Cost: $50.30 Attention! This ain’t no toy. It’s a lean, mean, flame-throwing machine. Of course, while not a toy, we still have a lot of fun with ours. All that glorious butane makes us feel powerful. And, the many ways we use our kitchen torch make us feel like the culinary avant-garde. Once upon a time, we’d see a kitchen torch on a wedding registry and scoff. “How many times can one couple make crème brulee?” we’d ask. It seemed like a novelty: one of those things that people got, then immediately lost forever in a drawer. How wrong we were. First, we discounted the awesomeness of homemade crème brulee. It’s legit. Second, and more importantly, we underestimated the kitchen torch’s utility, especially when it comes to modernist cooking. Last year, we got a Sous Vide Supreme. Sous vide, a...

Lobels sent us a Frenched Rack of Lamb. We packed it with butter, rosemary, thyme and mint and cooked it sous vide at 134°F for three hours. It delivered lamb at every-inch medium rare.

Can we admit something? We ordinarily use a gas grill. It’s just more convenient. It heats up quickly. It cooks reliably. We miss charcoal, though, because of the unrivalled flavor. Nothing beats a hamburger on a charcoal grill. So, we do own one and break it out whenever the itch to feel authentic strikes us. That’s why we recommend the Rösle Stainless-Steel Charcoal Chimney. With great speed, it transforms charcoal from licorice black to heather gray. It does so evenly and without chemicals. Your food absorbs the heat and flavor with any residual lighter-fluid taste.