We have ALWAYS had a grill, so I didn’t use the broiler. When our grill needed replacing, I started using the broiler for chicken thighs, steak, etc., and liked it a LOT. I always knew the broiler would burn a lot hotter than a grill, so I appreciated the browning and quickly learned how to not overlook the meat.
Also, good for roasting peppers.
The one I grew up with, and the oven I used in grad school had the broiler there, and I second the notion that it is a pain to use. Bending down was bad enough when I was young.
I think you misunderstood. GuanoLad replied to Acsenray that “your further claim that Barbecue is a cooking style and not a device also seems counter to all evidence.” I was pointing out that in fact, Acsenray was correct that the word can and does refer to a cooking style in parts of the US, as well as many other things, depending on the dialect/region. It sounded to me like GuanoLad was contesting this usage of the word. “Acsenray is right” does not mean all other opinions are wrong. I thought I was being helpful in explaining the various ways the term “barbecue” is used, because it actually is pretty fascinating to me how different dialects use the term, and I thought it might be interesting for others, too. The term itself, I believe, comes from barbacoa, which is originally a cooking style where a pit is dug into ground, a fire is made, meat wrapped in leaves is put into it, and the pit is covered with dirt and the meat is left to cook for many hours. So it’s pretty cool how the term has grown and come to mean all sorts of different things.
I tend to use the terms precisely because I’m a food nerd, not because I think other usages are “slang” or “incorrect” or anything like that. I certainly wasn’t saying he should not use the word as he uses it (and I am fully aware of how the word is used elsewhere in the world, and I would adjust my terminology to reflect other usages based on the person I am talking to.) I certainly would not correct anyone’s usage of the word “barbecue,” but to me it sounded like there was doubt cast on whether “barbecue” the term can refer to a cooking style. It absolutely can. And it can mean lots of other things. It’s actually pretty amusing to me how argumentative it can get here in parts of the US with what “barbecue” means, even down to the meat. Like I said in my post, there are parts of the US where “barbecue” even specifies the type of meat used, so a “barbecue sandwich” or getting “a pound of barbecue” means you are getting slow-cooked, smoked, pork.
Heck, in some parts of the US, barbecue is not just a cooking style, but a religion. 
Anyhow, seven years on, as far as the OP goes, it seems like I still use the broiler for the same sorts of things I did before: browning the tops of various foodstuffs (as a finishing step), or for roasting peppers before removing their skins (roasting chile peppers, steaming them in a bag or whatnot, and then peeling them is a common step for many Mexican dishes.) Wait, I guess every once in a long while I may broil other vegetables as a prep step, but most typically, its something like poblanos or anaheims/New Mexico peppers. But I’m also likely to do any of those on a conventional grill outside, now that I have a gas grill (which I didn’t have seven years ago – I was still charcoal-only at the time.)
Funny… I didn’t realize this was a zombie and was preparing to post exactly what I did seven years ago.
And if you’re going to recycle it, you need to wash it off first. Washing aluminum foil, even to semi-clean, is harder than washing the pan.
I do keep aluminum foil in the house, and I use it for a couple of special dishes, or in small amounts to keep the turkey wings from burning, say. But I try to be conservative using it, and often reuse it if i can. I’m not going to use it every time i grill meat, which is a weekly thing.
puzzlegal, I’m pretty much doing that also; though I let my turkey wings take their own chances, and usually find them edible anyway. I roast turkey on relatively low heat, though.
I start my turkey on high heat, then drop the temp and finish it on low heat. I don’t usually have to shield the wings, but sometimes I do. I only roast turkey for thanksgiving, and get a huge one, so it takes a lot of total heat to cook it.
Not here (NYC). Glass, plastics, and metals go into the same bin, and some food remnants are acceptible. I think they realized that the tougher they made it on the end-user, the less was being recycled and going into landfills.
Fair enough - it was one of those occasions where it looked like correcting someone but that’s not what you intended.
I picked other. I used to, when the broiler was at the top of the oven. But Hubby got a new oven and I have to practically lay down on the floor to use it. I do not bend as my back and knees do not allow it. So, I haven’t used it in six months and can’t see when I will again. Until the next oven.
There are only a couple of differences between baking/roasting and broiling. One is that for broiling, the heat must come from above and the other is that broiling is a constant flame, unlike baking/or roasting which is a constant temperature. I’ve had two different types of broiler and the difference was basically the location of the heating element in the oven - This is a photo of a heating element at the top of the oven. My current oven is like this, and the broiler pan would go on the top rack closest to the flame. The other option is that the oven has the heating element at the bottom and the broiler is in a separate compartment like in these diagrams. I’m sure there are some stoves with a broiler over the cooktop where a second oven/microwave/convection is sometimes found, but I have personally never seen one.
And I use my broiler for neither cheese toast nor steaks and chops- except maybe a London broil. Mostly I broil chicken and vegetables.
I said I use it constantly, even though it’s never for chops or steaks. Usually I am browning cheese on an omelet or something, as I like it really toasty.
As for the OP’s problem, what you need is borax. Make a paste of borax, fairy soap,and a little water, and spread it all over the browned parts on the pan. Leave overnight and in the morning wipe off. All the yuck should come off easily.
I think what you call a “grill” is what we call a broiler, and it’s usually at the top of the oven, but in cheaper gas ovens there is a compartment below the main oven, underneath a flame that’s at the bottom of the oven but the top of the broiler compartment, for broiling. Higher-end gas ovens and all electric ovens (as far as I know) have a heating element at the top of the main oven compartment for broiling.
What you call a hob I would call a “burner”. My stovetop has 5 burners, two medium-sized and round, a little one in the back for simmering, a large one in the front for bringing a big pot of water to boil faster (that I also use for the wok) and a long one in the middle, from front to back, that’s designed for pancakes and such, I think (it comes with a large flat piece that can be heated atop it, that we call a grill or griddle) but I use it about twice a year to make gravy when i roast something large, and that’s pretty much it.
On a gas stove the burner might also be called a flame. On an electric stove it might be called a heating element. (On an old electric stove it might be called a coil, but newer stoves don’t usually have open coils any more.)
I’d just like to note that for accomplished home chefs, good results can be had by varying the difference from the heating element to the food. I’ve broiled chicken and fish on the bottom 2 racks with great results.
From what I’ve been reading, the problem with making it super easy on the individuals recycling is that the entire load is a lot more likely to wind up in the landfill, as not only the original item but other things mixed in with it may become too contaminated to clean easily.
For the specific instance of washing food waste off the aluminum, it undoubtedly depends on where you are what they’ll accept. In my case, I get pickup once a week; holding unwashed pan liners in the house would attract critters and stink up the kitchen, and holding them outside would attract even more critters and probably result in the aluminum being dragged off into a field somewhere and torn into unrecoverable bits. As I understand it the recyclable materials, once picked up by the handler, also need to be held until they can be sorted, with the same sort of problems likely to occur at the holding site; so no, you’re not supposed to have food waste mixed in with the recyclables here.
– ETA: my current electric stove has both a high and a low heat setting for the broiler, which I think is very nice as it reduces the amount I have to move pans and/or racks around in order to broil items until done without burning them.
It’s all dependent on the arrangement of the heating elements, too. I won’t go into the details of infrared energy and point sources and black body radiation, but here’s a neat thing you can (and should) do:
Take the biggest sheet/jellyroll pan that you have that will fit in your oven, even if you have to leave the door open. Fill it with enough fine bread crumbs to make a complete layer. Put it under the broiler at the highest rack setting. Observe where the heat is concentrated. With fresh bread crumbs, repeat for each rack position in your oven.