I actually have a book of electrical things for boys
to make which
 suggests makine a sausage cooker that simply connects said sausages
 across the (110V) mains. Hmmm.... 
 You really need a scanner - I'd love to see
that :-) 
 
 When I was in university (70s), I had a hot-dog cooker which cooked
 weiners by connecting them across the 110v AC mains. This was a
 commercially produced device.
 [snip] 
 
that's fantastic! :-) (someone should start a website for general oddball
engineering/electrical gadgets...)