Indoor broiling - Holliwood style

[turquoisedude]

No pun intended, I dragged this old Holliwood brand table broiler out of the 'musuem' in the garage to give a test run a couple of weeks ago.

I'd seen these turn up on eBay from time to time, so when one materialized at the Sally Ann in Montreal, I couldn't resist! I've had it for about 4 years now, so it was high time I tried it out...

 

[turquoisedude]

Eerie preheat glow... I think I'm developing an obsession with red-glowing electrical stuff (the calrods in the GE combo, those in the Hotpoint dryer, the Extend-O-Let for all the washers in the basement...) LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

More element glow...

The way this style of broiler is wired, there is a three-pin connector in the back of the unit and you flip the appliance cord from one side to the other to get what I guess would be high or low heat.

 

[turquoisedude]

Fortunately what looks to be the original cord is NOT glowing... LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

Now let's see how it does with real food. It does say 'Electric Steak Broiler' on the bottom of the broiling tray, so I had to try a steak in it!

 

[turquoisedude]

But I did add some lime and red chili-marinated shrimp... I almost expected some one to knock on the door and say, "NO, you can only broil STEAK!" LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

Done in about 9 minutes. Not bad! I don't know how often I'll use this, but it's a pretty nifty looking unit.

Anyone have an idea of how old it might be? My first instinct says 1940s...

 

[paulg]

The Hollywood Broiler

My Mother got one as a wedding gift. That was in 1958.
Hope that helps "rough-in" a time-line for The Hollywood Broiler.

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

Pretty nifty Paul!   The meal looks yummy too!

 

Question: how do you open and close the lid W/O buring your hands?   I don't see anything that looks like a handle!

 

Kevin 

 

[petek]

cool looking contraptions. The hammertone finish looks sort of like my Steam O matic iron.. made by the Waverly Co. Bridgeport Conn and Sandusky Oh... Who made the broiler?

 

[rapunzel]

Great looking appliance, but how easy does it clean afterwards? After broiling (here in Oz we call it 'grilling' - just so you know), can you detach the top and use the base as a server?

 

[danemodsandy]

Just The Thing....

For the advanced collector of Guardian Service - it would blend in almost perfectly.

For those who don't know about Guardian Service - it was a '40s line of cookware sold door-to-door, cast aluminum and quite expensive. It featured this same kind of "Knights of the Round Table" styling and the same faux-hammered finish. Lids could either be cast aluminum to match, or oven glass. It is now reproduced - from the original molds, I believe:

 

[tolivac]

Pretty interesting cooker-the glow it makes looks like the filament glow of one of our older Continental transmitters.Looks like it cooked the shrimp and steak pretty well!Like the grease pan under the cooking grate!

 

[revvinkevin]

"Grilling" VS. "Broiling"

(re: Rapunzel's comments above) 

 

When "Grilling" you are cooking on a grate or solid surface with the flame or heat source BELOW the items being cooked.

 

When "Broiling" the flame or heat source is ABOVE the items being cooked.  

(if the heat source is above and below, it's an oven) 

 

 

While grilling and broiling are two different things, they can be used interchangeably 99% of the time.  The exception is when melting or browning something.  While not impossible, it's very difficult to do on a grill.

ALSO... when grilling, you get a better sear and those wonderful grill marks, broiling you do not. 

 

Kevin

 

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

Not to rain on your parade, my dear friend, but the steak looks sorta steamed, like the heat was not really intense enough to do enough browning of the meat to get the caramelization that makes it so beautiful. If you are looking for an intense electric broiler that runs on household current, try to find a Fleck quartz from the 40s or early 50s. It was one of the highest rated in Consumer Reports.

Guardian Service started before the 40s. It was remarkable that people would spend so much of their money in the Great Depression on cookware. Sandy, do you know what they mean when they say the new glass covers are not oven proof? Does that mean that they cannot be used for any heat-related operation like as a cover on a pan on top of the range or does it only mean oven, so that the roaster with a new lid could not go in the oven, but the original glass could go in the oven? If that's the case, however, it would seem like the roaster lid would get very hot if the roaster was used on top of the range, too, especially if you were baking cakes or pies in it on those racks. Of all of the pieces, I think the Roaster was the most beautiful

 

[tomturbomatic]

Paul, did the needle move out of the Preheat range?

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Kevin,

That might be correct in US English, but in AU English Broil is a word that we never/rarely use.

If you were going to cook something on a grate, it'd generally just be said that you're BBQing something. If its a Solid plate, then BBQ and Fry could be used interchangeably. Sometime the cooked food would be called grilled, but generally the term is BBQed

To Grill here is 99.9% of the time on a tray or a rack, with the heat source above. Grilled Steak, Grilled Cheese are all done that way. There are a couple of exceptions

1) The Vertical Grill. A product of the 60's and 70's, you put the item to be grilled between two wire grids and it slides into the top vertically with heat sources on both sides. A pain to clean, but apparently healthy as the fat runs out and drips down.

2) The modern trend of Grill's IE George Forman Grill, but they generally have heat sources on both sides and you place the item between them.

Broil is a word I had to google the first time I saw it, as it doesn't enter the Aussie vernacular.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tom:

My understanding is that the reproduction Guardian Service lids are okay for most stove-top operations, but that they're not ovenproof, the way originals are.

I don't know if originals were borosilicate glass or soda-lime, but they were ovenproof.

If I were collecting Guardian Service, it would take me forever, because I'd want the aluminum lids for everything. I hate glass cookware lids for metal cookware with a passion.