Each stun, of about 110 volts, delivers a shock that immediately and effectively disables the lobster’s nervous system, allowing you to brain-stab or boil with no fear that you’ll be going to some sort of hell presided over by giant lobsters in which you’re boiled alive and served with a delicious lemon-butter-caper sauce and maybe some kind of side salad, even though you know the lobster that ends up eating you is going to ignore the salad because hello, human! Delicious!

The lobster taser is officially, and disappointingly, called the CrustaStun. Opportunity missed, Lobster Taser Inventors. [MAKE]

Portable Induction Cooktop: I always assumed getting into induction cooking meant gutting your kitchen and calling in some expensive Euro gear. But the truth is, getting a plug-in induction burner is an easy, affordable way to get into a cooking science that’s already taken off in other parts of the world. Wired’s Mark McClusky told us that Max Burton was a good ‘un, and you know, I’m actually pretty tempted to buy one for myself. Just make sure your gift recipient has steel pots and pans, ’cause aluminium doesn’t do the magical magnetic thing. $US75 [Athena Brands]

All-Edge Brownie Pan: For anyone who loves the crunchy-chewy edge of the brownies that touch the pan’s outer wall, this is absolutely the gift. However, as we learned, there are legions who feel the exact opposite, that edges should be soft and knife-cut only. For them, this gift would be a hand-holdable version of hell itself. $US35 [ThinkGeek]

Stick Blender: Good lord what would I do without my stick blender? Soups sure wouldn’t be the same, nor jams, nor sauces. It saves you from having to transfer hot ingredients to and from your blender, where you risk 12 different kinds of third-degree burn. Of course, it takes a steady hand, and someone smart enough to not stick their finger where the spinning blade is, so choose your gift recipient wisely. I found out while researching this that my own 400W Braun may well be discontinued, and if it’s not, it costs an arm and a leg. (I think it was a wedding present.) In lieu of that, go with the Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick. It’s cheap and a much better gift. $30 [Cuisinart]

A Window Fan, Air Filters and Bungie Cords: What better experience to offer your favourite food nerd than a DIY home dehydrator, the most foolproof Alton Brown hack we know of? Throw some meat in between the filters, run the fan overnight, and in the morning you got jerky. And we know for certain it’s foolproof because our own Macgyver Chef tried it out and didn’t die! Our only recommendation is to find out what your recipient already has — if they have it all, just buy the meat and point them to the guide. $US30 to $US40 [Alton Brown's Recipe; Our MacGyver Chef Experience]

My Weigh KD-7000 Digital Scale: Don’t let the corny Frank Sinatra reference fool you, this scale is what pros favour (at least for their home cooking). The My Weigh line is a tad confusing, but our friend Michael Ruhlman says the KD-7000 is the one with “percentage” weighing, so you can bake in precise weight ratios rather than imprecise volume measurements. Best of all, for what it does, it’s really not expensive. $US38 [My Weigh]

Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown: The commander-in-chief of food nerds just published a cookbook that mirrors his show, so you can skim to find the tips and recipes in episodes like “Squid Pro Quo” and “American Pickle”. It’s way better than trying to recreate things by looking at the Brown’s barebones Food Network recipe listings. The book covers the first 80 shows, so it’s got a crazy variety of themes to get the apprentice kitchen whiz on your list started. $US22 [Book Review; Amazon]

PolyScience Immersion Circulator plus a Vacuum Sealer for Sous Vide Cooking When I asked Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas what a great long-shot fantasy kitchen gift would be, he said, without hesitating, a sous vide set up. This style of “cooking in a vacuum” relies on a precision water bath to get your meat or other ingredients to exactly the right temperature, with zero risk of overcooking. The setup is insanely expensive, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could risk sharing some food-borne illnesses. But what does all that amount to against the spirit of Christmas gift giving? From $US1000 [ Circulator Kit with Thomas Keller's Guide]

DON’T BUY a Knife Sharpener: Confession: Two years ago for Christmas I gave my in-laws a knife sharpener, and that same year I got one from my wife. We thought we were the coolest. But now we know the truth, in the form of dull knives. When I interviewed Alton Brown this summer and asked him if he’d ever use one, he replied, “If I had any knives I hated that bad, sure.” This year, I have asked my wife for professional knife sharpening. I’ll let you know how that turns out. [Good and Bad Kitchen Gadgets]

This list is by no means comprehensive, so go ahead and comment on any potential kitchen-oriented gift that strikes you as a good idea.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favourite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We’ll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

[Brando]

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]

[jenntotten via Geekologie]

[Mmmvelopes via Uncrate]

Of course, instead of crushing or impaling, these walls toast your bread to death. The crumby lifeblood falls into the pan below and can be easily removed and cleaned for the next victim. Again, Product Tank is only a concept, but it has potential. [Product Tank via Core77]

Essentially, it’s a polyurethane cage full of goodies that you store in the fridge and secure with a combination lock (included). Of course, there’s nothing preventing thieves from stealing the entire cage and working on it later with a hacksaw, but that’s a lot of trouble to go through for last night’s leftovers. [Perpetual Kid via RGS via OhGizmo]

Flickr user kmkelley617’s bacon lamp is real and it’s (mostly) edible. The shade is made out of 99 per cent hand-woven bacon which was then baked as a mould in the oven, probably so kmkelley617 wouldn’t find himself violently ill should he get mouthy in the middle of a spontaneous-yet-inevitable man-on-lamp lovemaking session.

The only room we see for improvement is to replace that light bulb with something of a higher wattage so the lamp becomes a dual bacon idol/bacon cooker, rather than solely the former.

[flickr via Oddity Central via The Presurfer via technabob]

Pizza Hut may have announced that they were going to launch their iPhone app in Australia last month, but Domino’s has gone and launched their own app, and if you can stomach the thought of eating their pizza, it looks pretty sweet.

You get full customisation of the pizza, plus the ability to track your order and know when it’s being made and when it’s en route. You can select anything from the Dominos menu, including pasta and desserts.

The app is a free download. Definitely worth checking out if you eat Domino’s pizza.

[Domino's iPhone app (iTunes link)]