As I have moved back into my college apartment for the year and have started cooking again, I start to find more and more recipes that involve broiling the meat, using a broiler pan. Now I thought I was pretty well educated on most cooking matters, and yet I still find myself going “…What?”
After a year of living in this apartment, I have finally realized that the little drawer at the bottom of my gas stove is most likely the home to my broiler pan. But my question is, does it stay down there when I set the oven to broil? Or do I move it up to the top of the oven like I would in an electric stove? I would appreciate an answer to this, as destroying my stove would be rather costly for me to replace.
Well I’ll be damned. We have a small gas range in the basement that I use for canning. The canner fits nicely over the four burners. I’ve never even opened the drawer. I didn’t even notice it was there! Hell, I thought the handle was decoration.
Lo! and behold! It’s a broiler pan. Only problem is that there’s no rack – no place for meat juices (and fat) to drip. When we broil using the electric range, we use a 2-part pan – the top part has holes.
If I broiled using this pan, with all the fat just sitting there, exposed to the flame, I’m thinking fire – or at least some flame-up.
But if you guys say that’s the way to do it, I’ll give it a shot.
I remember one firing off, once. The flames go out when you close the door.
I have never cooked with a woman, Mother, Girl Friend, Spouse who willingly let me use the broiler, “Because it’s so hard to clean.”
On other models of stove, you use the same chamber for broiling and regular baking, but with a different setting. When you set it to “broil”, only the top elements heat up, and you’re supposed to leave the door slightly ajar. Such stoves may have no lower chamber at all, or they may have one without heating elements used just for storage.
To make it less hard to clean, line the botton part of the pan with tinfoil, put a layer of tinfoil over the rack and poke a few holes in it. Then you throw away the tinfoil and most of the hard work is done.
I don’t use the broiler after almost burning down the house. It’s too easy to set the grease from meat on fire. The flames don’t go out because you shut the door. In fact the flames filled the oven chamber as the black smoke poured out the vent hole by the burners.
Steaks, burgers, and chops broil very nicely. I don’t have a separate broiler, and my oven’s self-cleaning, so I don’t worry about the clean-up. I mostly broil in the winter, as it gets too darn hot in the house when I turn on the oven.
That should be the same case in a gas stove/oven/broiler. I can think of two possibilities - either you’re missing the top part of your broiler pan OR you don’t have a broiler down there, you have a storage drawer for pots and pans. Not every gas range has a broiler on the bottom, although most do.
But you definitely want a two part broiler pan, otherwise your meat (or whatever) is going to be sitting in a puddle of its own fat and drippings and it won’t get that nice crisp “grilled” texture to the surface.
You prompted me to further explore this appliance and I’ll be goshdarned but there IS a two-part pan. If I pull the drawer out all the way, it tips down and the top part of the pan (with holes) slides out! How cool! I’m gonna broil something. Someday. Not today though. I don’t feel like cleaning it up.
This is the only type of oven/stove I’ve ever seen (except that real old, real small one my parents had when I was pre-kindergarten age.) Does anyone have a picture of one like the OP is describing? I’m curious.
Yeah, the kind where it’s just in the oven is the only kind I’ve ever seen. When I was new to this whole gas stove thing seeing the broiler in action nearly made me crap my pants - hello, fire!
When I was a teenager I cooked in a nice restaurant and I’ve always wanted a flame-broiler since then. They’re awesome and very versatile. Didn’t know they were common in homes.
I haven’t broiled since…the 1980s. I prefer to grill outdoors.
One alternative, assuming there’s space enough, is to use a shallow pan with water with a wire rack over it, then put the meat on the rack. That way, juices drip down and won’t catch fire, nor will they require a messy cleanup. The distance between flame and food is the issue—too far away and it won’t broil; too close and you could catch fat on fire.
But I assume too, that just like putting a “naked” pizza on your oven rack sans cookie sheet, you can use the porcelain surface for cooking. I’d give it a good wash first if it’s been collecting dust etc. Using foil is another alternative of course.
