City Grilling: Broiling

Our broilers are upside-down grills that give quick, great flavor to meat, fish and more.

City Grilling: Broiling

Our broilers are upside-down grills that give quick, great flavor to meat, fish and more.

Some city cooks are intimidated by the broiler that came with our stoves.  Yet it's one of the most useful and simple tools in our kitchens.  Whether your stove has a gas flame broiler, or uses infrared, or is electric, fire it up and try different recipes to see how easy it is to get quick and flavorful results from a basic cooking method.

Another plus?  Broiling is faster than roasting and needs less time than the oven to heat up and cool down.  That means for small city kitchens, our broilers can be more comfortable to have on, especially in hot weather.

Some call the broiler simply an upside-down grill and they're right.  Even if you've never been near a charcoal briquette, all you need to know is that a broiler is an expanse of intense heat.  You control the pace and intensity of the cooking by adjusting the distance between the heat source -- in this case it's above the food, not underneath it -- as well as the length of cooking time.

While George Forman and other counter-top grills are popular, the broiler in your oven cooks differently and results in better flavor.  That's because unlike the heat source of the counter-top "grill" which actually touches the food, a broiler cooks by blasting heat against the food's surface, resulting in a rapid browning of the surface and thus, a better and more intense flavor. 

Broiler Basics

Here are some basic tips for successful broiler cooking:

Which food broils best?  Anything that will benefit from high heat and browning.  Meat, poultry and fish are obvious choices, but other foods that can get good and complex flavor from broiling include stone fruits like peaches and plums, polenta squares, vegetables including eggplant and zucchini, ham steaks, and other fruits that are naturally high in sugar that will easily caramelize from the high heat, such as fresh figs. 

See our link to a Bon Appétit recipe for broiled tomatoes.  Use this simple recipe in the summer when Jersey tomatoes are plentiful or in the winter when Roma (plum) tomatoes are the best choice.  Broiled tomatoes are a great side dish with fish or poultry, or toss with pasta and diced feta cheese, or serve combined with a cooked grain like quinoa or wheatberries.


 

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