Check out the Elux ovens. Mine is a 2006 Model, Icon, we broil with the door open, maybe CJ can add her experience as her Elux ovens are a bit newer than mine.

Gary

Jeff, the new ovens use fans to vent the air and are designed to broil with the door closed. The door open thing is to vent smoke. NuTone, among others, used to sell over the oven extractor fans for open door broiling, but no one seems to make them anymore.

By definition, broiling is using high, direct heat to quickly cook thin and tender cuts, without added fat.

I broil in my Gaggenau electric oven (just mentioning what kind, Gary, not advocating it) with the door closed and get great results. Roasting is with bottom heat. It's a macho word for baking meat, and like baking a cake is about the hot air surrounding the pot. Broiling is done with a broiling element and from the top, usually at 375-500 degrees. Lamb chops, for instance, dry out at high heat, and 375-400 is better. Some ovens also have a convection broil setting.

I can't say so much about the cycling. You do want a steady top heat, but it probably does need to go on and off to maintain the proper temperature.

My personal trick is to use a cast iron grill plate instead of a broiling pans. I warm it up in the preheat. I get a great sear, and the cooking is very even. I still turn halfway through, but it's not as urgent to get it right. A regular broiling pan works just fine too (and is necessary with drippier meats).

Feel free to advocate Pillog, I do most of my broiling outside on my gas infrared, so I'm sure you have a lot more experience with inside broiling than I do!

Gary

Hi Pilog- thanks - the grill plate sounds like a great workaround (the oven heats the grill plate, which sears the food), but without doing that, I don't see how meat will broil as well if the element cycles off. It will cook eventually, but if one does a lot of broiling, and doesn't want to get a stove-top griller (or grill plate), it still seems like that person would be happier with an open-door.

(unless you're suggesting that the new ovens use fans to keep the temp low enough that the broiler stays on - you may be right, but the manuals for all the ones I've seen warn you that the broil element will be off as much as on when you're broiling)

thanks!
/j

Hi Jeff, it's 3 l's, btw :) The grill plate is really for the lines. I don't know if the element in my oven cycles on and off or not. I am a stickler for how the baking element works, but I never questioned the broiler. I set it. It broils. End of story. It does give very good results, even without the grill plate. The grill plate is for the lines, and to make it unimportant if I turn the meat five minutes late.

As I said before, the fans vent the oven so you don't need to leave the door open, but I don't have more technical info for you. Perhaps you can e-mail the manufacturer of the oven you like, or find a showroom where they know what they're doing.

Some people call broiling "upside down grilling". I think that's pretty apt. While the oven does heat up all around, there's intense heat coming from the broiler. The big difference is infrared. Some electric ovens specify that they have IR broilers. Those probably give you an outcome that's more like grilling outside. I know when I broil in my electric oven, which some people say is IR but not the promotional material from the maker, my results are similar to a gas grill but not a barbecue.

I think it's hard to get a good sear with any oven broiler. I think contact does a much better job on the caramelization than just raw heat.