WTF is 'Broiling'?

Shropshire1959

This is grilling:




This is BBQ:

You know nufink John Snow :-p

earlnabby

You fry things on the griddle.

I griddle on a griddle.
I fry in a frying pan.

My part of the States: we fry and it doesn't matter if it is in a pan or on a griddle. You make pancakes on either and can sometimes call them griddlecakes even if made in a pan.

We had a similar discussion in another forum I belong to and someone threw another term into the mix that was fun to explain: a girdle. She would only make her scones on a girdle and apparently it isn't just a regional (Scottish immigrants) misspelling of griddle.

Regarding "brosted". Around here there is something called "broasted" which is roasting under pressure

earlnabby

I had to look that up, I didn't even know griddle was a verb. Learn something new every day!

This is all fascinating! And somewhat confusing.

For clarity, if broiling is done inside an oven, is this with the door closed (huge no-no for UK grills), and does this mean that ovens in the US/Canada don't have a separate grill/broil from the main oven?

It's a good idea to keep the door partially open when broiling (aka grilling in the UK) and no, there usually isn't a separate unit from the oven although many new fancy ovens have a grill as part of the stovetop instead of just burners (aka hobs)

amwbox

I had to look that up, I didn't even know griddle was a verb. Learn something new every day!

This is all fascinating! And somewhat confusing.

For clarity, if broiling is done inside an oven, is this with the door closed (huge no-no for UK grills), and does this mean that ovens in the US/Canada don't have a separate grill/broil from the main oven?

Even the most basic oven will have a broiler...the broiler at least over here being the top element or burner inside the oven.

The best way to broil is with the oven door open, so the heat doesn't build up inside, that way your actually cooking with radiant heat as opposed to hot air, as in roasting.

Broiling (in the US):


Upside down grilling, basically, where the heat comes down from above as oppose to up from below.

paulawatkins1974

I changed provinces. I now live in a place where the meals are, Breakfast, Dinner, and Supper. Something to eat before bed is a lunch. Came From a place where the meals were Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a meal before bed was a snack. This is horribly confusing because if someone says come over around dinner time, I am showing up in the evening! So using different words is no big deal, but when you use the same words for different things it confusing!

amwbox

You fry things on the griddle.

I griddle on a griddle.
I fry in a frying pan.

My part of the States: we fry and it doesn't matter if it is in a pan or on a griddle. You make pancakes on either and can sometimes call them griddlecakes even if made in a pan.

We had a similar discussion in another forum I belong to and someone threw another term into the mix that was fun to explain: a girdle. She would only make her scones on a girdle and apparently it isn't just a regional (Scottish immigrants) misspelling of griddle.

Regarding "brosted". Around here there is something called "broasted" which is roasting under pressure

Broasting/brosting is a new one by me. How do you go about roasting under pressure? Where does the pressure come from?

To my understanding, frying is the method where cooking is done in a significant amount of fat, and deep frying is where the food is fully submerged in the fat. Cooking something in a little fat is a saute, and cooking something on a griddle (big flat piece of steel...though for some reason people often call big commercial griddles like in restaurants "grills"...which makes no sense) involves very little fat. Pancakes are griddled. French fries are fried. Etc etc.

ChrisM8971

Yeah, broiling in the US is grilling to us in the UK. Grilling to them is pretty much the same as BBQing for us

Except in Texas, where BBQing isn't throwing a steak on the grill for 5 minutes. BBQ in Texas is slow smoking a beef brisket (or pork loin or chicken or ribs or sausage) over a low heat for several hours.

And now I am very very hungry

neandermagnon

In the UK, ovens have an oven setting, where you have the door closed, and a grill setting where you cook with the door open - or a separate grill section above the oven, where you grill with the door open. The grill section may have the gas flames above or below the grill tray (which is a metal thing made of a grid of thin metal bars, sometimes with a tray under it to catch any drippings. When you cook something on the grill it's "grilling" - the oven is used for baking or roasting. The hob (above the oven, where there's rings of gas flames or electric elements, is for putting various pans on... you fry in a frying pan and it has to have oil. You cook stuff in a griddle pan without oil (I've not heard griddle used as a verb but there are large dialectual differences between different places in the UK) and you boil things in a saucepan, or make stews, curries, etc in a pot.

A barbeque has to be done on a grill outdoors with an open fire to count, i.e. fire with a grill tray over it, in a barbeque (noun) - i.e. a metal box on legs where the fire goes in the box and there are slots on the side to slide the grill tray in. Posh families may have a barbeque as a permanent fixture in the garden built with bricks, so the fire goes on the bricks and there's slots for the grill tray over the bricks where the fire goes. In my family, even if it rained, no matter how heavily, the barbeque continued outdoors, and ideally it should be eaten outdoors as well. If the food at any point was transferred to the oven or any other indoor cooking, then it wasn't a barbeque any more, and if you ate the food indoors then you were a wuss who is afraid of a little bit of rain. And I'm not joking or exaggerating when I say my family had outdoor barbeques in torrential rain. That's what the sun umbrella on the picnic table is for, right?

When I was in the girl guides, all we had was a grill tray and a few bricks and we had to build the fire from scratch (we were allowed matches, but not firelighters, we had to find stuff to use as kindling). On some occasions all we were given was 3 matches and meat and we had to build the fire from scratch and make our own skewers from green sticks to skewer the meat on and cook it over the fire. (and I'm pretty sure if our guider had had flint and iron pyrite she'd have made us use that instead of matches). This usually wouldn't be called a barbeque because it's too low-tech, it would be called a camp-fire. Even if there's no actual tent or intention to stay overnight.

