Went Down The Air Fryer Rabbit Hole

[easysurfer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sue J Right now we have a toaster oven that I use every day. I've seen the kind you've linked and that may be a good option when we replace ours. When you do a rotisserie chicken how bad is the cleanup? Is it just the tray underneath? Or do you have to clean everything - walls, top, back, etc. The only time I do a whole chicken is out on the grill because the last time I did a whole one in the oven the mess and smoke were awful.

My experience with a rotisserie chicken cooker is with the Ronco one that was advertised years ago on infomercials "set it and forget it". I got one as a gift.

During the cooking process, watching the chicken was fun and the scent of the chicken cooking was so good. But as for taste, I didn't think it tasted any better than cooked with my Foreman contact cooker at the time.

As for cleanup, not only the tray but there's be fat from the bird that splattered around the glass and sides, the wheels that turned. Think I used it a few times then was too much cleanup for me. Anyhow, that was my experience. Others might have different.

[Jerry1]

Cleanup is a funny thing. While it would certainly look better if it was spotless, there's really no benefit to having it be that way. Think of your grill. I doubt you clean that spotless every time you use it. In fact, probably never. The main reason that I don't do rotisserie chicken is because they are $5 at Costco and we live near one. Even so, many stores sell them for not much more. Also, I don't think the rotisserie chicken is noticeably better than just using a roasting pan - which can be cleaned and it cooks some veggies at the same time.

[ScoopKona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound You call the air fryer a single tasker, and I disagree. Its job is to apply dry heat fast, and there are many occasions when we need to do that.

Again, if you have a good convection oven, you already have a better tool than an air fryer. My problem with air fryers isn't that they are small convection ovens. My problem with air fryers is that they are mediocre small convection ovens.

A good convection oven will run circles around an air fryer. I have already said I have no problem with countertop convection ovens. I used to make soufflés in one for a living -- double walled, insulated, efficient countertop convection ovens. I'm all for those. Anyone who lacks a convection oven should look very hard at one of these -- particularly with steam injection. Those can lead a home cook to bread nirvana.

Air fryers are like instant pots and single use coffee makers -- a passing fad -- and one that tries to replicate something done in actual kitchens, badly.

Since I have a good convection oven, I wouldn't take an air fryer, even if it was free. I stand by that. I wouldn't. Frankly, you couldn't pay me to take one. They're just not very good at what they do.

[karen1972]

We bought the Ninja Foodi Grill, I wasn't expecting a lot, but was super surprised, it did way better at air frying than our previous solo air fryer and was a lot easier as the square basket fit food better and we got a lot more even cooking with no shaking involved.

The only bad thing is BJs sells these 4lb bags of mozzarella sticks and its way too easy to grab a handful, toss them in for 7 minutes and have a tasty snack.

It also does a good job of grilling burgers and roasting veggies. We use it 5+ times a week, its the only appliance in our house that sits out.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoopKona Air fryers are like instant pots and single use coffee makers -- a passing fad -- and one that tries to replicate something done in actual kitchens, badly.

An Instant Pot is simply an electric pressure cooker. Nothing faddish about a pressure cooker.

———————-
On the Air Fryer - I don’t have a use for one. I like whole chicken smoked in my smoker best of all even though the skin is not crispy, and I don’t eat fries or other foods that would normally be fried or breaded and fried.

I do avoid roasting things that splatter a lot in my oven due to the mess. I prefer to use the outside gas grill or smoker for that kind of cooking.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 An Instant Pot is simply an electric pressure cooker. Nothing faddish about a pressure cooker...

The 1st time we bought an IP, we returned it unopened after my wife read about all the different cooking things people did with it. Too complicated, and too much to remember, she said.

The 2nd time we bought it, it was because it now had a sous-vide mode. And once my wife learned to use it as just a pressure cooker, she started to use it nearly daily. It's wonderful to make stock from bones, and for fast stewing beef.

Prior to this, we had a couple of pressure cookers, but hardly ever used them. The IP is a lot more convenient, the way an air fryer is.


PS. Another appliance my wife has put away is the thermal cooker. We used it to make stock overnight but had to make 1 to 2 gallons at a time. Now, we can make a quart or two with the IP, and it takes a mere hour or so.

[aja8888]

We don't eat much fried food. Really, none at all except for the occasional rotisserie chicken bought at Costco. Hence, no air fryer. Cooking for us old folks is getting simpler every year as we are getting increasingly lazy.

