If you cook a lot of protein and use cast iron or carbon steel, one of the best investments you can make is in a powerful portable butane burner. My favorite is the Iwatani 35FW, which is rated at a very powerful 15,000 BTUs/hr. The combination of high heat and heavy black steel is amazing and lets you develop a stellar crust in very little time. This is my preferred method for pre and post searing on sous vide protein. In this case, I'm searing a raw 36oz ribeye for about 45 seconds per side in an original Darto No. 27 that was heated over the Iwatani on high until smoking. I also use the Darto No. 15 as a grill press. The amount of quality crust you can develop in under 3 minutes is astonishing. The smell was amazing.
There is no way I could do that inside my kitchen (or any other home kitchen I've had) because there is not adequate ventilation. But with a 35FW in your batterie, you have a high output commercial quality burner that you can use anywhere. You will find a million uses for it. Camping. Tailgating. Whenever you're cooking fish. When the power goes out. When it's Thanksgiving and you need to get away from all of your relatives who are swarming the kitchen...
