Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast

In this episode of Circuit Break, Parker Dillmann and Stephen Kraig delve into the fascinating and somewhat humorous topic of hot dog conductivity. They explore an in-depth study conducted by Seth Jenkins, Neil LaTourette, and Brendan Liverman on how boiling time affects hot dog conductivity. The hosts also discuss the historical Presto Hot Dogger, community experiments involving hot dogs, and various methods of cooking hot dogs, all while interspersing their own anecdotes and insights. This episode is a blend of scientific curiosity and light-hearted banter, making for an entertaining listen.

Key Discussion Points:
  • Introduction to hot dog conductivity and its surprising properties.
  • Shout out to Seth Jenkins, Neil LaTourette, and Brendan Liverman for their 2007 study on hot dog conductivity.
  • Historical gadget: The Presto Hot Dogger and its mechanism.
  • BigCliveDotCom's high-voltage experiment with the Presto Hot Dogger.
  • The Thought Emporium's thermite-based "Instant Hot Dog" device.
  • Methodology of Jenkins, LaTourette, and Liverman's experiment on hot dog conductivity.
  • Scientific explanation of why boiled hot dogs conduct electricity.
  • Results and observations: Boiling time and its effect on conductivity.
  • Engineering curiosities and implications for food safety and electrical experimentation.
  • Personal anecdotes and nostalgia related to hot dog preparation.
  • Various methods of cooking hot dogs: boiling, grilling, pan-frying, and the Presto Hot Dogger.
  • Community debate on the best way to cook hot dogs.
Relevant Links:
Community Questions:
  • What is your favorite method of cooking hot dogs and why?
  • Have you ever experimented with unconventional ways of cooking food? Share your experiences!
  • What are your thoughts on using hot dogs as conductors in electrical experiments?
MacroFab:

This show is brought to you by MacroFab, which provides a platform for electronics manufacturing services (EMS), hardware development, designing, and prototyping for individuals, startups, and businesses. Key MacroFab services include PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fabrication, assembly, and testing. Customers can use MacroFab's platform to upload their PCB designs, select components, and specify manufacturing requirements.

We Want to Hear From You!

Subscribe to Circuit Break wherever you get your podcasts! And join our online discussion hub at forum.macrofab.com to keep the conversation going with electrical engineering experts and experimenters! You can also email us at podcast@macrofab.com.

Creators & Guests

Host
Parker Dillmann
A Founder @MacroFab.Builds Electronics, Cars, & Jeeps.
Host
Stephen Kraig
EE
Producer
Chris Martin

What is Circuit Break - A MacroFab Podcast?

Dive into the electrifying world of electrical engineering with Circuit Break, a MacroFab podcast hosted by Parker Dillmann and Stephen Kraig. This dynamic duo, armed with practical experience and a palpable passion for tech, explores the latest innovations, industry news, and practical challenges in the field. From DIY project hurdles to deep dives with industry experts, Parker and Stephen's real-world insights provide an engaging learning experience that bridges theory and practice for engineers at any stage of their career.

Whether you're a student eager to grasp what the job market seeks, or an engineer keen to stay ahead in the fast-paced tech world, Circuit Break is your go-to. The hosts, alongside a vibrant community of engineers, makers, and leaders, dissect product evolutions, demystify the journey of tech from lab to market, and reverse engineer the processes behind groundbreaking advancements. Their candid discussions not only enlighten but also inspire listeners to explore the limitless possibilities within electrical engineering.

Presented by MacroFab, a leader in electronics manufacturing services, Circuit Break connects listeners directly to the forefront of PCB design, assembly, and innovation. MacroFab's platform exemplifies the seamless integration of design and manufacturing, catering to a broad audience from hobbyists to professionals.

About the hosts: Parker, an expert in Embedded System Design and DSP, and Stephen, an aficionado of audio electronics and brewing tech, bring a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the show. Their backgrounds in engineering and hands-on projects make each episode a blend of expertise, enthusiasm, and practical advice.

Join the conversation and community at our online engineering forum, where we delve deeper into each episode's content, gather your feedback, and explore the topics you're curious about. Subscribe to Circuit Break on your favorite podcast platform and become part of our journey through the fascinating world of electrical engineering.

Parker Dillmann:

Welcome to circuit break from MacroFab, a weekly show about all things engineering, DIY projects, manufacturing, industry news, and the conductivity of hot dogs. We're your hosts, electrical engineers, Parker Dillmann.

Stephen Kraig:

And Stephen Kraig.

Parker Dillmann:

This is episode 157. So you know why it's 157?

Stephen Kraig:

No. Why is it 157, Parker?

Parker Dillmann:

So I asked chat gbt 4. I the prompt was if there was a electrical engineering podcast that talked about the conductivity of hot dogs, what would you think the episode number would be? And it said 150 because it suggests that the podcast has been around for a while, and the creators delve into more unusual topics.

Stephen Kraig:

That's that's that's funny because it's spot on the nose. I mean, we've been around long enough that we could talk about conductive cuisine on our on this podcast.

Parker Dillmann:

We're actually over 400 episodes by the time we're recording this thing. So alright. So oh, go ahead, Steven.