Last night it was pork and venison sausage on the grill with steamed broccoli. Some nights it's scrambled eggs (my new found specialty). Tonight is Mexican night out with my daughter and her husband after church services.

I did buy my daughter an air fryer/convection oven for Xmas this year. They use it every day from what they tell me. Maybe they are just being nice to me...LOL

We bought them this one:

COSORI Air Fryer Toaster, 12-in-1 Convection Countertop Oven 32QT XL Large Capacity, Rotisserie, Dehydrator, 100 Recipes & 6 Accessories Included CS130-AO, Work with Alexa, 30L, Wifi-Sliver

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[punkinhead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 We don't eat much fried food. Really, none at all except for the occasional rotisserie chicken bought at Costco. Hence, no air fryer.

Despite the name it really has nothing to do with frying. It's just a small convection oven. We use ours daily.

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 We don't eat much fried food. Really, none at all except for the occasional rotisserie chicken bought at Costco. Hence, no air fryer.

We've never fried foods in our air fryer. We use them for chicken breast, chicken wings, veggies, roast potatoes, etc. The food is seasoned and/or sauce is added but it's not coated with oil.

Edit* You can fry with them if you want but it's not a requirement.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by punkinhead Despite the name it really has nothing to do with frying. It's just a small convection oven. We use ours daily.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Music Lover We've never fried foods in our air fryer. We use them for chicken breast, chicken wings, veggies, roast potatoes, etc. The food is seasoned and/or sauce is added but it's not coated with oil. Edit* You can fry with them if you want but it's not a requirement.

Yes, it should be called an air heater. But then, people would think it's a space heater.

Or just a food heater/cooker. But then, people would think it's a microwave.

[audreyh1]

It seems that it must be a roaster since you are cooking with dry heat, plus a fan like a convection roaster.

We have a full sized convection oven. We also have a convection microwave, but I have rarely used it for baking. I used to use one in our RV, but there it was our only oven.

[tmm99]

I used to own one of those turbo cookers. I wasn't quite satisfied because things like pork chops didn't brown very well. Many things, I had to flip over to brown. But someone I knew someone who cooked a huge turkey in her turbo cooker twice a year using extension rings when she had family gatherings and her turkey always turned out great (moist) with nice crispy skin.

For me, my turbo cooker was a bulky and unsightly appliance that didn't quite satisfy my needs. Then I bought an air fryer. I use my air fryer for so many more things than I used to use the turbo cooker for. I like it that things turn out crispy quickly in my air fryer. I can do open/close grilled sandwiches, roasted vegetables actually brown/roast, pork chops nicely brown, crispy chicken wings, etc, etc. Too small to cook a whole chicken, however.

[ScoopKona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Prior to this, we had a couple of pressure cookers, but hardly ever used them. The IP is a lot more convenient, the way an air fryer is.

You see convenience. I see limitations.

An instant pot is a countertop pressure cooker, just worse.

An air fryer is a countertop convection oven, just worse.


I can do canning in a real pressure cooker. I can bake a baguette in a real convection oven.

It's not that I'm against gadgets. A rice cooker should be in everyone's pantry, if they eat any amount of rice. And if they eat sushi (as we do every other meal), they're indispensable. They're not exactly unitaskers -- the good rice cookers do loads of different things. But they are the best tool for the job of cooking rice.

I'm also 100% in favor of vacuum sealers and immersion circulators. Those have finally trickled down to consumer prices. I have a $100 circulator here at the farm and it's fine. It's not a Poly-Science circulator. But I also don't use it 24-hours a day for months at a time. For what they do, they do well. Vacuum sealers (the roll/bag kind, not the massive machines that can vacuum seal liquids) have stood the test of time as well. They're not AS GOOD as the real deal, but the real deal is the size of a small refrigerator.

I'll close with this -- if Instant Pots, George Foreman grills, Showtime Rotisserie Ovens, Air Fryers, bullet blenders, slap chops and similar were real time savers, you would find commercial equivalents in restaurant kitchens. Time is money, after all.

You *will* find rice cookers, pressure cookers, stand mixers, countertop convection ovens, Robot Coupes, Vita-Mix and Blend-Tec blenders, ricers, food mills, microplane graters, stand mixers, vacuum sealers and immersion circulators in many if not most commercial kitchens. And you can find versions of all the above that are made for the home cook -- versions which do the job either as well or almost as well as what is sold in restaurant supply stores.

