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I found this sentence in a textbook. It's

I cooked the fish slowly on / under the grill.

A screenshot of the textbook

According to the author, the correct answer is under.

I also used Google. It turns out that there is more under the grill than on the grill. When I think of the word grill, the next picture comes to my mind.

photograph of an outdoor barbecue grill

How can we cook the fish under the grill when the food is actually on the grill?

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Yuyu ZENG
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    NGrams shows that "on the grill" dominates. better link – jejorda2 Aug 30 '16 at 17:34
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    Under the grill refers to an oven grill, inside the oven. – Lambie Aug 30 '16 at 17:58
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    on the grill refers to a barbecue. They are two different things. – Lambie Aug 30 '16 at 17:59
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    No matter how I look at it, your textbook is wrong. If it really means grilling, then putting the food under the grill would be silly, and might void the warranty of your grill. If it actually means broiling, then it's clear that whoever wrote it doesn't know how to cook: you don't slowly broil anything. The purpose of a broiler is to quickly brown food. If you want to cook something slowly, you don't subject it to 500+ degree (F) heat. – Marthaª Aug 30 '16 at 19:39
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    @Marthaª is correct about the textbook being wrong no matter which way you look at it. While all the answers citing an AmE-CaE/BrE distinction are partly right, as a former 'broilerman' (aka 'grillman') in fancy restaurants I observed that 'grill' and 'broil' (verbs) are used synonymously for cooking with a direct heat source; they are opposed to 'bake', which is cooking with indirect heat. The confusion arises in part because 'grill' (noun) is also a synonym for 'gridiron'. In professional environments, a 'grill' or 'broiler' often heats directly top and bottom. – JEL Aug 30 '16 at 19:52
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    Presumbly the textbook is British. In England, food is cooked "under a grill", but it's actually entirely idiomatic. I'm afraid I get really cross when people assume American English is the be-all and end-all of English. – Andrew Leach Aug 30 '16 at 21:22
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    @AndrewLeach: even in Britain, food is not slowly cooked "under a grill". Unless your broilers are highly inefficient or something. – Marthaª Aug 30 '16 at 22:34
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    @AndrewLeach All non-native speakers of a language make the assumption that their professor or text-book is most likely correct. This happens with students of Spanish all the time as well. This misunderstanding isnt meant as an offense to the Her Majesty ;) – Dan Aug 30 '16 at 22:35
  • @Lambie And "a barbecue [grill]" isn't an actual barbecue, which is a low-heat slow-cook with an infusion of smoke. – fluffy Aug 30 '16 at 23:08
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    @Marthaª Today I suddenly remembered that on old fashioned grills, which is shown in DJClayworth's answer, you could regulate the flames on an eye-level gas grill. My mother used the grill to make welsh rarebit, and cook our morning bacon. So, yes, it is (or was) possible to slowly grill food. –  Aug 31 '16 at 11:35
  • I thought it was "under the hood", as in, engine in a vehicle, muscle car, truck, etc. "Grill" meaning the frond of the hood, vehicle, etc. But I could be wrong. It is an interesting euphemism in any event. –  Aug 30 '16 at 19:51
  • Nice images in this question. I wonder if they really all are CC-BY-SA. And I'm hungry now. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Aug 31 '16 at 13:48
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    @Lambie: it's a BE/AE difference because a broiler isn't called a "grill" in the US. – Marthaª Aug 31 '16 at 14:05
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    @Marthaª It does not matter because the English-teaching book merely said that one can say under or on a grill. And that is true. One can. And one can say in AE: We grilled the fish in the broiler. In that sense, it is under the grill. – Lambie Aug 31 '16 at 16:26
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    @Marthaª over in the UK our grills actually have power controls, so yes you can - and I do - cook food slowly with a dry heat applied from above. – OrangeDog Aug 31 '16 at 20:32
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    It just cannot take this long to explain a beginner question that should be on ELL (if anywhere). "There are two types of grills, under and over." That's all that needs to be said. – Fattie Sep 01 '16 at 10:20
  • it's just plain wrong that yanks have no clue about ordinary overhead grills. just one example, it's totally common to get a "grilled cheese sandwich" or other grilled sandwich - for example it's part of the formula food in Starbucks and other chains - and that is grilled in an overhead-type grill (the term "sandwich grill" would immediately mean that to most Americans, I'd say). there is a false US/UK dichotomy presented on this page. – Fattie Sep 01 '16 at 10:26
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    Who's "we" ? - "I'm afraid I get really cross when people assume [British] English is the be-all and end-all of English." – Mazura Sep 01 '16 at 22:50
  • @JoeBlow Um, the OP shows a picture of a BBQ grill, and "under the grill" is wrong for that. But I instantly assumed "under the grill" was Australian, you know, since they're "down under." – developerwjk Sep 01 '16 at 23:42
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    Pedantry incoming: A grill is a metal grid or lattice. Grilling food, and cooking on a grill are both references to the grill itself which supports the food. The heat source may be above the grill or below the grill, but the grill is required to be UNDER the food due to this thing called gravity. – barbecue Sep 02 '16 at 00:52
  • hi @barbecue - that's a fascinating and good point that the grill is "literally" the metal-slats thing. But note: it's utterly normal that (say) an automobile is called a "motor" (UK english) or a monitor is called a "screen". It's utterly normal that the "whole device" is called a grill: "I'm going to Home Megashop to buy a new grill since summer is here." No mystery. – Fattie Sep 02 '16 at 04:57
  • hi @developerwjk, there is no connection to Australia or the phrase "down under". – Fattie Sep 02 '16 at 04:57
  • A key point here "According to the author, the correct answer is under." - so, the key point is "text books" are a total joke. It's a non-starter to even consider the worth of anything in any text-book. Total waste of time. – Fattie Sep 02 '16 at 04:58
  • An unfortunate choice of question on the part of the writer of the textbook, given that, per all the present discussion, the correct answer will vary depending on local usage. – Mathieu K. Sep 02 '16 at 12:54