Stephen Kraig:

No. No. Please go ahead.

Parker Dillmann:

Oh, so the hot dog conductivity so Steven posted on our form, which is formed.macfab.com, a kind of like a experiment or theory or what's the best way to put it? Because it actually had a a a it was it was an experiment with results. Yeah. Technically, it was

Stephen Kraig:

full on research that we found. It would be a very long story to get into, but the engineering team at my work has been joking about hot dog electronics for a little bit now, and one of the guys posted in our team's chat this research paper of the specific conductivity of hot dogs, and I had to share it with Parker. And then we realized that this needed to be an episode. And and this research paper is is exactly this. It is a full on like, it's it's beyond a lab report.

Stephen Kraig:

It is a full on paper discussing the the conductivity of hot dogs, but not just like a hot dog. This this goes into different brands of hot dogs and how the testing is actually executed. And it and and in the conclusion, it's kind of funny too because it's talking about, like, oh, there's quite a bit more that could happen to this. And I'm sitting here reading this paper. I was like, no.

Stephen Kraig:

I think you've pretty much nailed it. I think you pretty much have come to your conclusion here. But but yeah. So this we need to post a link to this in the show notes, but it's it's a solid read of the specific conductivity of hot dogs.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. The the my favorite is so they have, like it's it's a website from, like, the mid aughts, so it's very simple. But there's an image of a hot dog that's smiling, and there's this great quote. I don't know who Lawrence j Peter is, but they have a a this quote's awesome. It is the noblest of all dogs is the hot dog.

Parker Dillmann:

It feeds the hand that bites it.

Stephen Kraig:

You know, I don't I don't even remember why this was a thing, because it's done it's done in in a professional way to the point where it just doesn't even feel like a joke. Like, someone put a lot of effort into this.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Because it was the the hypothesis was the longer you cook slash boil the hot dog, the lower the current will be because there's less water. Like, less water like, water comes out of the hot dog. Right. And actually, they found it was the exact opposite.

Parker Dillmann:

As you boil a hot dog, it absorbs moisture, which kinda makes sense from a from a osmosis because a salt a hot dog's full of salt and nitrites, so and the water is not.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. And I mean, dogs, they they plump up when you when you cook them.

Parker Dillmann:

Mhmm. I I do like the drawn conclusion. It just has how many amps it like, they maxed out how much amperage at 47.2 amps, which is insane to think about through a hot dog.

Stephen Kraig:

What I don't know. What what's what's the average diameter of a hot dog? I I wonder what gauge of meat a hotdog is. Is it

Parker Dillmann:

a Well, they measure the zero gauge

Stephen Kraig:

they measure hug?

Parker Dillmann:

Well, they measure cigars and a gay the cigars have a gauge. I wonder if cigar gauge and wire gauge match

Stephen Kraig:

up? Wouldn't surprise me.

Parker Dillmann:

No. Because a 40 gauge no. No. Because in cigars, the bigger the number, the larger the cigar, which is the exact opposite of wire gauge. Well, we need to have a hot dog gauge then.

Parker Dillmann:

Double hotdog.

Stephen Kraig:

I you know, I would not be surprised if there is some kind of food standard administration out there that says a hot dog must be, you know, x inches in diameter and so long or whatever. That that would not surprise me at all.

Parker Dillmann:

So I I typed in hot dog gauge into Google.

Stephen Kraig:

Is that a thing?

Parker Dillmann:

Well, the first thing is the gp dash 1010, the gamma beta hot dog probe.

Stephen Kraig:

What?

Parker Dillmann:

I think oh, this is it is it's just like a radiation detector that they just call it the hot dog. Doesn't look like a hot dog to me. You can get ear gauges that are the shape of hot dogs. Not really any okay. How long what is the longest hot dog, Steven?

Parker Dillmann:

What do you how long do you think is the longest hot dog?

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, the longest hot dog? I'm gonna guess 27 feet.

Parker Dillmann:

You are an order of magnitude off. 270 feet? 197 feet long hot dog. Oh gosh. It had a 198 foot long bun.

Stephen Kraig:

They just kept they just had I guess they had a continuous casing and just kept filling it.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah, I guess you'd have to have a synthetic case. I don't think you can find a a sheep that's got a intestines that long.

Stephen Kraig:

I wonder I wonder if could you make a machine? This going through my head, and I I bet you could. Could you make a machine that has a grinder on one side and a fully cooked hot dog comes out the other side. So it's in, like, every stage of production as it goes, like, goes through the machine.

Parker Dillmann:

It's like a reflow oven, but for hot dogs.

Stephen Kraig:

Exactly. You put the raw materials in on one side, and it just a cooked hot dog comes out the end.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Continuous dog?

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I won't say why you couldn't do that. Yeah. Okay. Now this is silly.

Parker Dillmann:

So by the way, there isn't I can't find a gauge standard for hot dogs, but there's a hot dog stand called the Willie Dog cart, and come on, guys.

Stephen Kraig:

Perhaps this is just nostalgia talking here. But when I first moved to Texas, it was 1996, and the Astrodome was still a thing. And they sold domedogs. So we'd go see the Astros play, and you could get a domedog. And I bet you it is a a a nostalgia thing, but there was nothing better than a domedog.

