How do you go about skinning a tomato with a cooking torch? You may laugh out loud at the idea, but it is interesting to note that cigar lighters are actually becoming the gourmet's "tool of choice" for many kitchen processes. From browning the top of a gorgeous meringue to putting the finishing touches on a flawlessly cooked steak, these high-quality torches are amazingly helpful.

So, back to the question about cigar lighters and tomato skins...if you have ever had to peel tomatoes you know that there are really only two ways it happens. You can score the bottom with a small X, put the tomato into a pan of boiling water, let the skin loosen for a few moments and then quickly pull the tomato out of the water and plunge it into icy cold water. After that you have to roll up your sleeves and begin pulling the now puckered skin off of the fruit. Messy, cold, and no fun at all!

If you are not using torch lighters in order to peel the skins from tomatoes, it means that you are using the regular method of boiling and submerging the fruit in an ice bath. Here's how that works: you score the bottom of every tomato with an X, you submerge them into the boiling water bath and estimate the amount of time needed to loosen the skin, you pull the tomatoes from the boiling water and slip them into a pre-made ice water bath. You wait a bit for the fruit to cool and you then begin to work at removing the skin by hand. Lots of guesswork and even some extra work to get skin that wasn't properly loosened from the fruit, not a nice job to tackle.

How? Picture this approach - you jab the tomato on the end of a meat fork or skewer and then use one of the high quality cigar lighters to begin blistering the skin and forcing it to peel from the flesh. This is similar to the roasting described above, but is far more targeted and accurate. The result is a nearly mess-free experience in which the skin peels away from the tomato with great ease, and often in only one or two large pieces.

Clearly, you can put on your "thinking cap" and find many different ways to use cigar lighters in the kitchen. If you are facing a pile of summer tomatoes that are destined to become sauce, or looking to make a delicious bruschetta, or even just a nice tomato salad, this is certainly one of the smartest and easiest tactics to use. It is also an approach that saves a lot of time and messiness in the kitchen!