Are you afraid of your oven's broiler?

Question

I love to cook but I am afraid of my broiler. I have an electric oven. I tried a recipe for a casserole with bacon on top. I put my broiler on low. It only took a minute for the bacon to start splattering. I saw the little drops of grease pop, hit the elements and smoke. Can't this cause a fire? The dish was at least 3 to 5 inches from the top which is where I thought it is supposed to be. I started to panic and quickly turned off the oven and took the dish out. I just ended up frying the bacon in a pan.

Answer 1

yes, especially when there was fire in it--nothing happened serious enough to panic

Answer 2

Naw, I love a good broiler!  The stove I have now doesn't have one and I miss it something terrible.  A broiler is the best way to make really good open-faced toasted cheese bread.  You just place slided cheese over bread and put it on a cookie sheet, pop it into the broiler and in 10 minutes you have beautiful, bubbly, melty cheese bread!  MMMmmm!

Answer 3

I don't know why but my mom always left the over door propped open about two inches when she had the broiler on.  I still don't know what it does ... except I think it reduces the heat while allowing the top of the dish to brown.  I've closed the door and broiled before and the heat is too much for the dish, inevitably.  I always prop the door open and this eliminates any problem with over cooking, splattering and such.  Oh, except for MEAT ... meat always leaves grease splatters on my elements and it never catches on fire.  Just smokes a lot and needs to be burned off before cooking again.

Answer 4

Nah, you dont have to worry about that. Theres not enough grease to start a fire there. It will smoke a little bit sometimes, but thats not a real  problem.

I use my broiler all the time. It is one of my favorite things in my kitchen, just behind the stove and oven.

Answer 5

haha

not anymore

the broiler does cause slatter and smoke but it also workd well to get things crispy and cheese melty really quick!

NEVER leave on broil for more then a few minutes and dotn walk away

use caution when opening oven door cause the black smoke comes out

Answer 6

Generally, the only way you will have a fire is if your meat is sitting in the grease and you don't tend to it.  If there is a fire (which I had once), all I had to do was blow on it and the fire went out.  My fire was caused by cooking pork chops on a cookie sheet.  The oils spread out, got very hot, did the spatter business and caught a portion of the oil in the pan on fire.  But, a fire can happen in a skillet too if you allow your oil to get too hot.  That's why it's important to not wander off when you are cooking.  I have broiled oysters wrapped in bacon many times and never had a fire from them.  I probably had my meat a little lower in the oven than you - not on the top position in the oven.

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

It may flare up, but it won't or shouldn't catch totally on fire.  Do move the rack lower and just take the little bit of extra time to cook your items.  Maybe put the food on the middle rack and put the broiler on high.  When I got my new stove it took a few to get the setting right.  

Answer 8

Oven broilers are a pain in the neck. They never cook anything correctly and they leave a big greasy mess. I never use mine.