Stephen Kraig:

Those were so good. Like, it's something about a dog at a ballgame or a stadium. They just taste they hit different.

Parker Dillmann:

It's all the nitrates.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Yeah. Probably.

Parker Dillmann:

It's all the preservatives.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, man. They were good. They were solid.

Parker Dillmann:

I'm I'm I'm browsing through the Wikipedia article of hot dogs, and this I this picture looks like, at first glance, a corn on the cob with a hot dog in the middle of it.

Stephen Kraig:

Okay.

Parker Dillmann:

It's actually a hoagie. So it's kinda like a like a almost like a kolache, but, like, you're assemble it's like a like like a disassembled kolache. Like, you take the hoagie and you rip the bread out and then stick the dog in.

Stephen Kraig:

Okay. So for those who are not aware, a kolache is a South Texas food item, I guess. The thing is, kolaches, I always had them for breakfast even though it kind of doesn't make sense for them to be a breakfast item. It's it's a piece of sausage or sometimes a hot dog, sometimes with cheese, and they wrap it in dough effectively and bake it. And in the north, they're called pigs in a blanket.

Stephen Kraig:

But in South Texas, they're called kolaches due to the the Czech immigrants that came over, I don't know, a 150 years ago or whatever. And and the name kolache isn't even correct, because kolache, if I remember right, it's supposed to be a dessert item. Like, it has, like, a jam or a cream cheese kind of filling in it. The ones with sausages, I think, are called kobleckis, but everyone just started calling them kolaches. And they're like I said, it was a breakfast item.

Stephen Kraig:

You could go to the donut shop and get a sausage roll effectively.

Parker Dillmann:

And the thing is

Stephen Kraig:

I wish more people would would would tune into it because they're amazing.

Parker Dillmann:

And you mentioned pigs in a blanket.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Think about a pigs in a blanket, but you know how everything's bigger than Texas?

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

The kolaches are bigger.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, pigs in a blanket are are like my experience is they're they use the little Smokies sausages, the little tiny things that are like the length of your pinky finger. We're talking about a full size sausage. Yeah. So think of think of a pig in a blanket times, like, 5, and that's 1 kolache in Texas.

Parker Dillmann:

And a lot lot my favorite are the you know, it's got the dog in it, the sausage with jalapeno and cheese.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. That's that's the that's the stuff.

Stephen Kraig:

Though those were always good in the morning when I knew I was gonna go out and do, like, manual labor all day long. Or or if it was a day where it's like, okay. We're gonna go hit the lake and go water skiing or something like that. You blast the kolache in the morning, and you're good to go. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Blast the kolache? Yeah. So that basically, they their hypothesis we're back going back to hot dock connectivity, this this paper. Their hypothesis was incorrect. They absorb water while boiling.

Parker Dillmann:

I think they'd mentioned, like, improving the investigation part where you can try, like, grilling a hot dog and seeing if that changes it.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Another thing that they mentioned in this so so the setup, they have a hot plate with a, like, a a boiling water tub effectively. And, apparently, they put multiple hot dog pieces in this tub and boiled them together and then would pull them out and do their conductivity testing. And in the improvement section, they were they were saying, perhaps doing them 1 at a time and replacing the water such that you don't just keep adding hot dogs and adding more salt and more electrolytes to this boiling dog water because that could be influencing future dogs in the in the test.

Parker Dillmann:

The hot dog brine, so to speak?

Stephen Kraig:

Exactly. Which okay. This this has been an argument in in Parker and my friend group for a while of grilling dogs versus boiling dogs. I am I'm firmly in the camp of boiled dogs are superior.

Parker Dillmann:

It's almost as heated as actually, no. I would say it's more heated than the chili debate.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. The and the chili debate is do you put beans in chili or not? Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

And but yeah. So so the so some of the group are into grilling dogs and some are into, I guess, steaming dogs or whatnot. And then some some of us are into boiling dogs. And once again, I think it's perhaps a nostalgia thing because I think, you know, growing up, if my mom was away and dad was cooking, you know, lunch for the kids or whatnot, he'd throw a couple dogs in a pan and put them on the stove and, like, I had boiled dogs with dad. Like, that was that was an old memory of mine.

Stephen Kraig:

And there is nothing more disgusting than hot dog water, like, after after boiling it. It is it is vile. That stuff looks so disgusting. And so I I kind of I I think it's funny that there is a that there is a scientific study that is suggesting like, hey, maybe the maybe our problem with this study is hot dog water.

Parker Dillmann:

Mine was my my nostalgia cooking with hot dogs was, like, the store brand mac and cheese, and then my mom would cut up a hot dog, and throw them in there with the noodles as they as the with the pasta as it boiled, and cook the cooked the hot dogs in it.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, oh, so the so the pasta would soak up the dog water.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Soak up the dog water.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, so good. Mc and weenies. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. It it would, depending on the brand of hot dogs, sometimes, like, the casing would shrink, and it would, like, poof it was really weird. You know how, like, a pepperoni curls?

Stephen Kraig:

Yes.

Parker Dillmann:

When you cook it?