5 Answers5

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There is a usage difference between British and American English. Although a grill is everywhere a frame of metal bars used for cooking on a flame, Americans draw a distinction between grilling (cooking over a flame) and broiling (cooking under a flame), as when you use the broiler in your oven:

Image of a broiling steak

As quoted in this LanguageHat post,

In my American experience, to broil means to heat something from above as it sits on a slotted pan, so the juices can drip away. Grilling, in my experience, heats from below, and the juices drip down (usually onto the heat source).

But in the UK and Australia, heating from above is called “grilling” and broil means (according to GrahamT, who appears to be British) “to cook meat in a closed container over heat, similar to the American pot-roast.” So think twice about how you order your meat when you cross the Atlantic.

There are many differences in food-related terminology, some noted on our sister site, Seasoned Advice, in Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA / NZ.

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choster
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    I hate to say it, but if you're broiling things under a flame in your oven, I think you may need a new oven. ;-) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 30 '16 at 17:41
  • Not long ago ovens had overhead heating elements that could be used for grilling/broiling. – DJClayworth Aug 30 '16 at 17:42
  • Yeah, my oven has an "overhead" broiler, another burner at the top of the oven compartment. – Michael Lorton Aug 30 '16 at 18:46
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    @JanusBahsJacquet: why would you think that? A gas oven will naturally have a gas broiler, and when gas burns it produces flames. This is just as true in Europe as it is in America. – Marthaª Aug 30 '16 at 19:31
  • @Marthaª I've never had a gas oven (gas is quite rare here—I'll admit I didn't even think about the existence of gas ovens at all, I just thought flames in oven = call the fire brigade), but I don't think I've ever seen one with a broiler at all. Didn't even know that existed. Gas ovens here only have burners on the bottom. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 30 '16 at 20:05
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    @JanusBahsJacquet I once had a gas oven with the burners on the bottom, but with a broiler tray under that, using the same burners (so a separate door from the main oven compartment). I don't think that's standard, though. – R.M. Aug 30 '16 at 20:42
  • @JanusBahsJacquet gas ovens are mandated by law here (California) so they're very common. Usually they are natural gas (methane), sometimes propane. Most have burners both under and over the oven box. On mine, a 2008 GE, the 'broil' control setting uses both top and bottom burners. – Wexxor Aug 30 '16 at 21:47
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    @R.M. what you describe is standard in the U.S. I often cook something in the main part of oven, then put it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top of the food. – Jeanne Pindar Aug 31 '16 at 00:00
  • That makes sense to me now! Thanks so much for your answer! – Yuyu ZENG Aug 31 '16 at 00:12
  • When I worked at Burger King (in the Midwestern US) during my misspent youth, the "grill" was a conveyor belt-thing with flames above and, I believe, below. So even in AmE you can sometimes put something "under the grill"—though not if you want to cook something slowly. The target we were given was 4 minutes from when the customer entered the store until they had their food. – 1006a Aug 31 '16 at 01:54
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    Thanks for the insight into what a broiller means in American English. The slot in a stove with a gas flame or electric element above a slide out tray is called a grill or "griller" in Austrailia, with instructions to "leave door open while grilling" affixed inside the drop down door left closed when the grill is not in use. "On the grill" is understood to mean on a slotted plate on a BBQ, or on top of, say, a charcoal grill. – traktor Aug 31 '16 at 02:46
  • But in this case, either "on" or "under" would be correct. You can either broil or grill a fish. – Cody Gray - on strike Aug 31 '16 at 11:35
  • While we (the British) do sometimes call cooking over a flame in this sense grilling, it's much more common to call it barbecuing. – thelem Sep 01 '16 at 13:50
  • This confusion also extends to the parts of a car (or automobile if you prefer). In the US most cars have a hood (it's the hinged metal cover over the engine) but in the UK only convertibles with fabric or plastic roofs have hoods (they are the fabric or plastic roofs) and the hinged metal cover over the engine is a bonnet. If you ask what someone "has under the hood" in the UK the answer might be "seats and a steering wheel"! – BoldBen Sep 02 '16 at 13:56
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In British English the word 'grill' usually means something like these rather than a device for cooking over an open flame (which is the American usage): Woman cooking on English home grill

