Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

You’re probably not using the broiler setting on your oven, but it’s a game-changer — here’s why

What is a broiler, you ask? Only the best oven setting you're not using.

Lindsay Parrill
By
Mitted hand opening oven
Nenad Stojkovic/Flickr

In the summertime, we talk an awful lot about grilling. And who can blame us? Grilling is a hoot, and grilled foods are spectacularly delicious. But for many reasons, grilling isn’t always an option. Perhaps you haven’t yet been inspired to buy a grill for yourself, or you live in a place that’s especially rainy with no covered patio. Maybe you had a particularly embarrassing experience years ago that involved burning off your eyebrows, and you’ve been too scared to pick up the tongs ever since. Whatever the reason, it’s okay. There is another option. In fact, it’s likely something you already have in your kitchen and may not even be aware of. It’s your broiler setting.

In addition to being a fantastic substitute for a grill, your broiler can also do a multitude of other impressive culinary tasks, from cooking to crisping to browning to brûléeing. So it’s in your best interest to learn how to use this handy tool as soon as possible.

Recommended Videos

Broilers come standard with almost every oven on the market, be it gas or electric. In most cases, the broiler will be on the inside of your oven, the heat coming directly from the top. You’ll access the broiler’s heat by placing one of your oven racks on the highest setting — usually two to three inches from the broiler. In other cases, the broiler may be located in a drawer at the bottom of the oven and will work similarly, but with less control as to how closely your food can be placed to the heat source. Either way, it should be fairly obvious when you give your oven a quick inspection. So in case you’ve ever wondered what that button is for, or, if you’re just noticing it for the first time since you moved in, this is how to use your broiler.

Pizzas
Narda Yescas/Pexels

Cook

A broiler is, essentially, an upside-down grill inside your oven. If you know your way around a grill and think about it this way, cooking with the broiler will become quite simple. It gives off very high heat, so it’s designed to cook quickly. Anything that cooks well on fast, high heat will do well in the broiler. Things like thin cuts of meat, smaller vegetables, and even pizza all cook beautifully this way. Simply adjust your settings according to your ingredients.

Rosemary potatoes
Clark Douglas/Unsplash

Crisp

Often the broiler is used for finishing a dish, be it to crisp or to brown (more on browning in a moment). For example, potatoes can’t be fully cooked under a broiler. They would burn on the outside far before even thinking about cooking on the inside. However, if you’ve cooked potatoes using another method, but find they just don’t have that deliciously crispy skin we all love, a quick trip to the broiler ought to do the trick. Simply lightly oil or butter them, season accordingly, and broil for a few minutes for crispy perfection.

Lasagna in oven
Kristine Tumanyan/Unsplash

Brown

Have you ever wondered how those picture-perfect lasagnas have those gorgeously golden spots burnt into the top layer of cheese? Wonder no more. The secret is a broiler. If you’ve finished a dish, but it just doesn’t have that bubbly golden crust, pop it under the broiler for a bit. This is a perfect way to add some color to casseroles, cheeses, breads, and even proteins.

Creme brulee
3Msuccess/Pixabay

Brûlée

If you don’t find yourself in possession of a blowtorch, worry not. You can still enjoy the delicate yet naughty crack of a burnt sugared topping. In lieu of torching the tops of these gentle custards, simply place them underneath the broiler for a few minutes for caramelized perfection. Not only will your desserts taste just as good, but you can also prepare more than one at a time, making this preparation perfect for a large group.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
Why you can (and should) add bourbon right to your banana bread batter without cooking it first
Bourbon alcohol cooks out as banana bread bakes - genius!
Banana bread

Cooking with booze is one of the best ways to achieve a robust and delicious complexity of flavor. For any number of dishes, we braise, poach, deglaze, and sauce with everything in the liquor cabinet, from wine to tequila to rum, and our food is better for it. And while you may have incorporated beer into your cupcakes or poached pear in a simmering pool of red wine, you may not yet fully appreciate the flavor spirits can bring to baked goods. Banana bread is one of the most delicious, comforting, feels-like-home treats there is, and it's hard to imagine it getting any better than it already is in its mildly sweet, toasty perfection. Enter bourbon.

It turns out that splashing a bit of bourbon into banana bread batter can take Grandma's recipe and elevate it to something one might find in an upscale restaurant. Here's why.

Read more
Here are the benefits of taking vitamin D supplements – what you should know
Find out if you're getting enough Vitamin D or if you need help getting more
A close-up of a vitamin D capsule

It’s not always easy or feasible to consume a well-balanced and varied diet. Between juggling a busy schedule with minimal time for healthy food preparation, food allergies and intolerances, dietary preferences, and cultural eating habits, many of us fall short of meeting the nutritional recommendations for several key vitamins and minerals. Even if you cook at home and try to eat a healthy diet, you may be deficient in certain micronutrients because some essential vitamins and minerals are only found in a few food sources or are only present in low concentrations.
Vitamin D is a prime example of a vital nutrient that is not found in many common foods in the standard American diet, nor is it necessarily well absorbed when consumed in food sources. Rather, exposure of the skin to sunlight is the primary means by which the body’s vitamin D levels are increased, as exposure to UVB rays stimulates the production of vitamin D.
However, as the hours of daylight dwindle in the winter and the sun becomes less intense, it becomes increasingly difficult to meet your vitamin D needs. Because vitamin D plays several key physiological roles, it may be advisable to take vitamin D supplements. Keep reading for our helpful primer on the functions and benefits of vitamin D, foods high in vitamin D, and whether vitamin D supplementation may be useful.

What is vitamin D?
Along with vitamins A, E, and K, vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it's stored in the body rather than excreted like vitamins C and B vitamins. However, unlike any other vitamin, vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone produced from cholesterol when skin cells are exposed to UVB rays. In addition to the endogenous production of vitamin D, there are two different dietary forms of the nutrient:

Read more
You need to start adding beer to your waffle batter – here’s why
Add beer to your waffle recipe (it's delicious!)
Waffles on a plate

Belgium is something of a headliner when it comes to cuisine. So many of the most glorious foods we love to indulge in originate from this beautiful little European country. Some of the world's best chocolate and most exquisite beers come from Belgium, making it one of our favorite countries. But then you throw french fries and waffles into the mix, and Belgium very quickly becomes the mecca of the most adored foods world. While we can go around for days about which of these culinary contributions we love most, there's room to adore them all. But on a lazy Sunday morning, there just isn't anything better than a perfectly golden, light, fluffy, crispy, buttery Belgian waffle.
True Belgian waffles are unique in a few ways. Firstly, they usually call for the added step of beating egg whites separately, then folding them into the batter in lieu of simply mixing whole eggs in all at once. This incorporates air into the batter and gives Belgian waffles their signature light and airy texture. They also tend to have a bit more sugar than other waffles, making them slightly sweeter. But our very favorite mark of an authentic Belgian waffle is that they're yeasted, often with Belgium's favorite beverage - beer.
Using beer in waffle batter is a stroke of genius for a few reasons. The bubbles in the carbonation, much like the beaten egg whites, will create a heavenly light fluffiness. The yeast in the beer will give the waffles a much more complex flavor and gorgeous texture.
This is our very favorite Belgian waffle recipe.

Beer waffle recipe
Every waffle iron is different, but these waffles are meant to be perfectly crisp and beautifully brown, so be sure to cook them long enough to see those golden edges.
Ingredients

Read more