Stephen Kraig:

Well, they think

Parker Dillmann:

like think yeah. Yeah. Think like that, but it's like squeezing, so it, like, pokes up both ends of the slice of hot dog. Yeah. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

It's like an inverse of a cup then. A convex hot dog slice.

Stephen Kraig:

Now there's gonna be some mathematician that does, like, the 3 d surface of of how a hot dog expands.

Parker Dillmann:

You know, what's the you know, speak because this is like this is just like the resistance of hot dogs. What is the like, what if you start passing AC current? Like, does does it have, like, a skin effect? Like, is the casing of the hot dog, like, carrying the most of the current, like, in in alternating current?

Stephen Kraig:

Well, okay. So it it's really funny that you bring this up because we had this exact argument at work. Do do hot dogs have a skin effect? And the answer could be wait. The answer could be yes and no.

Stephen Kraig:

Yes from a yes from just a food aspect, I guess, and no from an electrical aspect. And the reason why is because we're just talking about 60 Hertz. If we're talking about 60 hertz, the frequency of this thing, that current is penetrating all the way to the middle of the hot dog as it goes down. I it's not going to it's not gonna have the skin effect in the electromagnetic way that you're thinking there. However, hot dogs do have a casing.

Stephen Kraig:

And the casing itself could be have a different conductivity than the, I guess, you could say core material of the hot dog. And and that alone could cause current to flow separately from it. The other thing that's kind of fun about this experiment is that compared to different types of food, hot dogs are remarkably homogeneous, Like, they are ground to a complete pulp, and then pushed inside of this casing, such that the current is not going to experience any kind of discontinuities in the hot dog or areas of different densities. It's going to be uniform all the way throughout the dog. Right?

Stephen Kraig:

So what's funny is you can make a handful assumptions about your analysis of the conductivity of hotdog such that, like, say, if you cut a hotdog in half and look at the cross section, current would flow uniformly throughout that coin of hotdog, I guess, is is one way to think about it.

Parker Dillmann:

I'm just dying here.

Stephen Kraig:

I'm telling you. We've talked about this.

Parker Dillmann:

I wonder if there's, like, a ISO standard. You know how you can get, like, standardized, like, like there's, like, a standard for peanut butter.

Stephen Kraig:

And you can

Parker Dillmann:

just, like, buy a standard for

Stephen Kraig:

You can buy NIST peanut butter.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I was about to say, yeah. Is there a NIST standard of of hot dog? Is there, like, a NIST dog?

Stephen Kraig:

Oh. I would not be surprised.

Parker Dillmann:

Well, if you type in n I s t hotdog, the national hotdog and sausage council, which is hotdog.org. Really? Wow. How did I not you be a hot dog ambassador, Steven. What?

Parker Dillmann:

How do I how do I sign up for this? It's hotdog it's hot hyphen dog dot org.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, okay. Wait. I was going to hotdog.org. Oh my god.

Parker Dillmann:

They have etiquette about eating hot dogs?

Stephen Kraig:

Wait. How do you hot dog ambassadors. Oh, it's a contest. Oh, wow. An ambassador receives a life time appointment as a hot dog ambassador.

Stephen Kraig:

A wiener warrior t shirt. Okay. Oh my god. How did we get in on this? Oh, well.

Stephen Kraig:

It's it's already over for this is for last year. Okay. We're gonna have to jump on this for this year.

Parker Dillmann:

Okay. So I went to the NIST shop oh, I love this. Shop.nist.gov. Nice. So see if you can get hot dogs.

Parker Dillmann:

No. There's no hot dogs.

Stephen Kraig:

Type in sausage. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Let's see. Sausage? No. So peanut butter might be I wonder what kind of food there is.

Stephen Kraig:

We were joking about seeing if you could make a NIST certified PB and J, buy all the ingredients for it from NIST and and make one, and how much would it cost? If I remember right, peanut butter from NIST, it's $1,143 for 3 small tubs of certified peanut butter.

Parker Dillmann:

They have a lot of weird stuff under food. What is typical diet? What? It's literally a package that's just called typical diet.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, really?

Parker Dillmann:

104 yeah. Called for 840 it's a SKU 1548 b. Typical diet. Well, that's in there.

Stephen Kraig:

Okay. This sucks. Okay. So you can get aquacultured salmon. You can get certified fish for $676, but you can't get a hot dog.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. You can't get a hot dog. What's in what's in typical diet?

Stephen Kraig:

A cow liver is on here.

Parker Dillmann:

There's a lot of weird stuff.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. This is super weird. Oh. Wait. Wait.

Stephen Kraig:

Wait. Wait. Okay. I found an adjacent thing. It's called Meet Homogenate, which is basically -It's not spam.

Stephen Kraig:

It's just Yeah. Exactly. It's like ground up just lifts and other parts. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

That's that's not spam.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Wow. This is this is another $1100 can of spam. You're right. They have a thing called typical diet.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. What is it? The document about it is just it's like a bat it's like a bag of powder that's all the macro and micronutrients you need. Lily, what's in it? So so You can technically just eat that for the rest of your life, and you'll be okay.