[Dawg52]

I got a Ninja air fryer/grill for Christmas. Probably never would have bought one but glad I have it. Easy to use.

[tmm99]

I like my Instant Pot. I used to have another brand of an electric pressure cooker, but I broke it. I just like my Instant Pot over the old, manual kind I had to place on the stove. I used to own one, but I only used it a couple of times as the noise it made scared me too much. The electric pressure cooker is quiet and it can keep a constant pressure - and those are the main benefits for me. Besides, soups, stews, etc, I cook basmati rice in it as well, because it's so easy (8 min cook time) and comes out quite nice and fluffy. As for sushi rice, I use my Zojirushi rice cooker as cooking short/medium grain rice is tricky, needing varying temperatures depending upon each stage of the cooking process.

I also like my air fryer better than my convection oven. I have a split oven and things I cannot put in the air fryer due to size go into the top, skinny layer of my oven. Things do not brown as well in it and when I raise the temp high enough trying to brown/broil, it causes too much smoke and makes a huge mess (splashing) -> longer cleanup time.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoopKona You see convenience. I see limitations. An instant pot is a countertop pressure cooker, just worse. An air fryer is a countertop convection oven, just worse. I can do canning in a real pressure cooker. I can bake a baguette in a real convection oven. It's not that I'm against gadgets. A rice cooker should be in everyone's pantry, if they eat any amount of rice. And if they eat sushi (as we do every other meal), they're indispensable. They're not exactly unitaskers -- the good rice cookers do loads of different things. But they are the best tool for the job of cooking rice. I'm also 100% in favor of vacuum sealers and immersion circulators. Those have finally trickled down to consumer prices. I have a $100 circulator here at the farm and it's fine. It's not a Poly-Science circulator. But I also don't use it 24-hours a day for months at a time. For what they do, they do well. Vacuum sealers (the roll/bag kind, not the massive machines that can vacuum seal liquids) have stood the test of time as well. They're not AS GOOD as the real deal, but the real deal is the size of a small refrigerator. I'll close with this -- if Instant Pots, George Foreman grills, Showtime Rotisserie Ovens, Air Fryers, bullet blenders, slap chops and similar were real time savers, you would find commercial equivalents in restaurant kitchens. Time is money, after all. You *will* find rice cookers, pressure cookers, stand mixers, countertop convection ovens, Robot Coupes, Vita-Mix and Blend-Tec blenders, ricers, food mills, microplane graters, stand mixers, vacuum sealers and immersion circulators in many if not most commercial kitchens. And you can find versions of all the above that are made for the home cook -- versions which do the job either as well or almost as well as what is sold in restaurant supply stores.

I have to agree that commercial appliances are great for their purpose and the cost is absorbed by continual use. But for the "every day" home cook, the inexpensive clones are great for the job at hand.

I used to restore classic cars. I mean really restore, and all the way down to doing my own paint work. My $600 Devilbliss and Binks spray guns cost a ton back in the 1970's, but gave me the tools I needed to do professional work. The spray guns you can buy in Home Depot or Harbor Freight can paint lawn furniture and stuff like that, but no way can they lay down a fine mist of lacquer or clear coat like the expensive, professional ones can. Same deal.

[ScoopKona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 1) But for the "every day" home cook, the inexpensive clones are great for the job at hand. 2) The spray guns you can buy in Home Depot or Harbor Freight can paint lawn furniture and stuff like that, but no way can they lay down a fine mist of lacquer or clear coat like the expensive, professional ones can. Same deal.

(Numbers added to your points for clarity.)

1) We have differing definitions of "great" then. One of my favorite sayings is "once you have experience great, 'good' is no longer good enough." There is a lot of absolute garbage pushed at the consumer cook -- and much of it is marketed as being "same as the pros use." This simply isn't true. Even when the person doing the marketing is a celebrity chef. (Looking straight at you, Wolfgang Puck. And I have worked with him before.)

2) It's not quite the same deal. To be like these Instant Pots and Air Fryers the Home Depot sprayer would be marketed as "being a real paint shop, right on your driveway, right in your hands!" (Especially the Instant Pot. Those were advertised as god's gift to home cooks.)

