The Dry-Heat Techniques

Contrary to their use of the generic term “boiling,” which covered a spectrum of related techniques that could be accomplished with different equipment, the earliest colonists unambiguously differentiated roasting, baking, and broiling (what later cooks called “grilling”). This linguistic precision probably derived from the facts that each technique had specific equipment and that the techniques were not interchangeable. As kitchen technology changed, rather than abandon the vocabulary, Americans changed their definitions of these terms.