Stephen Kraig:

No. No. Do you do you remember in the matrix after they get Neo out of the matrix and he gets onto the Nebuchadnezzar ship and they have to, like, pour out that, like, gruel into a little tub for him? That is typical diet.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. That's typical diets. There's dry cat food.

Stephen Kraig:

A typical diet has point o 1 4 milligrams per kilogram of lead in it.

Parker Dillmann:

You know, a lot of the lot of the vegetables you eat have trace amounts of lead because that it's in the soil.

Stephen Kraig:

Sure. Well, I guess if if you're eating that, it's part of a typical diet then.

Parker Dillmann:

Yep.

Stephen Kraig:

That is funny.

Parker Dillmann:

Adult nutritional formula. How's that any different than typical diets? You know what? I'm not gonna click what's in that. I love how oh, there's some ingredients guide for hot dogs on the national hot dog and sausage committee.

Parker Dillmann:

Council, I should say.

Stephen Kraig:

So in this sorry. Back to back to this report real quick. The typical values of resistance that were found for hot dogs. And and just to be clear, the way they actually the method they did here was not full hot dogs. I think they were pieces of hot dogs.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. They cut up the hot dogs in 5 centimeter.

Stephen Kraig:

5 centimeter segments. Yeah. And and I had

Parker Dillmann:

a they had a specific word for it, though.

Stephen Kraig:

Nuggets. Nuggets. So so in fact okay. So we actually had some more conversations about this at work. Because a hot dog tapers at the end, you would want to create 1 standard dog piece.

Stephen Kraig:

So you had to previously define, like, what is a length of dog that you're willing to measure. The so so yeah. These were cut into cylinders. Right? Now the resistance of a 5 centimeter chunk of hot dog on the low end was 55 milliohms, and on the high end is 93 milliohms.

Stephen Kraig:

So there's not a huge shift in resistance from one test to another. Now that 55 milliohms, excuse me, was after what is it? 240 seconds of current flowing through it. So, effectively, you know, 240 seconds of being cooked. And that 93 milliohms was after 30 seconds of being cooked.

Stephen Kraig:

So, yeah, there there is a shift, not maybe not 50%, a little bit less than 50% shift between those numbers. I wonder if that's how that stacks up from brand to brand. Like, if you go get a Hebrew National and you compare it against the ballpark, are they all gonna be in this range or are you gonna see a huge wide variety of resistance values based off of them? And could you just purely from taking a hot dog, from testing its resistance, could you identify flavors of a brand? So in other words, like, if you if you tested some dogs and you were like, oh, this is a this is a, a 100 milliohm dog.

Stephen Kraig:

I know it's going to be this kind of brine, and I know it's gonna taste like this, or it's gonna have this kind of snap to it. That, I would love to see that kind of conclusion.

Parker Dillmann:

I'm now imagining you going to the ballpark now, and you you're, like, with your multimeter, and you're measuring the Franks. And you're, like, this is not a real ballpark frame. No. No.

Stephen Kraig:

This this is 200 milliohms. I could tell it's gonna be bad.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. This is not an official licensed ballpark, Frank, of the MLB. Steven, I have something You're not gonna like this. Oh. Hot dog association or council.

Parker Dillmann:

They recommend steaming hot dogs, not boiling. Oh, okay. Why is that? Because boiling can split the hot dog.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. I know one of the big things about from Hotdog Enthusiasts is that the case snap is one of the big things. Like, when you bite into it, you want that mouthfeel of the the the case.

Stephen Kraig:

The best part about this is Parker is just losing it on the other side over here.

Parker Dillmann:

You said hot dog enthusiast.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh my god. Oh, we're having

Parker Dillmann:

too much fun with this.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. So so I can understand it. If if if the casing snaps, you know, when it's in the dirty dog water, then it's a it's you've ruined the experience. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

I I love it.

Stephen Kraig:

Okay. Okay. So let let let's let's move on real quick. You had you had mentioned earlier about cooking dogs with AC. So there is a gadget that we've run into that does use AC current for cooking dogs.

Stephen Kraig:

Why don't you introduce the gadget, Parker?

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. The the the presto hotdogger. I love the name of this thing. And I love how so bigclive.com. So weird that's his channel name.

Parker Dillmann:

Bigclive.com. He's done experiments with this device and not actually taken apart. It's literally like a a wire that goes into your AC socket at your house, and it goes right into the hot dog. There's, like, there's nothing in the heat.

Stephen Kraig:

Effectively, you are putting your dog across hot neutral. That's it.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Across mains. Yes. Yep. And it's like it holds I think it holds, like, 6 hot dogs.

Parker Dillmann:

It holds a pack of hot dogs, and it's got a little lid so it you can keep all the the juices from exploding all over the place. Yeah. So my question to you though, Stephen, is is that a pure way to cook a hot dog?

Stephen Kraig:

I I I'm curious what you mean by pure.

Parker Dillmann:

Well, so you're in the boiled hot dog camp. Yeah. Uh-huh. What is your feeling about

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, about that method. Got it. That method of cooking a hot dog. Okay. I've never electrocuted a hot dog and eaten it.

