Start Broiling Your Food With The Oven Door Open For The Best Results

When learning to cook, everyone generally gets a good handle on the basics of the stovetop and the oven. The stove provides direct heat, and the oven, indirect. But what about the broiler? Not nearly so commonly used as the stove or oven, the broiler can be a bit trickier to use. But when it is the right tool for the job, it does wonders. Tasting Table spoke to Chef Randy Feltis, co-author of "Katherine Wants: The Ultimate Date Night Cookbook," who said that you need to use it with the oven door open to get the most out of your broiler.

There are a few reasons why keeping the door of the oven open creates the ideal broiling environment, though some of it is also down to the specifics of your appliance. For some ovens, the broiler will only run when the oven is below a certain temperature. But the whole point of the broiler is to hit your food with intense radiative heat — much like you get from a hot grill — so if it turns off when the oven gets too hot, you end up just baking the food at a high temperature. Plus, there is a big difference between broiling and baking. In this case, keeping the oven door slightly ajar will allow some of that heat to vent out, keeping the temperature low enough for the broiler to stay on, and keep blasting your food with that intense, directional heat.

The next reason that you might want to keep the oven door open a touch while you are broiling is related to the first, but also quite different. For many ovens, the broiler will continue to run regardless of the internal temperature, so you could close the oven door without it turning off. However, this can have a significant impact on how your food broils.

The broiler really is meant to act like a grill. It gives really intense heat from one direction. When you are looking to add a golden crust to baked pasta, the broiler is your tool. You can also use your broiler for perfectly cooked tuna steaks, searing the outside and leaving the center nice and pink. But to accomplish these goals, the broiler relies on a similar environment to a grill. Namely, it needs airflow.

This airflow is about controlling temperature and steam. If you close the door, there is nowhere for all of that hot, moist air to go, so it builds up inside and ends up baking your food. With the door open, airflow keeps the ambient temperature low, and the broiler can do what it's meant to do.

The final reason to keep the door open when broiling, according to Chef Feltis, is so that "You can keep an eye on the product." Broiling is meant to be fast and intense, but that also means that even an extra 30 seconds of cooking time can lead to culinary disaster. Keeping the door cracked means that you always have eyes on your dish to make sure it doesn't burn. Chef Feltis recommender to "have it completely open and just keep an eye on the caramelization."

As much as keeping the oven door open might seem like it should jump to the top of your list of broiler hacks, there are some instances in which you should be leery of the practice. The primary problem, it turns out, is that many modern ovens just aren't built for it.

For many newer ovens, the manual suggests that broiling should be done only with the door closed. In fact, it is actually a built-in function on many newer ovens that when the door is opened, the heating element automatically turns off. In some models, the screen will indicate that the door needs to be closed for the broiler to start, but others might simply turn off without warning. So, be sure to consult your oven's manual before trying this technique.

One of the main reasons that ovens are no longer built to be able to run the broiler while the door is open is the increase in electronics. For many home ovens, the space just above the oven door is where all of the controls are located. Having the broiler cranking with the door cracked leads to a lot of heat flowing up and over these controls, which could lead to serious damage. Fortunately, to account for the inability to broil with the door open, many ovens now have systems to help with temperature control and smoke abatement from broiling. Cracking the oven door can be a handy little trick to help you get the best out of your broiler — but depending on the last time you remodeled your kitchen, it may also be a thing of the past.