ChrisM8971

Come to the Gulf and you'll also come across "Brosted" which they believe is an English word, as in "Brosted chicken", but they shorten that to "Brosted" as in "Would you like some brosted?" - it's pronounced like "Frosted". They think it's a borrowed word from English, so expect me to understand what it is. I have no idea what language it's borrowed form (if any). I still haven't figured out exactly what it is, but it seems to be similar to fried, as in brosted chicken looks like fried chicken to me, similar to KFC.#



going back to broiling.... so let me get this straight, in the USA grilling is called broiling, and barbequing is called grilling? Okay, I think I've got that.

In British English, grilling is cooking on any kind of grill (metal thing made from a grid of thin metal bars) and heat from any source or any direction, and barbequing is grilling on an open fire.

A lot of people over here consider BBQ to be anything where the food is cooked over a fire of some sort as well, but that's just not correct. That is grilling. BBQ is a very slow cooking method involving low, indirect heat, and a lot of time. Its actually impossible to do on the usual background gas or charcoal grill.

BBQ is totally distinct, and totally not the same as or interchangeable with grilling. Similarly, boiling and frying are not the same thing either.

In the UK BBQ is the same as your grilling except that it is normally carried out in the rain under an umbrella

neandermagnon

Yeah, broiling in the US is grilling to us in the UK. Grilling to them is pretty much the same as BBQing for us

Except in Texas, where BBQing isn't throwing a steak on the grill for 5 minutes. BBQ in Texas is slow smoking a beef brisket (or pork loin or chicken or ribs or sausage) over a low heat for several hours.

And now I am very very hungry

I agree. I'm sure that one thing we all agree on is that meat cooked on a fire of any kind tastes delicious.

Whichever bunch of Homo erectuses first had the idea to cook meat on fire......... humanity owes you a huge, huge debt. Greater than most people even know.

Briargrey

There is no separate broiler in the oven. We just set the controls to broil and only to top heats up and it's very hot. I've never done it because I'm afraid of all the splatter and fires. I've been in two house fires, so I've never actually tried broiling.

Depends on the oven. Most of mine have been like this -- you put the inner rack up high, turn it on broil, and the broiler is on the top. However, I had a gas range once that had a separate drawer on the bottom where you put the stuff to broil.

I was always taught to keep the door cracked, and my ovens growing up allowed a small crack. My oven for the last several years does allow it but it's a wide opening not the smaller crack I was used to (3+ inches instead of less than an inch).

amwbox

In the UK BBQ is the same as your grilling except that it is normally carried out in the rain under an umbrella

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm right there with you about the rain.

Do you have a method of what we'd consider BBQ over there? As in all day cook times involving a lot of smoke, indirect heat, etc, like this:



See how the firebox is removed from the cooking area? It can actually be somewhat similar to a smoker...except a smoker is even lower temperature and possibly far longer time...

totaldetermination

In the UK BBQ is the same as your grilling except that it is normally carried out in the rain under an umbrella

Best laugh I've had in a while.

ChrisM8971

In the UK BBQ is the same as your grilling except that it is normally carried out in the rain under an umbrella

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm right there with you about the rain.

Do you have a method of what we'd consider BBQ over there? As in all day cook times involving a lot of smoke, indirect heat, etc, like this:



See how the firebox is removed from the cooking area? It can actually be somewhat similar to a smoker...except a smoker is even lower temperature and possibly far longer time...

Would be my dream way of cooking and I believe some do.

When I bbq my preferred method is indirect heat (only have a lidded kettle bbq but keep the coals to one side with a drip tray in the middle) and will cook things like whole chicken and boned legs of lamb this way. However it tends to be at high, oven type temperatures

I have also dabbled with smoking and have hot smoked trout and chicken but its difficult to keep the temperature low enough for long slow cooking in a kettle bbq.

One day I will realise my dream though

AglaeaC

Isn't anyone else hungry after reading this???

As for entrée, good grief, someone calls the main course entrée? Ridiculous, sorry.

amwbox

Finally figured out what "broasting" is. You know that awesome fried chicken at the supermarket? That's broasted. Its a combination of deep frying and pressure cooking. Frying in oil under pressure.

Was invented in Wisconsin, apparently.

smantha32

I'm intrigued by this American thing called brisket... I will have to try it one day

We have Brisket too - it's that part of the beast just above the front leg ....

I didn't know that.... in fact I didn't know the names of a few of those... I just call all of it "steak" lol... are there regional variations of these, because I quite often have rump steak and that's not on there... I always assumed it to be around where round is, not far from sirloin... chuck, brisket, plate and flank I've not heard of before

I've never heard of that section called "plate" unless it's called something different in different regions.

All the others yeah, They're all barbequed differently for tenderness.

smantha32

This is BBQ:

And if you haven't noticed, BBQ is a bit of a religion I've noticed. While visiting the states I watched an honest to god fight over Texas vs. Carolina BBQ.

Every region thinks they have better barbeque.

amwbox

I've never heard of that section called "plate" unless it's called something different in different regions.

The plate is where you get skirt and hanger steaks. Also usually the source of pastrami...and least in the US.

amwbox

Every region thinks they have better barbeque.

Everyone thinks they have better everything. I always hear about "southern" food such as biscuits and gravy and chicken fried steak...which is mystifying because I'm from Alaska originally and I grew up on that stuff.

*shrug*