Air Fryers - any good or gimmicks?

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Batman

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#161788 19-Jan-2015 21:20

My wife keeps wanting to buy an air fryer ... I guess I do like calamari fries and any fries you can think of ... plus more ...

But ... anyone with first hand experience?

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#1217888 19-Jan-2015 21:25

Yeah, I think they are pretty good really. Not massively different than using some of the open-mesh type trays in a fan oven, but pretty foolproof to use and can cook just about anything with them.

BTR

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#1218184 20-Jan-2015 11:44

I bought my partner the Tefal one for Christmas, she loves it. Oven fries only take 20 mins and come out really nice with no added oil. Have cooked crumbed chicken and it also cooked perfectly in half the time.

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#1218187 20-Jan-2015 11:45

Tefal... Was it from Briscoes

khull

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#1218188 20-Jan-2015 11:45

Workmate has the Philips one - swears by it. I'm not convinced so I guess I'll wait until more reviews come in

Batman

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#1218191 20-Jan-2015 11:52

Missus says the Philips one is the best from her forums

BTR

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#1218295 20-Jan-2015 14:04

joker97: Tefal... Was it from Briscoes

Yes, got it on special of course.

Hammerer

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#1218405 20-Jan-2015 16:05

If you do a lot of frying for one or two people then they can be really useful. They work very much like roasting in a fan-forced oven but like most small appliances (like breadmakers) you still need to learn how to use them for the best results. The maximum temperature is usually limited to about 200C which is equivalent to 220C in a non-fan-forced oven. The smaller oven means they are much cheaper and more convenient to run for smaller quantities of food.

Personally, I prefer a combination microwave/convection oven as the microwave defrosts frozen food more effectively, I can cook larger quantities, and I have more options for cooking methods. On the other hand, the air fryer was less than half the price.

P.S. You still need oil on the outside of home-made chips and the like. In the UK, Philips got into trouble for their ads claiming only air was needed.

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Batman

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#1218476 20-Jan-2015 18:14

Hammerer: If you do a lot of frying for one or two people then they can be really useful. They work very much like roasting in a fan-forced oven but like most small appliances (like breadmakers) you still need to learn how to use them for the best results. The maximum temperature is usually limited to about 200C which is equivalent to 220C in a non-fan-forced oven. The smaller oven means they are much cheaper and more convenient to run for smaller quantities of food.

Personally, I prefer a combination microwave/convection oven as the microwave defrosts frozen food more effectively, I can cook larger quantities, and I have more options for cooking methods. On the other hand, the air fryer was less than half the price.

P.S. You still need oil on the outside of home-made chips and the like. In the UK, Philips got into trouble for their ads claiming only air was needed.

ah I see ... thanks for the explanation.

do you need to separate individual fries to get exposed to hot air or will it fry evenly all round

JayADee

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#1218615 20-Jan-2015 21:18

We love ours. It makes excellent chicken and fries and small roasts. We have one of those ones that looks like a big glass bowl with the knobs on top and it has two tiers. We've had it for years and I don't think there's a week that goes by that we don't use it. We do spray a little oil on the fries.

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#1218621 20-Jan-2015 21:40

do u have a brand and model?

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#1218628 20-Jan-2015 21:47

JayADee: We love ours. It makes excellent chicken and fries and small roasts. We have one of those ones that looks like a big glass bowl with the knobs on top and it has two tiers. We've had it for years and I don't think there's a week that goes by that we don't use it. We do spray a little oil on the fries.

I know this a personal question and you are welcome to not answer it, and it's not intended to be a rude question though it will sound like it is, but I am genuinely interested to know if this has had a significant impact on your weight/health?

Again despite the premise, I am not trying to be rude.

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#1218632 20-Jan-2015 21:50

i don't have a deep fryer and don't want to buy truckloads of oil and sticky the whole house. yet i like calamari fries. whether it impacts my health is not relevant. not sure about Jayadee

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#1218704 20-Jan-2015 23:17

joker97: i don't have a deep fryer and don't want to buy truckloads of oil and sticky the whole house. yet i like calamari fries. whether it impacts my health is not relevant. not sure about Jayadee

Yep.

That's the problem with deep fryers.

You have to buy a lot of oil and it doesn't last long.

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#1218729 20-Jan-2015 23:52

Tried one.. Didnt circulate the fries like a deep fryer so the beer battered fries all stuck together. Also it seemed to excessivly crisp up the outside when the inside was still not quite there compared to a regular deep fryer. But the small amount of oil and lack of warm up time made up for that, Just aditate the chips several times.

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#1218733 21-Jan-2015 00:03

joker97: ...
do you need to separate individual fries to get exposed to hot air or will it fry evenly all round

Where you have two fries stuck to each other they won't be crisp on the joined sides. That is the case in a deep frier too because air can penetrate pretty much anywhere the oil does.

If you don't let the frier heat up correctly or you overload the baskets then the food won't seal as well as it could because the temperature is drops too much. This allows more water to escape from the food which makes it drier on the inside and soggier on the outside. To fix that you have to cook it for longer to get it the surface to coagulate/become crispy but if it has lost too much water then food generally becomes tougher and less succulent.

As JWR points out, deep frying's big problem is how to preserve the oil for more than one use. It's big advantage is that the hot frier oil is a larger thermal mass which means that the temperature doesn't drop too much when you add the food. The benchtop air fryers don't have the same thermal mass so they cook smaller quantities.

If you are interested in the health benefits then less oil will be better but no heated oil might be better for our health.

I assume you like the taste of fried food so you should consider the type and quality of oil you use. This is important because oil breaks down into less healthy compounds in the presence of heat and oxygen. The type of fats in the oil have a big impact on the oil breakdown (becoming rancid) which occurs more quickly based on the number of double bonds in the fats: saturated fats don't have any so they breakdown slowest, monounsaturated fats have one so they are relatively resistant, but polyunsaturated have two or more so they breakdown a lot faster. On the other hand, there are the health issues associated with eating saturated fats. Cheap vegetable oils are often unsuitable for deep frying not just because they are polyunsaturated.

[Edit: Corrected grammar]

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