24 November, 2009
The oven, dinner and an accident waiting to happen
I didn't think roasting a chicken would be complicated. I also didn't think the oven would be different. But of course it is. It comes with a "Bake" function and a "Broil" function. Broil means roast, apparently, though I think the word sounds too wet for that. Anyway I assumed the broil function was it but then found that also involves a roast tray thing to go into the oven that I don't have so I'm sticking to the Bake function. And that means my oven has a rather terrifying looking element glowing away at the bottom. Last week a piece of pizza slid onto it and burnt enough to set the smoke alarm off. Is this what all US ovens are like or do I have a particularly primitive version? I'm just not used to being able to see the heating element (or knowing how clumsy I am, touch the thing). Damn, I just set the smoke alarm off again, and I haven't even got the chicken in the oven yet. At least the fire station is on the same block as us, so if I prove deeply incompetent, they can come and rescue us.
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5 comments:
I'd always translated broil as grill, which shows what I know - and I absolutely agree, it does sound too wet for either of those. Why don't you pot roast the chicken? Then you won't have to switch on the oven ...
Joanna
"Broil" turns on the element at the top, "Bake" turns on the element at the bottom. The top element is usually only used to brown the tops of things, often with the door ajar, the bottom element is used for almost everything else. That's the way this American understands it.
Doug, Thank you! Unsurprisingly the instructions for the oven were nothing like as clear.
Another annoying thing about the North American oven is that when you turn it on to preheat, both top and bottom elements come on until it gets up to temperature. So don't, as I did, put something in the oven and turn it on to warm it up - instant charring of bread pudding.
Broil: To cook by direct radiant heat, as over a grill or under an electric element.
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