A blow torch? In the Kitchen?  Hell. Yes.
 

Like many of us I am willing to bet you are a fan of a nice seared crust.  A good crust on a standing rib roast, or on the caramelized sugar on top of a creme brulee.  Developing the flavors is a great way to elevate your cooking and impress friends an family.  Like most things in the kitchen though we’ve come to find out that there is a right way and a wrong way – or in this case right tool and wrong tool for this job.  At any number of kitchen and home goods shops you will find this spiffy little gem:

Creme Brulee Torch

It is small, uses a easily manageable canister, and is purpose built for this job.  Only it doesn’t work.  This is the exact opposite of what you want for the jobs described above.  For roughly 50% of the cost you can get a tool that is ten times more effective.  Your common home improvement store blow torch.  Yes that is right, it is cheaper and far more effective.  The only downside is that they can be a little more finicky to light that the sur-la-table version.  Now since that version won’t brulee anything more than sugar the fact that it lights more easily than than a standard blow torch is rather moot.  Here is what you need in all of its glory (along with the rib roast I recently used it on).

Blow Torch Rib Roast Prep

The applications for this tool in the kitchen are far more varied than you’d think.  We’ve mentioned searing big roasts and making deserts but it is also handy as a “hand held broiler” for those times the oven is occupied.  Or generally any time you’d like something to be a little crispier.