Here's an oven I'd gladly try -- the Anova Precision Oven. It's a consumer model. But it claims to work like a Rational oven. Rational ovens are amazing. You really get spoiled using one -- no mistakes ever happen using one unless they are misprogrammed. Used correctly, a cook can set-and-forget one, and do other things while the Rational cooks food perfectly.

The Anova, if it works as advertised, will do everything an air fryer will do, and so much more. It is not a toy. It is a tool. The gadgets I see at Costco? Those aren't much different than E-Z Bake ovens for children -- many corners cut to get that price down to "impulse purchase" territory.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScoopKona You see convenience. I see limitations. An instant pot is a countertop pressure cooker, just worse. An air fryer is a countertop convection oven, just worse. I can do canning in a real pressure cooker. I can bake a baguette in a real convection oven. I'll close with this -- if Instant Pots, George Foreman grills, Showtime Rotisserie Ovens, Air Fryers, bullet blenders, slap chops and similar were real time savers, you would find commercial equivalents in restaurant kitchens. Time is money, after all. You *will* find rice cookers, pressure cookers, stand mixers, countertop convection ovens, Robot Coupes, Vita-Mix and Blend-Tec blenders, ricers, food mills, microplane graters, stand mixers, vacuum sealers and immersion circulators in many if not most commercial kitchens. And you can find versions of all the above that are made for the home cook -- versions which do the job either as well or almost as well as what is sold in restaurant supply stores.

That's interesting. I cannot argue with a commercial chef about what he wants to use in his kitchen. But are these for high-volume production?

I imagine that in a restaurant kitchen, you probably have many countertop convection ovens going all the time. What I have found is my air fryer heats up very fast compared to my small convection oven. The difference is that the former has a plastic body, while the convection oven has a lot of metal parts.

Another thing is that household appliances would not last long under heavy-duty use in a commercial kitchen. Hence, an air fryer for commercial use would be like a heavy-duty convection oven.

I don't know how big the pressure cooker you use for canning, but if I want to make one quart of bone stock like I do with the Instant Pot, it probably just sloshes at the bottom of your cooker.

And how big is your convection oven that you use for baguette? A baguette is usually 26" and can be as long a 1 meter. My wife has to use the range oven when she makes bread. No steam injection of course, and she has to open the oven to spray water at the right time.

Our air fryer is for heating small portions. Using anything larger to heat a few cups of food is like using a 50-cal gun to hunt rabbits.


PS. I dunno about some of the other gadgets you mentioned though. Many are gimmicks.

[easysurfer]

What's good, better, best reminds me of the time in college when I made the comment to dormmates on my floor that "beer is beer, pretty much the same". I never had such mean glares directed at me after saying that .

I think that because the word air-fryer gets tossed around to describe draw type, glass bowl type and the more big oven look type convection, there are some apples to oranges comparisons going on.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 I like my Instant Pot. I used to have another brand of an electric pressure cooker, but I broke it. I just like my Instant Pot over the old, manual kind I had to place on the stove. I used to own one, but I only used it a couple of times as the noise it made scared me too much. The electric pressure cooker is quiet and it can keep a constant pressure - and those are the main benefits for me. Besides, soups, stews, etc, I cook basmati rice in it as well, because it's so easy (8 min cook time) and comes out quite nice and fluffy. As for sushi rice, I use my Zojirushi rice cooker as cooking short/medium grain rice is tricky, needing varying temperatures depending upon each stage of the cooking process.

Yes, I use the instant pot a great deal but was always too intimidated to use a stove top pressure cooker like my mom’s. I also like how in the summer the instant pot doesn’t heat up the kitchen nearly as much as a long cook on the stove top or in the oven would.

I use it primarily for stews, especially for cuts that take a while to break down. It’s fabulous for stews, including the initial browning. I often do boeuf bourgoinon, oxtail stew (Spanish style) and lamb shanks. Something about the higher pressure seems to enhance the flavor of the meats and sauces to me.

I also do stocks and bone broths, it’s very simple and handy for that.

I’ve also found it great for cooking vegetables that tend to take a long time to get tender - collard greens, beets, German style red cabbage, even okra and tomatoes comes out fabulous with a short pressure time for fresh okra whole.

Oh yeah, and there is the handy egg steaming.

It’s great for dried beans although I don’t eat beans much anymore.

It also replaced my slow cooker - I got rid of that. I don’t do slow cooking in the instant pot, it just replaces the function but fast, lol.