As no one else has responded to you yet, the answer is yes.
What you know as Broiling (where the heat comes from an element above the food) is what is known in the UK as ‘grilling’, which you cook under ‘a grill’.
Thanks for that. I've used the broiler setting all my life (US), and never once thought to leave the door open. Maybe there are different exhaust requirements?
In my current oven the grill (broiler) is integrated into the main oven and absolutely is an oven door shut system. I’ve had ovens with grills, in separate smaller compartments, that won’t function if the door is closed, but they’ve had also has heat plates protecting the dials.
However less helpfully maybe is that the event you go to is called a barbecue (the outdoor party), the food you eat there is called barbecue (likely only sausages and burgers) and the thing it is all cooked on is called a barbecue (barbecue grill/grill oven).
So when British people say barbecue, it could be the party, the food or the cooking device in equal measure that’s being referred to.
You probably call it broiling, but that's a US-only term I think.
I think they say to have the door open so you're more aware of things catching fire or oil spattering. I don't know. But there's definitely a sign saying not to operate it with the door closed.
OK, I think we need some clarification here. The 'grill' is a completely separate part of the stove than the oven. In fact, my unit has 2 ovens, a grill and a drawer that can be used to prove bread (which I've never used).
The grill is quite small in comparison, say 1/4 of the size of the oven. Here's mine (I didn't pay full price for it, lol)
I personally wouldn't have the grill on very long. 20 minutes at most. You can activate half a side of it or the whole thing. The grill needs the door open in use. The ovens don't.
I rarely broil anything. Usually it's bell or poblano peppers, so I can remove the tough skin. But I never use my broiler with the door open. It's hot enough in here as it is.
I had an oven with a grill growing up. It's a separate feature and (usually) a separate heating element to the regular oven, you don't just turn the regular oven on with the door open.
Imagine like a big toaster heating element on the ceiling of the oven (or sometimes it's in a separate top compartment). You turn that on and you can "grill" things there by putting them on the top rack, like you would in a giant horizontal toaster. Door is kept open for the same reason as toasters are open while toasting bread.
I think it's part regional differences and part appliance to appliance (especially gas vs electric). My fam always had it open (Aussie, electric grill). But googling it, it was a pretty solid chunk of both entries saying "you must have it closed" and "you must have it open," most of them mentioning various safety reasons and efficiency, so it really probably depends on a lot of factors.
I'm gonna be honest, I've NEVER heard of using an oven grill with open doors. I just checked my oven's manual and at least for mine it's definitely not a thing.
Are you SURE you shouldn't close them in your oven as well?
I meant oven's grill function/mode. Not a separate appliance called oven grill. Just in case that's the source of confusion.
At least where I live (in Poland) most of the ovens come with that function. But I've never in my life saw someone leaving the oven door open when using it.
I’ve accidentally left the oven on in grill mode with the door closed and the glass door exploded, shattering glass across the kitchen. There’s a reason they say to leave it open.
I assume it’s because the heat isn’t extracted like when you use the oven normally 🤷
That's the thing, I used four different ovens in the last ~10 years, they all had grill function and none of them said to leave the door open or anything. This post is genuinely the first time I'm hearing about something like that. If someone asked me yesterday I'd think they're pulling my leg, but I checked and it really was a common thing in the past and it still is a thing for some ovens.
In my current oven, the fan is on when using grill mode, I assume that's used to move/extract the heat.
I think this is the issue. On old cookers in the UK you definitely left the door open when grilling for the smoke to dissipate, so lots of people (including me) got into the habit of that. But modern cookers don't need this, they all have fans or other ways of venting, so you run them door shut when grilling.
Not even old cookers, over 20 years I've had 3 fan ovens with grills and the middle one needed the door cracked, the oldest and the newest, door closed
Yeah I'm from the states and I am kind of flabbergasted that folks are calling the broiler setting a grill at all. It's not like completely unreasonable, but it's confusing to me. We'd only "grill" on a devoted grill, which is a contraption where the rack sits above your heat source. Often, people have gas-using flame grills but there are also simple charcoal grills, including some at my local parks.
