How hot should a grill get?

Xiney

I'm not particularly familiar with Irish style ovens and grills. I used to use the broiler back home really often, it was brilliant for meat.

How hot should the grill be getting? Should I be able to cook burgers without drying them out?



The reason I ask is because I wonder if I should mention to my landlady that it's not working properly... but if it's not supposed to get that hot then it might be working properly and it just doesn't do what I want it to. This is the first time our oven has had a seperate grill - we've always had a combination one before.

diceyreilly

I'm not expert but i made the most delicious burgers for dinner yesterday and had the grill at 110 degrees..

huskerdu

A standard grill in an Irish cooker will not get as hot as an American Broiler,
and isn't nearly as good for cooking meat.

As you are renting, there is a chance that the cooker is old, or cheap,
so a rubbish grill would be expected.

What brand is the cooker ? does it look old ?

Xiney

It's a Tricity Bendix, whatever that is.

It might be old or new, all I know is that it was likely cheap because the enamel has come off pretty much on all the edges causing these to rust - which looks terrible but as long as it's functioning I guess I'm stuck with it!

bonkey

Hmmm.

That's a good question.

Both of my ovens have grill settings which default to 230 C when turned on. I think they top out at 250. Not sure, because I usually turn them down rather then up.

They're pretty good kit, though...so YMMV.

Should I be able to cook burgers without drying them out?

I would have thought so.

Alun

I've never come across a grill with a temperature scale on the dial to be honest. It's usually the same as hob rings, i.e. just an arbitrary scale from 1 to 5 for example.

So, surely if things are cooking to fast for you, then either just turn it down to a lower setting and/or move the grill pan away from the heat .. most grills I have come across have two levels for the grid the grill pan sits on .. one very close that is only really suitable for making toast, and a lower one that's more suitable for grilling meats.

Xiney

no my problem is it's not getting hot enough - by the time the burgers are thoroughly cooked they're dried out.

(you know how making jerky is basically cooking strips of meat at a low temp for a long time? that's basically what I've been doing without meaning to)

Seaneh

I'm guessing they are home made burgers yeah and you won't want to cook them fully on a frying pan because they will shrink etc?

If so, just get your pan really really hot, use a tiny amount of oil (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan) and when its almost smoking (you will see a sort of blue haze) put your burgers on the pan, just do like 60 seconds each side and then transfer to an oven preheated to about 180c for about 7-8 minutes and then rest them for a minute or two. will cook through and still be moist and yummy and you will get the blackened/caramalised outside bits you;d get from a broiler in the states/canada.

huskerdu

Xiney wrote: »

no my problem is it's not getting hot enough - by the time the burgers are thoroughly cooked they're dried out.

(you know how making jerky is basically cooking strips of meat at a low temp for a long time? that's basically what I've been doing without meaning to)

I think you are going to have to live with the fact that the grill on your cooker, is nowhere near as hot as the broiler that you are used to.

A very new, modern cooker would be better, but still not the same.

Xiney

Seaneh wrote: »

I'm guessing they are home made burgers yeah and you won't want to cook them fully on a frying pan because they will shrink etc?

If so, just get your pan really really hot, use a tiny amount of oil (just enough to coat the bottom of the pan) and when its almost smoking (you will see a sort of blue haze) put your burgers on the pan, just do like 60 seconds each side and then transfer to an oven preheated to about 180c for about 7-8 minutes and then rest them for a minute or two. will cook through and still be moist and yummy and you will get the blackened/caramalised outside bits you;d get from a broiler in the states/canada.

I usually do them that way. I just didn't want to go through the bother of my cast iron grill pan for two burgers... so I tried using the grill which turned out to be quite inadequate for my purposes.

rubadub

diceyreilly wrote: »

I'm not expert but i made the most delicious burgers for dinner yesterday and had the grill at 110 degrees..

110? water boils at 100C so I would say it was a lot hotter than that.

Alun wrote: »

I've never come across a grill with a temperature scale on the dial to be honest. It's usually the same as hob rings, i.e. just an arbitrary scale from 1 to 5 for example.

The ones I have seen scales are grills which double up as "lower ovens", when the door is closed it becomes an oven and the temps refer to that. If your grill element is visibly glowing then it is a lot higher than 250C, i.e. the grill element itself is a lot hotter, how hot your food gets really depends on how close you are to the element.

Xiney- how close do you put the burgers to the grill. My one will cause fires cooking burgers on the top shelf.

The dial or internal power switching could be broken so it might be permanently stuck on low.

diceyreilly

rubadub wrote: »

110? water boils at 100C so I would say it was a lot hotter than that.


I prefer to slow cook them, i think they taste a lot nicer if you leave them in longer on a lower heat..