Absurdly Silly: How do I broil in my gas oven?

[CharityCase]

Ok, I really need help understanding something here. We just moved into our first house complete with gas stove/oven. I of course love the gas stove and its precision but I cannot for the life of me...umm..."understand" how one broils with this thing.

It's an entry-level GE range, there is indeed a broil setting but when I use it I don't see anything at all in the upper broiling area...no flames that is. And te heat from that area isn't all that impressive but maybe I need to give it more time to heat up? Now I'm also being told crazy things like "the broiler is in the drawer at the bottom" but I don't know what to believe...

So could someone answer this question for me, orgive a few tips on broiling in a gas oven?

Thanks.

[Dave the Cook]

It is in the drawer. This is an economy move: since the burner that heats the oven is beneath the oven cavity, the manufacturer just leaves the space beneath the burner open and gives you access through the drawer. I don't of of anyone (except manufacturers, of course) who think this is a great idea.

[SuzySushi]

It could very well be that the broiler is the drawer at the bottom -- that's how it was when I had a gas range (many years ago).

Pull out the bottom drawer and make sure there's nothing in it. It may have come with a broiler pan, which you can use or use your own pan.

Light the oven, set it to "broil" and put the food on the broiler pan and set in in the drawer. DO NOT CLOSE THE DRAWER ALL THE WAY -- you need to keep it open an inch or two to prevent flare-ups. You probably won't see the gas flame, but you should feel the heat inside the drawer and see the food browning.

[JAZ]

Just a note to what Suzy said: in my incredibly low-end gas oven, there really isn't a "broiler drawer" to pull out. The door to it opens out, and then there's a rack that can be moved closer to or farther from the flame -- it pulls out a little way, but too far and it falls. It's got to be the worst designed broiler I've ever seen. Let's hope yours isn't this style.

[racheld]

Voice from the past saying, "Swingout door, swingout door." That's what we had in the stove I grew up with---a little door the size of a book, which swung on a little pivot-hinge on the right side. The "shelf" within was a quarter-circle little flat wedge which swung out over the floor and accepted VERY small pans.

In fact, NO pan that we had would fit well---we made our breakfast toast in a 9" cake pan, which would hold only one slice at a time. So for a family of four, the time spent opening and buttering and squeaking shut was enormous on school mornings. And you could toast only the top side, because my Mother's idea of buttered toast was to put little thin square pats onto the COLD slice of bread, screech it into the oven, and remove it with the bread nicely browned and crisp, except for those four or five anemic little greasy pale spots where the butter sat.

So then, the idea came: Make several at once by standing them up against the sides. Which resulted in the above brown-with-white-pocked divots, only slumped into grotesque shapes by the angle of their rest. And of course, the bottom sides were naturally still soft and a mushy sweaty-white.

I hated that oven---just making the morning toast (de rigueur, along with bacon and eggs, the "best" thing for growing children) made the kitchen hot until time to cook the noon dinner. I never saw or tasted flat two-sides-crisp toast til I went to college. And until this day, I still can't face bacon and eggs before noon.

[ghostrider]

We have a "vintage" Kenmore gas range with a genuine pull-out broiler drawer. It's still darned annoying. I almost never use it because spatter goes all over & it's just a complete bore to crawl around on your knees trying to clean the thing. Even though it has an adjustable-height broiling pan, I find it impossible to get the pan far enough away from the flame to be useful. My few attempts at broling with this contraption have resulted either in a nicely seared exterior and undercooked interior, or a dismally charred exterior that overwhelms the properly cooked interior.

The design just doesn't offer enough control, is my conclusion.

. And te heat from that area isn't all that impressive but maybe I need to give it more time to heat up?

If your oven is like mine, it will take at least a minute before the oven/broiler burner lights from the pilot once you switch it on. After that you will need some time for pre-heating, depending on ambient temperatures. (This is less important for the broiler than it is for the oven, of course.)

[SuzySushi]

screech it into the oven...

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Ah, yes. How could I forget??

That's just one of the reasons I bought myself a toaster-oven.

[jayt90]

I could never broil a steak or chops with these entry level gas broilers, though I tried many times. They are OK for chicken and fish, however. But a good, small toaster oven will do just as well.