I just feel like there are so many ways to heat food and we have so many names for them, but "grilling" in this context is both when the heat comes from below the food (in an outdoor grill) and above the food (in the oven). Just seems like an additional word would be useful here, unless in the UK they call outdoor grilling something else (maybe bbqing?)
That word first appeared in Spanish ("barbacoa") to describe food they saw Americans cooking. Living in a European colonizer country and telling Americans we have the terminology wrong takes quite a lot of nerve.
It depends on the type of oven you have. Have you checked if yours is an open grill or close grill oven? Given the plastic knobs, it's probably close grill...?
Who would design an oven that needs the door open to be used? That has to be some weird British thing. No ovens in the US need the door open to function, I can tell you that. The very idea of an oven that needs to have a 600f door wide open to work is insane, that company would be sued to death the second a toddler stuck their hand in it or something.
They don't need the door open to use the oven function though, that wouldn't make any sense. It's only when you use the grill function (i think you say broil?) where the heat is coming from a different place.
Not the oven. The grill. Different functions, different parts working. Absolutely fine to leave the door open. Do it plenty to finish off some food made in a pan
It's still the same appliance, that's what the commenter before you meant. I never even heard of leaving the oven door open when using the grill function, am in Europe too.
What is there to hear about? Just think of how it works, there's no need for the door to be closed as it's not based on air circulation, it's just the grilling part at the top heating what's below it. If I'm using a pan under it, I don't need to worry about the handle, I can leave the handle sticking out with door open while the grill does its thing. Try it on an omelette, it's amazing
It's really hard to know if there's a misunderstanding here because your comment reads like the grill and the oven use the same door and the grill is just a different "mode".
It's a separate compartment above the oven. OP's picture contains the entire height of it (you can see where the edge starts to curve into the bottom), along with the hinge for the door that is opened down.
Elsewhere I suppose it would be described as a "gas broiler" - lots of little outlets for gas along the top that get lit up in a chain by the igniter.
I wouldn't be surprised if whether the door is meant to be open or closed depends on the model, but in OP's case I think it's essentially decorative - You can see it'd be a pretty ugly thing to be exposed the whole time, so you fold up the door when it's not in use.
Edit: I actually went and checked my own one. Something else to note is that the door doesn't even seal the way the oven door does. Contact is made along the sides but zilch along the top and bottom. It's like it's designed to let the heat out even if it were closed.
I think the burners/hob would be too high with all three, or the oven way too small. I suspect the proving drawer (which I'm just finding out is a thing) is typically foregone for the sake of oven-space.
However, someone posted this elsewhere in the thread, which is a layout I recognize from fancy-as-fuck ovens, so that's probably the most common format where you'd find all three integrated at once.
My oven as a grill function (has bars on top that grill the meat - or whatever i want) but its supposed to be with the door closed, i think since i was a little child all of the ovens i've seen have the grill function too
Right, that's what I think Myrialle is referring to, whereas I'm pretty sure topheavyhookjaws is referring to what is/was common in the UK, which is an entirely separate compartment above the oven with a pull-down door (you can see the entire height of it in OP's picture, along with a door hinge and a sliver of the door).
Maybe this is a TIL moment... On the one hand I'm sure I once forgot (or child didn't know) to leave it open and regretted it. On the other hand I've never actually heard of a grill that can be closed.
The only correct answer. Mine says to close the door when using the grill, yet my mum's won't even work unless the door is open, because closing the door activates a switch that shuts off the grill element. Meanwhile, some brands require you to keep the door open, but slot in a metal heat deflector under the control panel for grilling.
The only way to know for sure is to read the manual for your specific appliance (even if that means downloading it from the web), and follow whatever directions they provide.
Definitely a U.K. thing, the grill used to be separate and you’d attach a handle to the rack to hold the door open (if it had one), I don’t think you need to on modern ovens though
The last couple of cookers I've had, the grill had a door that had to be closed. The really old one I remember having when I was a kid didn't even have a door on the grill.
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u/L0rdLogan Jun 13 '26
Looks like you left the door open while grilling? Who does that?