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Originally Posted by rsl12
All of this is possible to do without a flame--candy factories don't need actual fire to make caramel or hard candies.
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??? Hard candies and burnt sugar are two different things. The caramel you are thinking of (caramel creme) is different from caramelized sugar. These factories don't need actual fire to make those two candies because they are not anything like a caramelized sugar coating.
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The flame in creme brulee is heating up the creme brulee itself. Or, more specifically, just the top of it, while the delicate custard below stays intact. That the end of a blowtorch is flaming is not important--what's important is that the end of the blowtorch is very very hot!
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I'm confused as to what your point is. The reason you use flame is not just because it is hot, but because it is hot
in a localized area. If you stuck a creme brule in the oven, you wouldn't get the same result because 1) the entire dish would be heated evenly and 2) the flame is hotter.
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In contrast, the flame from a sauce with alcohol should have little heating effect on the food itself.
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Why? Stick your hand in the bowl the next time you ignite brandy and you'll see that, in fact, alcohol does not produce heatless fire.
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It's the mix of alcohol vapor and oxygen that makes the reaction possible--the flame occurs *above* the food, not on it, and since heat rises, I doubt that it heats up your food more than what your frying pan can produce on its own (after all, if you have a gas range, your frying pan is already sitting on top of a flame).
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First, "heat" does not rise - heated gasses are more bouyant than non-heated gasses. Infrared radiation goes which ever way it is pointing. If your premise were correct, fast food restaurants would stick burgers
under heat lamps and end up with cold burgers. If you want to demonstrate this, go stick your hand under a match. You'll find that infrared radiation does indeed travel downward as well. So you are getting a heating effect on the food from the fire above it.
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Moreover, the flame is short-lived--I've never had one from a sauce last longer than 10 seconds. When making a creme brulee, you can spend a minute with a blowtorch to get the right reaction!
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And you'll notice that you are not getting burnt granules with your alcohol-flamed sauces.