Kitchen Blowtorch

Have you ever watched a cooking show and saw the way chefs used a gun-like kitchen tool throwing flames on dish or dessert like a superhero and wished you could do it as well?

The amazing tool chefs are using is called a kitchen blowtorch with alternative names like cooking torch or culinary torch and it is a type of butane torch. Now a day’s kitchen blowtorch is becoming a progressively most familiar tool both for professionals as well as house cooks. Kitchen blowtorch is like a portable salamander or broiler, to heat up the upper part of foodstuff. This can develop flame that can be of temperatures as high as 1430 degree Celsius (2,610 F). The nude flame of a blowtorch can get hotter than griller, so it’s immense for all forms of caramelizing, charring and browning. This can be used to bring out textures and flavours in the food you cook, with techniques that involve using the kitchen blowtorch.

Furthermore, a Blowtorch can brown one part of food item, without heating the rest of foodstuff. The typical use of blowtorch is for caramelizing the top surface on Crème Brulee, It is best to go slowly, when browning the Crème Brulee, you have to keep the flame moderately close to the sugar, and move gradually. The sugar should bubble up, and then brown. Not only these kitchen torches are essential for crafting that delicate, gorgeous crust on top of Crème Brulee, but it can also be enormously helpful for easy peeling of the vegetables like tomatoes, peppers after charring the skin – quick blow up with blowtorch is much faster and easier than roasting it in the oven for 20 minutes or putting below the salamander or broiler. Burn the flesh of eggplant to give it smoky taste, and smoking herbs to bring out their flavors, roast chillies and corn, melt cheese on top of French Onion Soup or pastas without having to turn the oven on.

One of the most popular practice with a blowtorch is finishing meat dishes that has been cooked using sous vide cooking. The sous vide method cooks the meat absolutely the same temperature throughout. Then removed from the bag chef has to char the meat to develop texture, flavour, and color contrast on its exterior. While chef prefers to use a hot cast-iron saucepan for a rib eye steak, using kitchen blowtorch works better for a rack of lamb. Thomas Keller was the first who used blowtorch in this way, by just running it over the surface of meat to craft a brown exterior. The high direct heat of kitchen blowtorch can be also used to crisp skin from meat, poultry or fish. Use kitchen blowtorch on sushi to sear the fish, not to cook it. It is excellent to start with fish at room temperature or little chilled. It is also important to char the fish on top surface and only on one side; otherwise the fish can overcook.

In addition, controlled heat applied by kitchen blowtorch makes it ideal for unmoulding chilled desserts such as cheesecake, jellies or ice creams.  It is also helpful to warm up knives to modestly cut through frozen foods. To caramelize sugar on pieces of  fresh fruits, peel and slice the fruit, lay it out on baking tray or sheet, sprinkle a thin layer of white sugar on every piece, then apply the torch flame. This type of fruit can be used as topping or garnish for lots of desserts, such as open faced custard pies. Crisping the bacon for your breakfast, toasting marshmallows during camping, to brown classy dessert like meringues, particularly on dishes such as Baked Alaska etc

Accordingly, the list can go on and on but before you go beyond about all the use of kitchen blowtorches, you should know that there are other uses also besides cooking or making desserts; you can do with kitchen blowtorches. Blowtorches can also be used to craft exciting drinks at a cocktail bar, to light a cigar, smolder zinc or silver plating on jewelry, or be used to melt acrylics on your art project. As you can observe, a simple kitchen blowtorch can open to access a world of possibilities as long as you stay creative, innovative and let your imagination flow more.

Properly speaking, we kitchen people have a tendency to call a “Blowtorch” is actually a “butane torch” or “propane torch”. Authentic blowtorch has large tank, fuel use in this kerosene or acetylene, and is used for cutting metal. Chef can use Blowtorches designed for cooking purpose, or larger ones from hardware stores.

Therefore, kitchen blowtorches are fuelled by gasses butane or propane, so be little careful when using them in cooking. Today, kitchen blowtorches come with different features and designs, as well as easy to use and safe. Advancement in technology has given many modern blowtorches fitted with safety locks, features with flame control, pin-point flames. There are few types of kitchen blowtorches in market, with refillable cylinders, non-slip handle grips. Various Blowtorches are self-igniting, and some have simple on / off buttons that you just activate via thumb. Many will have safety locks so that it cannot accidentally turn on while handling. Safety is important when working with naked flame. Always light the blowtorch before blowing on raw food to avoid the risk of getting raw fuel on the food while igniting the flame. To use safely, obviously do not touch flame and always confirm the gas has been switched off before leaving blowtorch. Make sure no flammable material is nearby such as alcohol, and place the foodstuff on a metal tray before blowtorching.

In fact, the best technique to apply flame of a blowtorch on food material is sweeping motion, where the flame goes gradually back and forth across the exterior to equally ‘scorch’ the food surface. Do not focus too long on one area, because the food may burn. Kitchen Blowtorches do not hold lot of fuel, so chefs have to use this for things they really want it for, and if you are using on small quantities, such as roasting 1 or 2 chillies. If you are using anything in large quantity, then probably have to turn to other methods.

(The Author is is Chef Trainer & Assistant Professor, Faculty of Hotel & Tourism Management SGT University, Gurugram)