Christmas is a time for giving...

Nonsense! Christmas is a time for setting fire to things - as demonstrated last year.


This year's exploits involved less fire but a lot more smoke.

This device is called a salamander iron, but is usually sold as a creme brulee iron, which gives a clue to its function. Before the days of miniature blowlamps and electric grills this was how you got that nice dark caramel on top of your creme brulee. As you can see, the iron is heated until very hot...

then pressed onto the brown sugar on top of the brulee. White sugar does not work nearly as well due, L thinks, to its higher melting point. There is much bubbling and LOTS of smoke...

and here's the result.