Infrared radiation, especially at close range, has a tendency to char things (which is great when you are trying to cook steaks), while hot air does not have that tendency (which is great for cakes).
In a normal kitchen oven, what most people are interested in is baking things like cakes or biscuits. In the ideal case, what baking means is “immersing the object to be cooked in an environment of still, hot air.” So if you are baking a cake and the directions say, “Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes,” then ideally you would place the cake in a box (an oven) that contains still air at a constant temperature of 350 degrees F. There would be little or no infrared radiation to brown or char the top of the cake.
This, by the way, is why you pre-heat an oven. The idea is to get all of the air in the oven up to the proper temperature so that the burner does not have to come on very often or for very long. That keeps the infrared radiation from the burner to a minimum. That also explains why only the lower burner comes on during baking — the radiation that does get generated by the burner hits the pan rather than the top of the cake.
When you want to grill a steak, what you should use is a barbecue grill outside. A barbecue grill cooks with infrared radiation generated by hot coals beneath the food. If you dont have a barbecue (or if it is raining outside), you can broil the steak in your oven. When you set the oven to its broil setting, the oven turns on its top burner and leaves it on. This creates lots of infrared radiation above the food. So you put the steak in a broiling pan to catch the juice, and then place the steak very close to the top burner. Normally, you leave the door of the oven slightly open when broiling.
The broiling burner is an upside-down barbecue, with the burner replacing the coals. Broiling generally creates a huge mess inside the oven from all the splattering, as well as tons of smoke outside the oven (and therefore in the kitchen), which is why most people use the grill instead of the ovens broiler.
The bottom line Baking and broiling are cooking techniques that use the dry heat of an oven. Baking is best used for foods with a liquid or semi-solid structure that needs to solidify during the cooking process, while broiling is best used to quickly cook thin pieces of food.
My oven has recently broken, it turns on but does not heat. On the other hand, my broiler works just fine and Ive been able to cook peach cobbler and peach bread, though that calls for a different recipe. Of course. its a pandemic and Im unable to get the oven fixed right now, I will be making a 4 tier chocolate box cake for my friends birthday in a square 8×8″ pan and I really dont want to mess it up, is there any possible way to figure out how long to bake a cake in the oven on the low broiler setting, should i just check it every 15 minutes? Thank you in advance
When you want to grill a steak, what you should use is a barbecue grill outside. A barbecue grill cooks with infrared radiation generated by hot coals beneath the food. If you dont have a barbecue (or if it is raining outside), you can broil the steak in your oven. When you set the oven to its broil setting, the oven turns on its top burner and leaves it on. This creates lots of infrared radiation above the food. So you put the steak in a broiling pan to catch the juice, and then place the steak very close to the top burner. Normally, you leave the door of the oven slightly open when broiling.
This, by the way, is why you pre-heat an oven. The idea is to get all of the air in the oven up to the proper temperature so that the burner does not have to come on very often or for very long. That keeps the infrared radiation from the burner to a minimum. That also explains why only the lower burner comes on during baking — the radiation that does get generated by the burner hits the pan rather than the top of the cake.
In a normal kitchen oven, what most people are interested in is baking things like cakes or biscuits. In the ideal case, what baking means is “immersing the object to be cooked in an environment of still, hot air.” So if you are baking a cake and the directions say, “Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes,” then ideally you would place the cake in a box (an oven) that contains still air at a constant temperature of 350 degrees F. There would be little or no infrared radiation to brown or char the top of the cake.
Infrared radiation, especially at close range, has a tendency to char things (which is great when you are trying to cook steaks), while hot air does not have that tendency (which is great for cakes).
The broiling burner is an upside-down barbecue, with the burner replacing the coals. Broiling generally creates a huge mess inside the oven from all the splattering, as well as tons of smoke outside the oven (and therefore in the kitchen), which is why most people use the grill instead of the ovens broiler.
Baking vs Broiling & Roast? | What You Need to Know
FAQ
What happens if you broil instead of bake?
Can you bake with the broiler?
Does broil take longer than bake?
Why does my broiler work but not my oven?