commercial English grill Grills like this have a heating element on top, and a space for the food to be cooked underneath. They would be called a broiler or salamander in US English, and aren't as common as they used to be.

In these devices the food would indeed be placed 'under the grill'. The place where you read this was probably talking about one of those, instead of a barbecue.

DJClayworth
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    Agree. Your picture is food on a barbecue, possibly on the grille of a barbecue. Nothing to do with a grill as I understand the term. – Colin Fine Aug 30 '16 at 18:00
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    Americans do refer to the barbecue as the 'grill'. – DJClayworth Aug 30 '16 at 18:57
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    @ColinFine: in fact, "grill" is considered more correct for the outside-cooking implement, since "barbecue" implies a low, slow cooking process that bears almost no resemblance to how one prepares steaks or hot dogs at a backyard cookout. The function of your (indoor) oven where you can set it to heat from the top rather than the bottom is called the broiler, which makes sense since a grill (as in, a metal grate) is not involved - broiler pans have slots, but are not grills no matter how you stretch the definition. – Marthaª Aug 30 '16 at 19:28
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    I think this is a difference between British and American English - in the UK whether you have a gas or electric oven the grill is the thing at the top of the oven (either separate as in the picture or integrated inside the oven) that cooks/grills food, such as bacon, that has been placed on a grill tray underneath it. – rhm Aug 30 '16 at 20:42
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    Amazingly enough, in the UK a barbecue is almost always called .... a barbecue. A "grill" is part of a cooking appliance that you would find in your kitchen, as the pictures show. – alephzero Aug 30 '16 at 21:31
  • As a meat-eating Canadian, I have only heard the phrase "under the grill" once, on the British TV show Red Dwarf. – AshleyZ Aug 30 '16 at 22:09
  • @alephzero: technically speaking, to barbecue something is to cook it very slowly next to/near, but never on, a charcoal fire. Thus, calling the cooking implement in your backyard a "barbecue" is probably incorrect; if it's gas-powered, it's certainly incorrect. So, in the UK, the outside-cooking implement is almost always incorrectly called a barbecue, whereas in the US, people try to be more exact and call it a "gas grill" or "charcoal grill". – Marthaª Aug 31 '16 at 14:03
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    @Marthaª If that's true, that's another US/UK usage difference. In UK and Canada the verb 'barbecue' means to cook something on a barbecue. I'm pretty sure I've heard Americans use it like that too. – DJClayworth Aug 31 '16 at 14:09
  • @Marthaª Absolutely right. One barbecues meat in a smoker or a pit, not on a grill. A grill is, unsurprisingly, used to grill. (at least in Kansas City, where we take our barbecue very seriously) – Monty Harder Aug 31 '16 at 16:32
  • Erm... the technical term for that "device" is an eye-level grill, you had to keep your eye on the food that was being toasted / grilled otherwise you'd risk burning it. –  Aug 31 '16 at 16:51
  • @Bluewoman There are also versions which are not at eye level but where the food still goes under the flame. – DJClayworth Aug 31 '16 at 17:50
  • (American) Even in those configurations, I would say that the food is "on the grill", as the grill is the metal the food is sitting on, not the heating element. – DCShannon Aug 31 '16 at 20:28
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    @DCShannon in British English the metal thing that the food sits on when it is 'under the grill', is the 'grill pan'. It consists of an enameled rectangular metal pan which has either a permanently afixed, or a removable handle. Inside the metal pan sits either a metal grid (similar to a cooling rack for baking) or a perforated metal sheet with shallow grooves. The metal sheet kind is very old-school now and I can't even google up a picture of one. – Spagirl Sep 01 '16 at 09:47
  • @Marthaª: In the UK a grill (US: broiler) typically has a grillpan (US: approx. broiler pan, though it is not the same), which as Spagirl says, almost always does contain a grille - this is typical. So no need for too much stretching here :) – psmears Sep 01 '16 at 13:21
  • @psmears aha, I looked up images of 'Broiler pan' and it seems that its slotted tray that Martha refers to is just what I was trying to describe as the old-school superseded type of grill pan insert. – Spagirl Sep 05 '16 at 13:01
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The usage of grill here is British English, not American.

