My first apartment after college had a new oven and broiler pan. I used it maybe three or four times cooking steaks and pork chops. That’s all it took to teach me an unpleasant lesson. Spend 10 minutes broiling a steak and then 60 minutes with hot water and a SOS pad. The clean up work makes broilers useless in my life. That’s an insane amount of scrubbing for 2 lousy steaks or a couple pork chops. Who wants to spend an hour with an SOS pad? One time I even tilted the broiler pan (getting it out of the oven) and poured grease on my floor. :smack: Plus, you got all the grease splatter inside the oven to clean too.
From then on the broiler pan in my apartments got placed on top of the cabinets and out of sight or on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. My kitchen range came with the house I purchased and there was no broiler pan with it. Good riddance.
I use the broiler for one thing. That’s making melted cheddar cheese toast. Steaks are cooked on my Foreman grill (2 paper towels wipes it clean) or outside on my Weber with charcoal.
All the time, to make frittatas, broil chicken breast, etc. But it’s electric, so it’s just the top element in the stove, and whatever you put on the top shelf gets broiled. No special cleaning necessary if you use foil.
I semi-agree with the OP. I use the broiler lots, about half the time with a broiler pan. I just throw it in the dishwasher. No it’s not the cleanest it can be, but good enough. I still use cookie sheets the other part of the time, not only for cleanliness, but also sometimes for laziness, e.g. I already have one that’s sort of dirty but not enough to wash, or the rack is in the highest position and I don’t want to lower it.
I should have said the last Broiler Pan I used was 25 years ago. It didn’t have any sort of non stick surface.
If you cover it with aluminum foil what do you do about all those drip slots (there’s usually at least 6 on each side, 12 total)? Do you cut the foil so the grease can still drip down into the pan?
For those that don’t know what a Broiler Pan is. I seem to recall some of my apartments didn’t have one with the oven. It either walked off with a previous tenant or the landlord never bothered including one.
I use my oven broiler once in a while, but never with a broiler pan. I usually use it to brown up the top of a pizza, so I voted the “cheese toast” option. Now that you mention it, it would make awesome cheese toast - I totally have to try that.
Crap. I voted “never,” but that’s wrong. I use it for roasting peppers, sometimes for finishing off pizzas, toasting crostini or bruschetta, and sometimes for creme brulee and things of that nature that require high overhead head. I do not use it for steaks or any other cuts of meat.
I voted “other”, because the only time I use my broiler is to toast sandwich buns. Now that I think about it, I have used it to melt cheese on top of sandwiches, so I guess the cheese toast option would’ve worked too.
I use it sometimes - I don’t get the problem. If you’re using a broiler pan for some reason, the dishwasher gets it plenty clean for me (its going to be, for all intents and purposes, ON FIRE next time…) but mostly I use it to brown off things.
I use mine quite a bit with marinated steak. I have a coated broiler pan for it.
I agree about the mess, but usually I spend all of about 2 minutes cleaning the pan, say the hell with it, and put it away, dried/burnt grease and all. Sure, it’s not perfectly clean, but it won’t kill me to cook off of, either.
I need to try broiling some chicken breasts on a foil covered sheet pan. Musicat has a good idea there.
Now that I’m older, I’m more in control of my perfectionism. Today, I wouldn’t waste an hour scrubbing every last mark off that shiny aluminum broiler pan. Get the worst of the grease off and call it a day. I didn’t know any better when I was young and dumb.
I said only for cheese toast, but I do use it to brown mac & cheese and other casserole things. Also to grill/brown garlic bread, etc, but I’ve never used it to cook a steak. That I do on my outside grill.
Since there are just 2 of us, I’m more likely to use my countertop oven/broiler. I always line the pan with foil and I use a small rack to keep the meat out of the grease. After it cools, I carefully wrap the drippings in the foil, and it generally takes just a little hot water and dish detergent to clean the pan and the rack. Even when I use the big oven and the broiler pan, I line the bottom with foil and spray the top with cooking spray. Cleaning isn’t all that difficult.
You limited it a lot by making the only options for using it Steaks and Chops or Cheese Bread. I voted other because I would never consider using it for Steak and Chops (those go on the grill outside). Cheese bread… sure, sometimes but that isn’t the only thing. I use it to crisp up the top of lots of things.
As far as the broiler pan goes… I can’t think of the last time I used that.
More trouble than it’s worth. I’d rather cook on my charcoal grill which is also a hella lot of trouble, but much better tasting and I can cook a whole lot of stuff over a couple of hours if I time things right.
I’ve used the George Foreman grill, but it’s not the same, don’t like the results.
The broiler, in American English, is a heating unit in the oven which is direct or shielded flame (in gas ovens) or heating coils (in electric) and is situated above the cooking area. The broiler may be located in the main area of the oven, or it can be a drawer under the main door of the oven.
The clean up work makes broilers useless in my life. That’s an insane amount of scrubbing for 2 lousy steaks or a couple pork chops. Who wants to spend an hour with an SOS pad? One time I even tilted the broiler pan (getting it out of the oven) and poured grease on my floor. :smack: Plus, you got all the grease splatter inside the oven to clean too.
I didn’t know any better when I was young and dumb.
