Cooking techniques like baking and broiling use the dry heat of an oven. Both are healthful cooking methods, frequently combined with other techniques such as toasting and roasting. Still, each one works best on certain kinds of things and gives different results.
This piece talks about what the difference is between broiling and baking and what kinds of foods work best with each.
Difference between broil vs. bake
Both broiling and baking use the dry heat of an oven, but they do so slightly differently, producing different effects
Broiling
When you grill, you use direct oven heat to cook solid foods like meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables quickly. The temperature is about 550 °C (289 °F).
Foods need to be close to the grill so that the heat can reach them and cook them. This could be the top or bottom rack, depending on your oven.
When you broil food, the top gets grill marks, and it’s best for cooking thin foods. You can also use this method to add more structure to the exterior of foods cooked in different ways, such as baking.
Baking
People bake things by putting hot air around them to cook them indirectly. You only hear this term for foods like cakes, bread, and muffins that don’t have a stable structure that hardens while they’re cooking.
The middle rack of the oven typically cooks food at temperatures up to 375 °C (190 °F). This cooks the food slowly on the inside, without burning the outside.
Health benefits of broiling or baking
Broiling and baking are both thought to be healthy ways to cook.
Baking is a great way to keep as many nutrients as possible while cooking. For instance, frying tuna can lead to the loss of up to 85% of its omega-3 substance, whereas baking it results in only a minor reduction.
In the same way, some vitamins and minerals seem to break down a little less when baked than when cooked in other ways.
Also, when you bake or broil, you don’t have to add oil, which lowers the overall fat content of your meal.
Aldehydes are also less likely to form when you don’t add fat to foods before cooking them. Burning oil at very high temperatures produces these dangerous chemicals. They may raise the risk of cancer and other diseases.
Even though broiling stops aldehyde production, it may cause the production of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which may be cancer-causing.
Food fat produces PAHs when it comes into contact with a hot surface. So, quickly removing meat drippings, trimming foods of extra fat before broiling, and staying away from oil-based marinades are all good ways to stop PAH formation.
Which method is best?
Because they use dry heat, it’s best to cook foods that are already wet when you bake or broil them.
Foods that are best baked
When you bake, the outside slowly turns dark while the inside of a food, which would normally be liquid or almost liquid, solidifies.
That’s why this way of cooking is great for baked goods like buns, bread, cakes, cookies, and muffins.
You can also make casseroles, quiches, pot pies, enchiladas, lasagna, and stuffed veggies in one pot when you bake them.
Food that are best grilled
Instead of grilling on a BBQ, you can easily broil. It cooks food quickly and can char and brown it, which gives it a unique taste and texture. The best things to broil are:
- Thin cuts of meat: Meat, such as rib eye, tenderloin, or T-bone steak, ground meat burgers, meat kabobs, lamb chops, and cut-in-half and deboned chicken or turkey breasts, should be less than 1.5 inches (4 cm) thick.
- Fish fillets and seafood: Swordfish, tilapia, salmon, tuna, scallops, and shrimp are all fish pieces and seafood.
- Tender fruit: Bananas, peaches, oranges, pineapple, and mango are all soft fruits.
- Some vegetables: The ingredients include asparagus, tomato halves, pepper pieces, onion wedges, summer squash slices, and tomato halves.
When you broil some things, a lot of smoke may come out. To avoid this, trim foods of any extra fat before cooking them. Additionally, monitor your food during cooking and flip it halfway through to prevent burning.
The bottom line
Ovens use dry heat to cook foods, such as baking and broiling. When cooking, baking is best for foods that are liquid or mostly solid and need to harden during the cooking process. Broiling, on the other hand, is best for quickly cooking small pieces of food.
Compared to frying, both of these ways of cooking use very little extra fat and create fewer harmful chemicals, so they are great choices for making healthy, nutritious meals.