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

grill

noun

British

1 A device on a cooker that radiates heat downwards for cooking food: place under a hot grill [as modifier]: a grill pan

This is a modern domestic cooker, specifically a Neptune 4500 combination gas oven, burner and grill:

Photo of cooker

This part is the grill pan.

Photo of grill pan

Here is the actual hot grill (not the same model of cooker - this one is inside an Electrolux electic fan oven). An electric heating element at the top inside the upper compartment. Occasionally it may use gas flames instead.

Photo of a hot grill element

You put food on the pan and place it under the grill. If the control knob is in the low position then the element will not be that hot. In which case whatever food is under the grill will be cooked slowly.

In all British kitchen appliances this device is called the grill or grill element, and in all recipes the use of this device to cook food is called grilling.

Photo of a grill element

OrangeDog
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  • Myself, I have one of these http://flavelappliances.com/item/ml10fr Note all the references to grills and grilling in the description. – OrangeDog Aug 31 '16 at 20:42
  • The top image is not technically a domestic cooker, unless you live on a boat. – user_1818839 Sep 01 '16 at 21:27
  • In the US this is referred to as a broiler. – barbecue Sep 02 '16 at 00:53
  • Spot on. I'm British, and I wouldn't have known what the American word 'broiler' even meant until recently. Yes it's nice and precise and all, but we just don't have that word over here. A grill is the bit of an oven you use for making cheese on toast. – William Robertson Sep 02 '16 at 10:44
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I'm American, but as far as I know it's always on the grill. Under the grill would probably be used for literally under a grill, but the term for that is actually called 'broiling' (in a kitchen setting). I could also put something under a grill in an outdoor setting but it's a little unorthodox. However, putting some meat or other food directly on the coals (and under the grill) is a way to get a certain kind of 'cook' to your food (basically a fast, more charred, but more raw/rare result). This, as I just discovered is called 'clinching'.

When I Google the phrase, there's a lot more usage for 'on the grill' though.

For completeness, you may hear someone say they got something (like diamonds or other adornments) on their grill, and that's a different kind of grill like this:

enter image description here

John
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Grilling in England is placing a pan under the flames, you cook toast under the grill (if you've not got a toaster). Also just to be clear there is no such thing as British English. there is English and there are mistakes.

rprice11
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  • British English? What do you mean by saying that there is no such thing as British English? – Nagarajan Shanmuganathan Sep 02 '16 at 13:28
  • This is a British point of view. We think that English is what we speak and all other forms of English are quaint and/or annoying dialects. I would imagine that Spanish people have the same opinion of Latin American Spanish, that Portuguese people have the same view of Brazilian Portuguese and French people have the same view of Canadian French. – BoldBen Sep 02 '16 at 13:48
  • In culinary terms I think Choster says everything there is to be said but that in England Yuyu's picture describes a barbecue, or a barbecue grill but only very rarely merely a grill.

    Grammatically, this is nonsense. In / on / over / under and etc is not grammatically down to technical terminology. Having decided the technical terminology the grammar is purely about position… Is that not why prepositions exist?

     – Robbie Goodwin Sep 02 '16 at 23:41