I think you’re reading a lot into pulykamell’s posts back in 2012. And anyway, as you point out, the words aren’t used the same across all dialects of english. Why should acsenray and pulykamell defer to guanolad’s preferred usage?
Note that SciFiSam did not bump this thread. That was done by a spammer, who has now been baked.
Not so much steaks and chops and I’ve never made cheese toast. However, I do use the broiler sometimes for chiles, garlic and tomatillos for a green salsa but also for salmon. I experimented with the broiler for searing burgers and sausage after sous vide but haven’t done that in a while.
I didn’t say they should defer to anyone’s usage, just that they shouldn’t claim to be “right.”
Didn’t know it was a zombie thread though - sorry.
I use the broiler about equal to bake functions. The pan itself is another story. I do try to use alternatives like wrinkled Al foil. And foil lined pan. And will not hesitate from putting the pan when I use it into the dishwasher. All and all the broil function is essential, the pan is not, thus voting…
Other
I answered “other.”
When I had a stove that had the broiler element in the “ceiling” of the oven, and you could easily switch to “broil,” I used it all the time.
Now I have a stove (gas) where the broiler is in a separate drawer at the bottom under the oven. It is a major PITA to use, not least because you have to get down on your hands and knees and sometimes use a flashlight to see what’s going on in there. I hardly ever use it.
I had to vote other, because while I don’t cook chops with it, I do a lot more than cheesy toast. And I totally forgot that broiler pans were a thing.
I use the broiler for browning, which encompasses a hell of a lot of culinary tasks, e.g.:
[ul]
[li]Browning vegetables for salsas.[/li][li]Browning croutons for salads or stuffing/dressing.[/li][li]Making garlic bread/toast.[/li][li]Browning meat after sous vide’ing it.[/li][li]Browning the tops of things made in casserole-type dishes.[/li][/ul]
We cook nearly every dinner at home with actual ingredients (knock-on-wood, says the 47 year old father of a nearly 19 month old), so the broiler is an indispensable kitchen tool. I don’t want to judge, but if the only use someone has is for cheese toasties…
I’ve got an Oster convection toaster oven that usually gets broiler-type duties. Heats up faster, uses less energy, easier to clean.
I would have believed that if you hadn’t mentioned sous vide’ing.
We have steak, ribs, or chops pretty much every Friday night, and except when the weather is nice enough to use the outdoor BBQ gas grill, I use a broiler pan and my gas oven’s broiler.
I line the bottom of the pan with tinfoil to catch the grease, and after discarding the foil and grease, it only needs a quick rinse with the dish brush. I find that if I clean the top part shortly after finishing dinner, it’s not too hard to clean just with a dish brush, or sometimes a scrubber sponge. Of course, if you use BBQ sauce, you’ll need an SOS pad to get the crystallized sauce off. That can be a bit of a pain. (I did it just last night, but the ribs were worth the effort.)
I use the broiler (upper element in my electric oven) fairly often, for steaks and chops but also for chicken, sometimes fish, sometimes french fries, sometimes vegetables, often combinations of those, and occasionally for melted cheese sandwiches (are those “cheese toast”?) if I’m making them for several people at once. If I only want one or two melted cheese I’ll usually do those in a cast iron frying pan with a lid, on top of the stove.
I sometimes use a broiler pan as such (mine is porcelain on steel, an old solution to the minimum-sticking issue which doesn’t wear off, wind up in your food, or need special handling), and sometimes a more general type of oven-usable pan. I’m puzzled by the huge difficulty some people have in washing them, and wonder whether the problem the OP was having was related to having a crappy quality pan. My technique: pour off any pools of grease after it’s cooled some but while it’s still liquid, or scrape out if it’s solidified; if pan’s still significantly greasy, wipe out with a paper towel (alternate methods may involve dogs and/or cats); then submerge in hot soapy water and go away and do something else for ten minutes to an hour. Come back and scrub out the pan with more hot water and if needed more soap. If there’s still stubborn stuff attached, repeat the soak. Very rare for more than two soaks to be needed and often a single ten-minute soak is plenty. Depending on what was in it, the first two grease-removal steps may not be needed, either, because it may not be all that greasy.
I used to use the broiler all the time for steaks and chops, but I’ve mostly started using a cast iron frying pan. I think the broiler does a better job, but it IS a lot more trouble to clean. And no. I’m not willing to throw away a lot of aluminum foil for an everyday meal.
When the weather favors cooking outdoors, I use a grill, because it’s easy to clean. It’s a little fussier to cook on because the temperature varies from spot to spot.
The one thing I NEVER cook on it is grilled cheese, because I use the toaster oven for that. But in addition to steaks and chops, I use the broiler for chicken, for browning acorn squash (after cooking it mostly upside-down at lower temps) and generally for larger quantities of food I want to cook under direct heat.
Yup. The broiler is a nuisance to clean, but I’m certainly not spending an hour doing that, nor will it be spotless when I’m done. I only use it to cook at high temps, it’s not like I’m going to catch anything from it.
Mine is gas, so it’s ventilated and I always leave the door closed. But I think electric ranges can overheat if you use the broiler with the door closed.
Other - use it (we call it the grill) all the time, but not for steaks and chops. But chicken, fish, blackening the skins of bell peppers…
Use the broiler often, especially in winter. Usually use a half-sheet pan lined with aluminum foil* and fitted with a stainless rack sprayed down with no-stick. I use a stiff brush to clean the rack, and deposit it in the dishwasher whenever we run the dishwasher. It’s rare I’ll pull out one of the broiler pans I’ve accumulated over the years because their raised racks don’t allow for as much air circulation underneath the rack. The half-sheet pan/cooling rack is my go-to oven pan for almost all of my roasting needs.
*I buy wide aluminum foil at restaurant supply or big box stores. Cheaper than name-brand supermarket foil, if one has the room in the kitchen for it. Same for plastic wrap. Given the choice of scrubbing burnt-on grease from a half-sheet pan or throwing away a few pennies worth of foil, goodbye pennies. My time saved is more valuable than that. It’s the equivalent of driving an extra 15 minutes out of one’s way to save 2¢/gallon on gasoline. That ~30¢ savings does not make up for the time.
Yes. It gets used fairly often.
It’s not the money, aluminum foil is fairly energy-intensive to make, and I don’t trust that it will actually be recycled. Yeah, based on my hourly wage and the cost of foil, I could completely justify using it.
I use it occasionally to roast peppers, or for broiled asparagus. For meat, I’m a fan of searing on the stove top and finishing at 400F in the oven. Works perfectly and without as much spatter in the oven.
We use it regularly, and the most frequent use recently has been to brown chickpea pancakes, although pepper roasting is another frequent use.
We aren’t allowed a charcoal grill on our 2nd floor apartment balcony, so the broiler is used all the time.
We are content with “clean enough” in regards to the broiler pan. I had never heard of sheet pan/cooling rack combo. Since I don’t have the right kind of cooling rack, we will continue as we have been.
I’m not sure that I catch your meaning. And, of course, I do end up judging.