[Sca-cooks] Creme Brulee

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Druighad at aol.com wrote:

> Use a blowtorch(acetalyne- sp) to melt the
> sugar into a nice crisp crust.

Can anybody absolutely confirm ever having used an acetylene torch, or a
blowtorch (both very specific items I have never seen in either a home
or commercial kitchen)? I ask because acetylene gas will not easily burn
on its own, without either mixing it with oxygen (which creates a flame
that would ridiculously too hot for creme bruleee, unless you want to
weld a steel lid onto the container) or feeding it, along with a
separate tank of oxygen, through a mixing valve, hose and nozzle.

I have, however, often seen fairly ordinary propane tanks (about the
size of a large aerosol can) from the hardware store, with a torch
nozzle mounted on it, used for this purpose.

So are people just assuming all torches are blowtorches, or that all
torches contain oxy-acetylene, or acetylene alone, or is this just some
kind of linguistic shortcut, or are there a lot of things going on in
people's kitchens that I'm unaware of?

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98