[CharityCase]

Thanks all for your replies...the broiler's in the drawer and my girlfriend is laughing her face off at my ineptitude.

[SuzySushi]

Thanks all for your replies...the broiler's in the drawer and my girlfriend is laughing her face off at my ineptitude.

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Don't worry about it.... things like this happen to all of us! I recently called a repairman because neither I nor my new tenants could turn on the dishwasher in an apartment I own (and have owned for the past 8+ years!). There was a switch under the kitchen sink that no one had ever told me about!! Now, that's really embarrassing!

[racheld]

There was a switch under the kitchen sink that no one had ever told me about!! Now, that's really embarrassing! 

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Embarrassing is one thing---inconvenient is another. We had a house once with the switch beneath the sink, but it controlled BOTH the dishwasher and the disposal. And both cords were plugged into the same outlet beneath the sink, as well.

It was like some manic ballet---hit buttons on dishwasher, hear GRRRRRRR from the depths of the sink. Stand on your head and unplug one of the two cords in the dark---reach for switch and click it to see what whirred or growled. And the last person who plugged it in might have taken out both in frustration, so the tryouts began, finding which was which. I put a bit of red yarn on the disposal cord, and that was as convenient as it got. Any use of DW required bending and reaching behind the Dawn and the Electrosol bucket.

Made me homesick for that screechy old broiler door.

[Octaveman]

I sometimes get large loafs of premade garlic bread from the store when I don't want to deal with making it myself and I toast it in the broiler "space". It's usually on fire within 10 seconds.

[I_call_the_duck]

Thanks all for your replies...the broiler's in the drawer and my girlfriend is laughing her face off at my ineptitude.

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Don't worry about it.... things like this happen to all of us! I recently called a repairman because neither I nor my new tenants could turn on the dishwasher in an apartment I own (and have owned for the past 8+ years!). There was a switch under the kitchen sink that no one had ever told me about!! Now, that's really embarrassing!

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HEE! When we moved into our new house, our dining room was really dark, even with the three (working, I checked) 75-watt bulbs in the fixture. I read that it could be a sign of a serious wiring problem, so I called the electrician, who came immediately. It turned out that we never noticed that there was a tiny dimmer right next to the switch. The electrician looked at me like I was an idiot, and luckily he didn't charge us for the visit.

So getting back on topic, CharityCase, have you used your broiler now that you've found it?

[mizducky]

Thanks all for your replies...the broiler's in the drawer and my girlfriend is laughing her face off at my ineptitude.

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If it makes you feel any better, I clearly remember my first run-in with the exact opposite of your problem. I grew up in households with exclusively gas ranges--it wasn't until I was an adult on my own in my first apartment that I encountered my very first all-electric range. Imagine my surprise when I bought a steak, brought it home, pulled open the drawer under the oven ... and found it was just a drawer! Where the *#@& was the goddamn broiler?!?!??? I finally found some documentation somewhere explaining that electric ovens have their broiler element in the top of the main oven compartment, plus the whole boondoggle of needing to keep the oven door ajar while broiling. Still, for years afterward I was perplexed as to why manufacturers of electric ovens insisted on putting that "non-functional broiler drawer" on their ovens anyway.

[MarketStEl]

If it makes you feel any better, I clearly remember my first run-in with the exact opposite of your problem. I grew up in households with exclusively gas ranges--it wasn't until I was an adult on my own in my first apartment that I encountered my very first all-electric range. Imagine my surprise when I bought a steak, brought it home, pulled open the drawer under the oven ... and found it was just a drawer! Where the *#@& was the goddamn broiler?!?!??? I finally found some documentation somewhere explaining that electric ovens have their broiler element in the top of the main oven compartment, plus the whole boondoggle of needing to keep the oven door ajar while broiling. Still, for years afterward I was perplexed as to why manufacturers of electric ovens insisted on putting that "non-functional broiler drawer" on their ovens anyway.

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[emphasis added]

Oh.

So that's why my kitchen smokes up when I'm broiling things!

Funny thing is, the first range and oven I ever cooked on were electric. You'd think I'd have learned this back then. You'd be wrong.