Stephen Kraig:

So I I I can't I can't speak to it fully, but the I think from what I I watched the video of the hotdogger, the presto hotdogger, and they come out looking similar to boiled dogs. They don't plump. They do, however, release a ton of steam. So I'd I I would be worried about them drying out too much and getting kind of tough. But overall, I would say I would have to try it, but I'm skeptically optimistic.

Parker Dillmann:

I mean, don't do this at home, everyone. But you can just take your multimeter probes, stick them in your socket, and put a hotdog between them. Oh, no. What if you took a variac? Oh,

Stephen Kraig:

yeah. If you found out that there was something that was amazing about 72 and a half volts going through a hotdog

Parker Dillmann:

particular brand of hotdog.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

Maybe. The the okay. The thing that's funny about this gadget is it is about as simple as you can get. Like it has a bottom tray and 2 what do you even call them? Just things down in there that have spikes on them.

Stephen Kraig:

Like, big conical spikes. And you take your dog, and you you you you form like a like an arch Arch. Out of your dog. And, you stab them into this thing, and it doesn't make it doesn't make contact until you put the lid on. So there is safety, sort of, involved in this product because the lid itself is what plugs into the wall and it has contacts that when you close the lid it makes contact And and and they claim that the original presto dogger claims it'll cook your dogs in 60 seconds.

Stephen Kraig:

Which the funny thing about that is, if you're grilling dogs, you can grill a dog in 60 seconds. You're not really saving a lot with this and as long as your standards are pretty low, you can microwave a dog in 60 seconds. Right? So I don't know. Like, did this No.

Stephen Kraig:

This is what me scratches an itch that wasn't there.

Parker Dillmann:

This is really funny. We bring up microwaving hot dogs. So what me and my dad do is we'll take sausage and hot dogs, and we'll we'll pan fry them or grill them. So if we have the grill on, like, we're cooking, like, steaks or something, we'll just throw sausage or hot dogs on on, like, the side. Right?

Stephen Kraig:

Sure. Okay.

Parker Dillmann:

Cook them. And then put them in the refrigerator. And then during the week, you grab you grab it out, and it's already charred, ready to go. You put it in tortilla, put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and then squirt mustard on it. Boom.

Parker Dillmann:

Ready to go.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. It's a fast meal.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. But it it's you microwave it after the fact. But you you it's interesting because a lot of these products are also precooked, so you're cooking it again on the grill and then cooking it again in the microwave.

Stephen Kraig:

It's really cute. My my nephew when he was young, we used to ask him if he want a hot dog, and he would just be like, no. No. I just want a dog. He didn't want you to cook it.

Stephen Kraig:

He wanted it to be cold. So he didn't want a hot dog. He just wanted out of the package and just give it to him. Yeah. He was into that.

Stephen Kraig:

But frozen? No. Not frozen, but like, you know, you have a hot dog pack in the fridge. He wanted it. He liked cold hot dogs.

Stephen Kraig:

So he didn't want a hot dog. He just wanted a dog.

Parker Dillmann:

He just wanted a dog.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Okay. I'm I'm imagining, like, we need to make an alignment chart for ways to cook hot dogs, and that's like neutral chaos.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. No. Yeah. No. That's yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

Chaotic neutral. Right? Like Chaotic neutral is just dog out of the pack. Open the package, put it in the mouth. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Refrigerator temp. 4 what would be, like, 38, 40 degrees.

Stephen Kraig:

So so where does the Presto hotdogger fit in the alignment chart?

Parker Dillmann:

Oh, chaotic evil.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Absolutely. K. Wait. Wait.

Stephen Kraig:

It would be chaotic evil if if, like, in this video that, was posted, you don't run it on a 120 volts. You run it on 240 and and just completely obliterate the dogs.

Parker Dillmann:

What what's the other one? It's like what the other alignment charts? It's like, like, functionally, I think, and then chart functional.

Stephen Kraig:

I'm not I'm coming up as a blank. I really don't know what you're talking about.

Parker Dillmann:

No. You've seen these before.

Stephen Kraig:

I got I mean,

Parker Dillmann:

I'm I'm

Stephen Kraig:

sure I have.

Parker Dillmann:

Oh, function function versus form. So, one axis, it's it's function purest, function neutral, function like rebel chaos, and the other one's form purist, form neutral, form chaos.

Stephen Kraig:

Okay.

Parker Dillmann:

That's probably a better alignment chart for for this. Because, like, true neutral would be, like, boiled dog.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. I could see that. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Or maybe, like, form purest, functional purest is, like well, that'd be, like, steamedog. Right? Like Yeah. The way it's intended, it's also, like, really functional to do it. Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

You you're right. Kinda like what you're saying earlier, like, the pure way of cooking a dog.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. But also it's, like, functionally in the form. Right. Those alignment charts are always great. We should make one of those for I'll I'll actually I will make one of those for the featured image of the spot.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. The banner image. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

The banner image will be a alignment chart of cooking hot dogs Because there's all because there's there's there's the presto hotdogger, but we have a an instant hot dog device that was put into our, it it was an instant hot dog device for it was on YouTube that used thermite to cook a hot to boil a hot dog, basically. I think we talked about that before, though, on the podcast.

