. But the dogs were okay. They would usually split but hold together and I always had a mental picture of some poor guy in the electric chair splitting out of his skin. Very disturbing to my 11 year old mind. To make it even creepier, when he turned it on with all spaces occupied by a dog, the lights would dim ever so slightly. To be fair, in that old house, plugging in the iron would dim the lights, but still.... it was sort of a "BWAAAAAA-hahahahahaha!" moment.

I actually preferred mine boiled. On our gas stove. Or grilled outside on the charcoal grill. Any way but electrified.

 

[captaincaveman]

I really ought to try electrocuting sometime.

Off the top of my head, this is how I'd rank the methods I can remember trying:
Campfire/wood grill > fireplace > charcoal grill > toaster oven > griddle > roller > boil > microwave.

Also, the best potato I've ever had I tried cooking unwrapped on a grate over a campfire until my rig collapsed and the potato landed in the fire. Somehow it was NOT blackened, and was cooked through.