How Do You Broil?

While people say a broiler pan is not necessary but is preferrable...I would like to point out that my husband (who had never broiled before) tried to broil us steaks for my birthday 5 years ago and almost caught the things on fire because the grease collected on the pan and it was so close to the heating element....ehem - get a broiler pan if you don't have one already! When people say the food cooks quickly- we mean very quickly. I can get very FAT steaks done with about 4 minutes on each side to a medium rare. Leave them in an extra 4 or 5 minutes on one side and it is well done and charred.... Good luck!

Sometimes the drawer under the oven is for storage and sometimes it is the broiler. Get on your hands and knees and look in there with the oven control turned to broil. If you see the flame, that is the broiler, no flame it is for storage. If the bottom is storage, then your oven uses the the oven itself for broiling, just set the control to broil.

I would imagine you are not interested in soggy fish, so use a broiler pan, which may be in the broiler already. If not, you should be able to pick one up at walmart.

Keep in mind, when you broil, it cooks quickly, so keep an eye on your food. If you find it is almost done, but needs a little more cooking, sometimes it is better to lower the temperature because you could burn something in a matter of seconds. You may want to do a test run with a piece of bread to see how fast it cooks. If the toast does burn, run water on it to stop the smoking and smell.

A broiler pan is made from two parts; an upper section that suspends the food and has drains and the bottom part which catches the liquid or fat. Most ovens come with a broiler pan, but if you don't have one, they are easy to duplicate. Any rack with a pan underneath will do, however for fish, you want to make sure that the fillet is fully supported so it doesn't fall into the bottom tray.

A broiler pan is just vented to allow the juice to drain. It's not neessary. If I have something I want to keep cripsy and not allow to get soggy in its own juices, i put it on a metal wire rack, that I originally bought to cool cookies on, inside a metal cake pan. If you dont have anything like that, it's not going to hurt hte fish at all. I wouldnt use my best baking dish, the high heat and meat can char onthere and it's a bugger to get off. I prefer a beat up old cake pan or heavy duty cookie sheet. Needs to be deep enough to hold the juices as they run off. I can tell you broiling is good for thin pieces of meat like fish. I wouldnt use that method for thicker or tougher cuts of meat. It's helpful to let the fish come to room temp before putting it under the broiler. Otherwise it'll be cooked on the outside and cold on the inside.

Broiling is when you have the oven rack closer to the top of the oven heating coil. You don't have have a special pan. Any you bake with work. When you set the oven to the broil heat setting only the top heating element works. Broiling with Bake fish so that it's crispy. Yum

Think of broiling as grilling in your oven.
When you grill, you put the meat on a wire rack, the heat is underneath and the juices run off and land below - no big deal.
When you broil, you put the meat on a wire rack or vented pan, the heat is above and the juices will run off as well - but you don't want them in the bottom of your oven! So, this is where a broiler pan comes in. It is a 2part pan. The bottom part is a pan, and the top part in a fitted slotted pan to put your meat on and allow the juices to run to the lower pan. Every oven I had came with one. If yours didn't, I'm sure you can pick one up just about anywhere - Walmart, Target, etc. If you don't want to buy one, you can make do with any sort of metal wire rack - like a cookie cooling rack - sitting inside of any baking pan.
Most ovens have a smaller door underneath the main oven - this is where you would broil so that you can get the meat closer to the flame.
This is a good way to cook meat when you can't go outside and grill. I've mostly used mine to cook fish or toast loafs of garlic bread, etc.
Good luck and have fun experimenting.

Your oven should have come with a broiler pan and often it is in the drawer of the oven (if you have O.).
Do you have electric or gas? Top or bottom broiler?
Set your oven to "broil" and see where it gets hot.
A boiler pan allows the drippings to fall under the pan to a catching tray underneath. It is preferable, but not necessary.
If you don't have a broiler pan, use a cookie sheet with sides to make sure the juices don't hit the bottom of the oven (big mess and smoke!)
Just turn the cod after half of the cooking time. It's easy--you can do it! Good luck!

Check in the draw of your oven. There should be a pan included in it. The food goes on the top part that has the slits on it, with the catch pan underneath. Turn your oven to the "broil" setting and just let it cook. It will be much faster and much hotter than baking, so keep an eye on the food. If your stove is like mine, your broiler is actually in the bottom part of your oven, in the drawer...not in the actual oven itself.