Stephen Kraig:

Have we? The the the video for this is is fantastic. It's about 30 minutes long, and it's it's worth every minute of it because it goes pretty deep into the engineering and, actually, the chemistry of finding like the right mix of thermite for cooking a dog properly. And and the end of it is they come up with like a survival dog kit where you have you have the apparatus that contains a dog and ever whenever you whenever you want it, you just ignite the thermite. Okay.

Stephen Kraig:

At the beginning of the episode though, they they mentioned something and I really thought they were gonna go this route, but I also don't know how like this would be a hell of an engineering challenge. They mentioned that they the original thought was to have a hot dog that acted like a glow stick where you crack the hot dog and then it just starts cooking, and and then you can eat it. But how you could do that and still make it food safe is Yeah. That's the challenge. Right?

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. They they tried putting

Parker Dillmann:

they've they tried, like, bore scoping or coring out a hot dog, and they put thermite in there.

Stephen Kraig:

Rifle not rifling. What what's it called when when they drill like, they do the long drill of of rifles? A bore? Yeah. But Rifling.

Stephen Kraig:

That it's called rifling. It is called Well, rifling is adding the the spiral rifles on it. I thought it had a deep deep drill, something like that. I don't remember. But yeah, they they did they were doing that with hot dogs and trying to replace the core with something that could cook the dog.

Stephen Kraig:

And they ended up just like charring everything they tried.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I wonder why they didn't try, like, the presto hotdog method, and, like, a lithium battery pack, and you're like maybe that was too easy. Because you could just, you know, DC to AC converter, a Presto hot dog, dogger, and now you have a portal like, an instant hot dog on the go.

Stephen Kraig:

What's coming to mind? You know you know the little wall packs that you use for rechargeable batteries. I'm thinking Oh, yeah. Yeah. But they

Parker Dillmann:

just got hot dogs in the house. Yeah. Yeah. Where it has, like, the spring loaded clip on the end? Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

I'm gonna be honest.

Stephen Kraig:

Load up your trip your your double and triple a dogs into it and just click a button and it cooks up.

Parker Dillmann:

Cooks your dogs up.

Stephen Kraig:

Honestly, that okay, the chemistry behind the thermite stick that they made was fascinating, and that's really cool. But I think you're right. Electrically is considerably easier, especially given the research that was already done on the specific conductivity of dogs and what it takes to cook them. On top of that, if you had an electric cooker like that, you could have it solar charged. So so so you could recharge the battery and be ready for the next dog.

Stephen Kraig:

Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Every every week, you have enough charge to cook a dog.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

You know, I actually, I'm thinking about this more, is what I would would have done. So the part the problem with the presto cooker is it like it, like, it's not a humane way of cooking a hotdog. It's aggressive.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. It's not gentle is what you mean.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But what if we went we combined this this paper, this research study. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Because they were they put it in they were boiling the dog. Right? But so what you do is you and it's combined with this other the instant hot dog device. So it's a chamber of water. So you put the hot dog in there, and at the bottom is a spike.

Parker Dillmann:

And it's you spike the hot dog. And then on the other end is the other spike. Right? When you pass the current through the spikes, which heats up the dog, but to keep it under control, this is like a nuclear reactor. It like, the and the dog's the is the is the neutral what is it called?

Parker Dillmann:

The the fuel rod? Yeah. Right. Because passing electricity, but then the the water keeps it the temperature under control to a certain extent. Oh, that's brilliant.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. And and here's the thing. You still get a boiled dog. It's just You still get a boiled dog. It's just the what's funny is in this situate if you if you put dogs in a in a pan and put them on the stove, the method of cooking them is the heat gets into the water, which then heats the dog.

Stephen Kraig:

But in this situation, we have the spikes, the dog heats the water. Right? Yeah. It's it's it's a little bit backwards. But the nice thing about that too is if you need to cook more than 1 dog, the second one wouldn't take as long because the water's already, you know, it's already yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

I wanna try this now. How do I safely because I definitely don't wanna stick, like, multimeter probes into a a hot dog and then toss it in some water and then plug it into my wall. I do have a Variaq, which makes it a little more safe.

Stephen Kraig:

Light bulb limiter. Put a light bulb in series with a hot dog, and that that limits the amount of current that the dog can consume from mains directly.

Parker Dillmann:

It's cleaning up all those electrons.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I guess if it's, because like they're saying that the well, if the Presto cooker works and doesn't trip like a 15 amp breaker, it should be fine.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. Let's try that out. Minimum amount of current needed to cook a hotdog. I guess what what needs to be defined there is what does it mean when a dog is cooked? Because they're precooked.

Stephen Kraig:

You're really just warming them. Right?

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I think what it is is so, like, what's the temperature of the hot dog from, like, your fridge going up to the temperature you're gonna take them out of the bath? So, like, the jewel increase, how much energy you put into the hot dog. Right? And that's how much work that's how much work you put into the hot dog.

Stephen Kraig:

I mean, we're laughing, but it's true.

Parker Dillmann:

That's exactly what's going on. Oh, man.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah.

