New air fryer.. Good purchase!

[cdev]

We recently picked up an air fryer and mmm..  it sure is useful.. It makes really decicious meals, for example, fried chicken is really juicy made with it. And its fast, too.

It was a very good deal at around $50

[Halcyon]

I keep hearing about them, but could you explain to me how it differs to a regular oven? Apart from the physical size and ability to make small quantities without pre-heating a whole oven. Most wall ovens here are electric fan forced.

[Stray Electron]

  My wife has an air fryer and LOVES it!  For one thing it heats up in a few seconds instead of taking 15 minutes to preheat like a conventional oven.  It does a great job on reheating left over french fries. Something that I've never been able to satisfactorily do in a conventional oven.

[Mr.B]

In reality they are just a very small fan forced oven that heats up very quickly.
My wife and I love ours. “FryAir” brand.
Our one came with two accessories that set it apart from a regular oven:
A rotisserie attachment for doing such things as whole chickens. Our regular oven does not have such a feature. Small chickens I might add.
A ‘tumbling’ cylindrical wire basket for doing such things as Oven Fries. This means the fries never stick together or stick to the tray in the oven. Evenly crispy all over.
It also came with a ‘skewer’ holder and s/steel skewers, about 8 IIRC. We have never used that one as we usually do chicken skewers with peanut sauce on the BBQ.
If my wife is out of town and I feel like a steak with roast vegetables I use the air fryer for the roasties. Don’t have to wait for the regular oven to heat up and the bowl/dish in the air fryer is easier to clean afterwards than a regular oven tray.
YMMV.

[kripton2035]

I bought an air fryer some months ago and love it.
it was in a replacement for a conventionnal fryer.
the air fryer is easy to clean, makes french fries really really less oily
did not try many other recipes but if only for the french fries it's already adopted.
ps: the former fryer was almost also only for french fries...

[RocRizzo]

My wife bought one, and she swears by it. I swear at it, because it’s a bear to clean, especially with the concoctions that she makes in it.

[David Hess]

I keep hearing about them, but could you explain to me how it differs to a regular oven? Apart from the physical size and ability to make small quantities without pre-heating a whole oven. Most wall ovens here are electric fan forced.

An air fryer differs from a regular oven in the same way that a convection oven does.  An air fryer is a small convection oven.

[cdev]

We have a convection oven.. (its actually the second one, the first one is downstairs awaiting conversion into a reflow friendly oven..)

The (new) air fryer is circular which is I think a good clue to how it works..; Its a cylindrical chamber of superheated air that attempts to using the air maximize heat transfer to the food in the most efficient possible way, by creating a spinning vortex of hot rapidly moving air. Simulating the frying capabilities of bathing something in oil. Without the oil. It cooks things very fast. It broils it. Some of the best dishes we've had involve coating the food items with a batter or crust and then cooking them. It cooks meat very fast, in under ten minutes and sometimes it seems to seal the juices in.

Right now we're using it for almost every meal we eat!

[rfclown]

We recently picked up an air fryer and mmm..  it sure is useful.. It makes really decicious meals, for example, fried chicken is really juicy made with it. And its fast, too.

It was a very good deal at around $50

What brand? I see Mr.B has FryAir. I might want to get one for my wife (or I) to try.

[james_s]

I keep hearing about them, but could you explain to me how it differs to a regular oven? Apart from the physical size and ability to make small quantities without pre-heating a whole oven. Most wall ovens here are electric fan forced.

An air fryer is nothing more than a small convection oven, rather than just radiant heat it contains a fan that circulates heated air through the oven cavity. Typically they are compact units like a toaster oven that you can stow away when not needed and they heat up quickly. My dad gave me a little one a few years ago that I often use for making french fries, I can toss a pile of them in the basket and they cook fairly evenly even when under other fries because of the forced air.

[james_s]

What brand? I see Mr.B has FryAir. I might want to get one for my wife (or I) to try.

It doesn't really matter. Just look at the reviews on Amazon, select one you like and then shop around for the best price.

[Mr.B]

What brand? I see Mr.B has FryAir. I might want to get one for my wife (or I) to try.

It doesn't really matter. Just look at the reviews on Amazon, select one you like and then shop around for the best price.

If your target use is fries, I highly recommend getting one with a tumbling cylindrical wire basket.

[cdev]

We now have a "gourmia".
It gets used daily

[andy3055]

I think the main point is that this is far superior to doing deep frying using so much cooking oil. It comes out clean, free of oil (think of French fries dripping with oil) and very crisp! The lack of oil obviously is good for the health. I think that is one of the main selling points.

[james_s]

I still think frying in oil is superior in terms of taste, and certainly speed, however the health benefits of air are significant and enough to make me take that route. Also it's far less messy to do at home than oil frying.

