Wikipedia: For Wikipedia grilling and broiling are the same cooking technique. Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above [broiling] or below [grilling]. Broiling is really a North American term and not used elsewhere as much, others use grilling only.
Broiling is cooking under high heat, which Kitchn.com calls sort of an upside down grilling process. The rack is placed down 3-6″ from the broiler, and using a broiling pan you put the meat up there with the heat. My stove’s broiler two settings are hi or off, and most food is done within 5-10 minutes. My mother always had us keep the door slightly open, she said to keep the air circulating.
Recipes: You can broil meat, fowl, fish, veggies and fruit as well as casseroles and other dishes you want to have a golden topping crust like mac-n-cheese or a gratin. Just make sure your dishes can take the heat.
Equipment
For broiling meat you will need a broiling pan (do not use glass or a casserole dish). These pans often come with your stove and consist of a shallow upper-slotted pan and a deep lower-drip pan. This setup allows fat to drip away from the meat but captures the liquid in case you want to use it for other foods or sauces.
You can also use a baking sheet or cast-iron skillet to broil veggies in but be careful as it the cast iron will be heavy and very hot coming out of the oven. Do not use parchment paper or silicon as this heat is too hot for them and they will burn. If using a cast-iron skillet to broil a steak be sure to heat up the skillet first for ~20 minutes and your steak will cook very fast.
Broiling is where typically people use aluminum foil to line their pans as the clean up can be messy. However I do not want my food to touch foil, so I try to just spray-oil the pans before cooking. And lots of soaking and elbow grease for cleaning. I want to clean the pans while hot since I can often get stuff off with liquid by pretending the mess is fond and I am making a sauce. Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea if the material is not too burnt.
Temperature
I do not control the temperature of broiling on my gas stove, only how far away from the heat the food is placed. I have read where broilers run 500F to 550F (260 – 290C.) I preheat the broiler ~10 minutes before using since it can take a bit to get up to the proper heating levels.
Broiling Process
- Turn on the boiler + arrange the oven rack
- Set up the right pan
- If veggies: toss in oil and season before placing on pan
- If casserole: finish under broiler to make a tasty burnt-like golden brown topping
- If meat: season and preheat the pan
- Align the food on the pan
- Leave the door cracked a bit
- Monitor closely so food does not burn
