Having grown up in a house with a microwave and toaster oven, I don’t think I ever broiled anything until I was well into my twenties. I thought a broiler pan was just a funky-looking cooling rack.

Home cooks, who seem to love almost every innovation, generally disdain the humble, if omnipresent, broiler. As evidence, check out the cookbook shelves: You’ll find books galore on slow cookers, ...

I’ve always been sort of terrified/befuddled by the broiler in my oven, so I mostly just pretend it isn’t there. What’s the best way to use it? In my last apartment, it took the better part of a year ...