[cdev]

I keep hearing about them, but could you explain to me how it differs to a regular oven? Apart from the physical size and ability to make small quantities without pre-heating a whole oven. Most wall ovens here are electric fan forced.

Okay, with beef patties it cooks it in a dry grease-free way that seems to seal in the juices. The hambugers when done are completely cooked but look dry. But they are really tasty. It takes just a few minutes..

[David Hess]

Okay, with beef patties it cooks it in a dry grease-free way that seems to seal in the juices. The hambugers when done are completely cooked but look dry. But they are really tasty. It takes just a few minutes..

When I cook beef patties in my frying pan, the pan is only very lightly coated with oil.  I add some oil, and then wipe it down with a paper towel.

[Nominal Animal]

If you use vegetable oils and you see any smoke or charring, depending on the exact oil you'll likely ingest some nasty compounds.  (There is quite a bit of research on the air quality, related to restaurant kitchen environments and such, indicating the smoke and vapors are quite bad for you.  Lots of carcinogenic compounds in particular.)

Funnily enough, lard is likely healthier than vegetable oil in this respect.

With air convection ovens, the chemical changes are much smaller than when frying on a pan, because the temperature is better controlled.  I do my air fries at 180-200'C, and a sprinkling of (seasoned) canola or sunflower oil gives a very nice crispy surface texture without becoming hot enough to produce any unwanted compounds (that occurs only near and above the smoke point).  It is too hot for olive oil, though, which starts to smoke at about 190'C.

(I warmly recommend Santa Maria Potato Seasoning Mix for air-fried potatoes.  Yummy.)

For my burgers on a skillet, I use 1:5 chopped bacon to low fat beef mince mix for ~ 130g patties.  These require no oil on a non-stick pan.  I take care to not overheat the non-stick pan, and use wooden (birch) spatula for flipping.

[cdev]

When we first got ours it smelled a little "plasticky" but the entire cooking area is sheathed in metal and the plastic smell went away, now I cant even tell when my wife has it on. Nothing needs any additional oil, thats the whole point in part, you can cook things without any oil.

Certainly meat never needs any additional oil, nor does it stew in its own fat, it seems. Oftenh food items eem to "seal in" their own juices.. which usually leaves you with delicious foods at the end. I would actually freak out if there were smellable acylamides or similar in the food, Ive never had that issue at all. My wife, like me is a geek who does a lot of research first on everything she does. She is an avid DIYer too so she is experimenting a lot with stuff that interests her And this is kind of her area. (which she defends, she wont let me cook for her)

If you use vegetable oils and you see any smoke or charring, depending on the exact oil you'll likely ingest some nasty compounds.  (There is quite a bit of research on the air quality, related to restaurant kitchen environments and such, indicating the smoke and vapors are quite bad for you.  Lots of carcinogenic compounds in particular.)

Funnily enough, lard is likely healthier than vegetable oil in this respect.

With air convection ovens, the chemical changes are much smaller than when frying on a pan, because the temperature is better controlled.  I do my air fries at 180-200'C, and a sprinkling of (seasoned) canola or sunflower oil gives a very nice crispy surface texture without becoming hot enough to produce any unwanted compounds (that occurs only near and above the smoke point).  It is too hot for olive oil, though, which starts to smoke at about 190'C.

(I warmly recommend Santa Maria Potato Seasoning Mix for air-fried potatoes.  Yummy.) (will check that out, we use lots of mixes like that..

For my burgers on a skillet, I use 1:5 chopped bacon to low fat beef mince mix for ~ 130g patties.  These require no oil on a non-stick pan.  I take care to not overheat the non-stick pan, and use wooden (birch) spatula for flipping.

[cdev]

If you use a cooking method like frying that lets you pour off the frying grease, save it in a glass jar, and feed it to birds, who go just nuts over it.
They really do. Its like their very favorite food.

I still think frying in oil is superior in terms of taste, and certainly speed, however the health benefits of air are significant and enough to make me take that route. Also it's far less messy to do at home than oil frying.

[Nominal Animal]

Nothing needs any additional oil, thats the whole point in part, you can cook things without any oil.

True; it's just that you can get much more flavour out of some spices if you mix them in a little bit of oil (I'm talking a teaspoon or two); it also "sticks" better to things when you mix it with whatever you're airfrying.  (The potato seasoning mix, however, is best added at the end, because it contains a little bit of garlic powder, and that changes taste if you heat it.)

As an example, I like popcorn, and have a hot air popcorn maker.  It is nigh impossible to salt them, since the salt does not stick.  You just end with a lot of salt at the bottom of the bucket or bowl.  (I just don't dare mix the kernels with any salted veggie oil, because I have no idea how hot my machine gets.)