Parker Dillmann:

I'm gonna try I'm gonna try the reverse boiled dog idea. So using the dog as the element, And so it's like the Presto hot dog maker and but it reg it's self regulating because it's in a it's in the water bath. I bet you that would work. I bet you it would. Unless unless, like, you might have to it might be a point where, like, the water becomes more conductive than the dog because of all the dog water.

Parker Dillmann:

That might become a problem.

Stephen Kraig:

Yes. Yes. You're you're right. And at that point but that's self regulating. Right?

Stephen Kraig:

Because then the temperature would decrease at that point because you're just passing all the current through the water. So so you you Well, no.

Parker Dillmann:

Because it would because your electrodes are in the water too. So it would just jump around the dog. Yeah. I guess it would just heat up I guess it would just heat up the water and it also didn't heat up the dog. Right.

Stephen Kraig:

But but the the what is it? Specific heat. The specific heat of a dog has gotta be different than the specific heat of water. So they so if if given long enough, they reach some kind of equilibrium. Right?

Stephen Kraig:

And maybe, just maybe, that equilibrium point is the tastiest dog you've ever had. Yeah. We might be on to something here, Parker. I mean, I wonder

Parker Dillmann:

So I'm wondering about the power calculation here. So, like, the Presto is on a 120 volts times it's probably like, how much power is that Presto cooker make? Presto hotdogger power consumption. I mean I can't believe I can't believe I'm googling this.

Stephen Kraig:

But okay. But let's say let's say you've you've loaded it with one dog. And and, hey, we know the resistance of a 5 centimeter chunk of dog.

Parker Dillmann:

So someone's done the preliminary work on in instructables. Who is this? Umologist. Thank you for providing I'm gonna put this in our show notes so that we have it for later. What it costs to cook a dog is what it so this is how much electricity it takes to cook a dog and how much it costs.

Parker Dillmann:

That's the experiment. So they act he's running an exp or they are running an experiment on different oh, how much it costs different ways to cook a hot dog. Oh, okay. Like, charcoal, gas grill, electric stove. Oh, charcoal stove.

Stephen Kraig:

Most expensive for sure.

Parker Dillmann:

Electrocution of a hot dog is the cheapest way.

Stephen Kraig:

I'm not surprised.

Parker Dillmann:

You can cook 19 and a half hotdogs for 1¢ on a presto hotdogger. That's the economical way.

Stephen Kraig:

For 1¢.

Parker Dillmann:

But, you average a 126 watts. Cooking a hotdog on a on a presto. So a 100 so you're actually only putting about an amp into the dog. That's a lot lower than I thought.

Stephen Kraig:

That is a lot lower given the resistance values that were measured in that paper.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. I wonder if they were using higher voltage to measure it. What voltages were they?

Stephen Kraig:

Let me look here. 2.6. 2.6 volts. That's it? 2.6 volts, and that netted them, you know, in the thirties to 40 amps.

Parker Dillmann:

I bet you because they're probably measuring with DC. I bet you're the alternating current and the

Stephen Kraig:

So what are you saying wait. Are you saying the DC resistance and the impedance of a dog are that different?

Parker Dillmann:

I bet you they are way different.

Stephen Kraig:

Have we found the 4th fundamental electronic component? A hot dog? A hot dog.

Parker Dillmann:

Oh, man. I think when you wrap this podcast Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

Yeah. This has been stupid for long enough. Yeah. Thanks to all of those who are still hanging on listening to this. Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

We we got to have fun with this one.

Parker Dillmann:

I think we should have a poll about when this episode does come out, a poll on different ways how people like to cook hot dogs.

Stephen Kraig:

Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. What is your favorite way? I'm I'm gonna I'm just gonna go out on a limb. I think everyone's favorite way is grilling.

Parker Dillmann:

That is how they market them.

Stephen Kraig:

True. That is true.

Parker Dillmann:

My favorite way, even though I I like grilling them. I I actually like pan frying.

Stephen Kraig:

Pan frying is good too.

Parker Dillmann:

Yeah. Yeah. Pan frying is good. Though if I was gonna if I make mac and cheese, I always put hot dogs in them. I I boil the dog.

Parker Dillmann:

Yep. Slices of it, at least.

Stephen Kraig:

Make little coins and dog.

Parker Dillmann:

Coins and dog. I like that coins and dog.

Stephen Kraig:

That sounds like an indie band. Yeah. Coin's a

Parker Dillmann:

dog. Yeah.

Stephen Kraig:

Alright. Let's go ahead and wrap this up. So once again, thank you for listening to the very end. So that was circuit break from Macrofab. We were your host, Steven Craig.

Parker Dillmann:

And Parker Doman.

Stephen Kraig:

Take it easy.

Parker Dillmann:

Later, everyone. Thank you. Yes. You are a listener for downloading and listening to our hot dog cooking podcast. Tell your friends and coworkers about Circuit Break the podcast.

Parker Dillmann:

Well, we usually talk about electronics, but this time pot the hot dogs. If you have a cool idea, project, or topic, or unusual way to cook hot dogs, and you want us to discuss it, we'll we'll gladly talk about hot dogs dogs again for another hour. Let Steven and I and the community know our community where you can find personal projects, discussions about the podcast, engineering topics, and news, and ways to cook hot dogs is located atform.macfab.com.