What's the point of Broiling?

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I was looking at my oven today and started to wonder why having the heat come from above (broiling) consitutes a different method of cooking. What exactly happpens differently then normal"bake"?

[Alobar]

your food gets "crustier"

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your food gets "crustier"

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That's it? Seriously?

[Alobar]

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your food gets "crustier"

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That's it? Seriously?

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well im not a chef or anything...but im pretty sure thats it

[Benholio]

Howstuffworks: "In a kitchen oven, what is the difference between the bake setting and the broil setting?" (http://home.howstuffworks.com/question228.htm)

The meat of the article:

Baking and broiling are completely different ways to cook food.

* In baking, you are trying to heat food by surrounding the food with hot air.
* In broiling, you are trying to heat food using infrared radiation.

Infrared radiation, especially at close range, has a tendency to char things (which is great when you are trying to cook steaks), while hot air does not have that tendency (which is great for cakes).

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Also see this article. (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm)

[bholdr]

broiling lets one cook fatty foods in a flat pad, exposing the meat, etc, to the heat while letting it boil in it's own juices.

it's different from roasting in that it yeilds the charred/ toasted texture that grilling does, without losing all the flavor and fat.

[Eurotrash]

I'm not exactly sure myself, but I was under the impression that the broiler basically exposes your food to a direct flame. Not in the sense that it contacts the food, but the flame is very close to the food

With baking, I'm pretty sure it's more convective heating -- i.e. the oven heats the air which in turn cooks your food


anybody feel free to tell me how wrong that is.

[nicky g]

Note that broiling is a pretty unhealth way to cook food, although it comes out delicious.

[edfurlong]

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I was looking at my oven today and started to wonder why having the heat come from above (broiling) consitutes a different method of cooking. What exactly happpens differently then normal"bake"?

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Just think of it as grilling in the oven.