Noah Feehan looked at his raw steak one day and thought “What if I plug some composite video into that hunk o’ meat?” So he did just that. Turns out that it lets him judge when the steak’s perfectly cooked.

If you have nothing better to do, it looks like you could easily imitate this project at home. Just keep in mind that chicken and fish apparently don’t “present an easily-readable image” on the screen. [Eat Me Daily via Kottke]

The Barbeque is part of the No Screw No Glue line by designers Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk. [Mocoloco]

The design of the Gyrofocus fireplace may be 40 years old, but it was still striking enough to be voted the “world’s most beautiful object” at this year’s Pulchra design competition. [Focus Creation via Gizmodo]

The Conmoto suitcase fireplace allows you to bring warmth and ambiance wherever you go (the casing is weather resistant so even the outdoors isn’t off limits). Conmoto is fuelled by a small tank of bio-ethanol that burns for 2.5 to 3.5 hours. [Unica Home via Gizmodo]

A fire pit built into your coffee table gives city folk all of the benefits of a campfire without actually having to venture out into the wilderness. I’m thinking s’mores. [Opulent Items]

The Lumos is more than an outdoor fireplace, it’s also a grill. Keep the chimney up and you have ambiance, flip it down and you have delicious meat cooking over charcoal. In other words, it warms you up inside and out. [Leenders via Gizmodo]

If NASA ever designed a portable fireplace (or a urinal), it might look something like the Piet. [Cavallius Design via Gizmodo]

The fireplace should be the focal point of the room, and the Skloib TV Drehturm allows you to stay true to that philosophy without compromising on the placement of your television. [Skloib via Gizmodo]

I have always wanted a woodfired pizza oven in my backyard, but not quite enough to commit the time and expense to building one myself. If you are willing, Forno Bravo has provided info on how to build an oven like the one pictured here. [Forno Bravo via Flickr via Gizmodo]

High pressure propane burners like this one are often associated with frying turkeys, but the truth is you can cook a lot of awesome stuff with it. I would suspect that a high percentage of people (like me) use these to homebrew 20-litre batches of all-grain beer. [Amazon]

These gigantic bear claw matches are as close as you will get to a guarantee on lighting a fire. The built-in kindling is a big plus, although the colourful, crayon-esque heads could be an invitation for your children to embark on an artistic disaster. [KM Match via Gizmodo]

The Wicked Torch is kind of like a cross between a flashlight, a lighter and a stove. At 4100 lumens, it is the brightest flashlight on the face of the earth according to Guinness. It’s also hot enough to burn paper, light cigarettes and cook eggs.

ZERO G!!!!!!

SPICE RACK!!!!!

YOU HAVEN’T TASTED SPICE UNTIL YOU’VE TASTED IT IN ZERO G!!

ZERO G!!!!!

THE CANISTERS STICK UPSIDE DOWN!!!

ZERO G!!!

THE TASTE IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!!

ZERO G!!!!

COOL!!!

ZERO G!!!

“Hey mum, this saffron just turned me into an astronaut!”

ZERO G!!!

SPICE RACK!!!

THE SPACE RACE JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT TASTIER. [Yanko Design via Boing Boing's Lisa Katayama, who came up with the brilliant product title]

My point is: What’s the fun of using a machine like the Kenwood Cooking Chef—which can cook at temperatures between 20C and 140C while stirring at three different speeds—to cook a risotto? Where is the fun in that when the alternative is doing it yourself alongside your loved one, improvising, sharing a nice wine, music and conversation, waiting for your friends to arrive?

I rest my case. [Daily Mail via Dvice]

AUGMENTED FREAKIN’ REALITY!!!!!

Remember back when butter, flour and sugar were enough? Now our appetite has grown so vast that we’ll be consuming Pokémon, movie advertisements and Nascar figurines in no time. Just wait for it: A bowl of Doritos topped with Viagra coupons is just an ad campaign away. [Mike Clare and Tellart viaMAKE]

I mean, what could be more logical? Take a cooking tool that’s fundamentally designed to have a large surface area for fast cooking and easy food flipping, then shrink it to unusably lilliputian proportions.

In all fairness, this $US90, 6-piece mini-wok set is adorable. But if you buy it, you officially throw too many cutesy parties (because even one is one too many). Instead, save the money, dig a hole in your living room and throw a proper pig roast. Or just buy a hot pot that all of your friends can share (whatever works best for your particular value set and architectural budget). [Pro Idee via Random Good Stuff]

Do you love eating? Do you love amusingly complex machinery? If the answer is yes on both counts, get a load of Eat Me Daily’s list of the top ten food-based Rube Goldberg Machines.

Warning: watching these videos may result in hunger and the song Powerhouse by Raymond Scott playing over and over in your head (especially the second part). [Eat Me Daily]

Or better yet, do what I do: Forget this thing and take out one of those archaic dead tree cookbooks, turn a few pages, and read the mysterious “ink” that resides on them.

No? Still craving the frame? OK, then some details… The $US271 8-inch digital frame plays 48 instructional videos featuring chef Brian Turner. The action can be controlled by the included remote control, which we hope is waterproof or otherwise protected from flying food in some way.

When not in use, say the day after Christmas when this goes into the closet forever, the frame doubles as a calendar and photo frame. Bon appétit, chumps! [Appliancist via Engadget]

It’s a mere design concept, sadly, as we don’t have the science of growing animal proteins quite figured out yet. But Electrolux is serious about making it a reality, giving the designer a $US7347 prize and a six-month paid internship at their design centre. Will this someday result in Cocoon-grown steaks? One can only hope. [Daily Mail via Fast Company]