Cooking For Engineers

[Dilbert]

there are many many ways to do pork chops - one of our favorites is:
"oven broiled"
but there's a big catch - most electric ovens cycle the top broil element on/off via a thermostat. this is - quite correctly - a safety precaution, leaving the broil element on with no time restraints can overheat the oven - causing damage and/or fire.

we're fond of broiled fish dishes, and the odd steak (flat iron broils great . . .) so I needed a solution to keep the upper broiler elements operating continuously.

the well engineered solution below - hard maple construction that which props the oven door open and depresses the door switch to fool the oven into thinking the door is shut (letting heat out, so the elements stay on...) with a magnetic button to hold it in place when opening the door to check on things . . .

so, here's the pork chop parade:
just out of a 3 hour 7.5% salt brining


seasoned - salt/ground pepper/onion powder/garlic powder/sweet paprika


method: first oven 'baked' on grate about 10 minutes - raising the internal temp to 100-110'F (38-43'C); remove from oven; pre-heat broiler; back in the oven to broil 3-4 minutes per side to hit 140'F (60'C.)
{[ don't bake the chops too long, the time/heat from the broiler will finish the cooking - if it's been baked too long the pork will get over cooked during the broil and be tough. ]}

on the plate


my 'hold open' device
design detail
- adapt concept as required to work with oven

in use