Werefore a broiling pan?

[Miss_Woodhouse]

Whatever you call it, just make sure you leave the oven door partially open while doing it. There is a spot where the oven door will stand about 6 inches open for this very reason. It is called the broiler stop. I once charged a rather incredulous woman a $40 service call for this tidbit of information after she had ruined $25 worth of steaks the previous night.

thank you. my MIL looked at me like I was nuts when I left the oven door open while broiling. She had me questioning whether I knew what I was doing or not.

I worked as a cook for a few years, a salamander is that hot thing that melts the cheese.

to answer the OP, I’d go with the guess that it’s just a long standing tradtion. It would probably take some digging to find out who started it and why.

[Leaffan]

@Balthisar

Good god, these Canadians here are driving me crazy. The act of using an outdoor grill is called barbecuing.

Yes.

Damned hot dogs and hamburgers cooked on such a device are referred to as barbecue.

Yeah.

The damned outdoor cooker (the grill) is called a barbecue.

Uh huh.

You end up in a stupid situation where someone invites you to their barbecue where they barbecue hot dogs and hamburgers on their barbecue and upon tasting the food they ask you how’s the barbecue taste.

Yep.

Your point?

[pulykamell]

@Mangetout

Gah. forget I asked that. Hmmm… cooking slowly over charcoal would be barbecuing here as well - except it’s just not the way many people do it, and the term ‘barbecue’ happens to include the much more common method that leaves the food blackened on the outside and raw in the middle.

It is also usually done with tougher cuts of meat with lots of collagen and connective tissue, stuff like pork shoulder (aka Boston butt), brisket, spare ribs, etc. These types of meats do not respond well to quick cooking over high heat because they require time and low temps to have the necessary collagen breakdown occur which tenderizes the meat.

[kanicbird]

@wolfman

It’s not the most used piece of cookware,

IMHO broiling is a MAJOR function of a oven. So much so that it has it’s own setting on the oven, basically 50% of it’s function. Now of your cooking style doesn’t really include broiling, that doesn’t mean that the rest of us don’t value it. Broiling needs a certain pan, using the other functions of the oven are pretty vast, and TV dinners come with their own Al tray.