Went Down The Air Fryer Rabbit Hole

ScoopKona said:
Never. I make pizza (and all doughy/bready things) quite well.

If I'm going to eat pizza, it's going to be at a VPN in the US, or in Italy. Otherwise, what's the point?

I also fry my own chicken, grill my own burgers, cut my own fries and similar. The problem with fast food isn't that it's unhealthy -- it's mediocre.
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Just asking. No disagreement about fast food. Not all take out is fast food, though. Some take out is fine dining or ethnic restaurants, and the only way to get it home is in a box.
 
ScoopKona said:
If I'm going to eat pizza, it's going to be at a VPN in the US, or in Italy. Otherwise, what's the point?
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For those unfamiliar with VPN:
VPN" is a designation given to qualifying pizzerias by the Naples-based Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana or its delegates — VPN Americas in the U.S. and Canada and VPN Giappone in Japan (which, surprisingly, has more than 30 certified pizzerias).
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If your pizzeria, locates in USA, Canada or Central America, is equipped with a wood burning oven and an approved mixer (spiral, fork or double arm) you qualify to become an AVPN member.
In order to be certified by VPN Americas, and thereby become a member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, your brick-and-mortar restaurant must already be in operation.
Currently, individuals or businesses (including mobile ovens or oven equipped food trucks) do not qualify for membership.
Basic requirements

Equipment and tools:


  • Wood-burning oven: An approved Neapolitan pizza must be cooked in a wood-fired dome oven operating at a temperature of about 900 F. Coal, electric, or wood/gas combination ovens, while capable of producing a delicious pizza, do not conform to the Neapolitan tradition and are not allowed.
  • Mixer: The dough must be kneaded either by hand or with an approved mixer (spiral, fork or double arm). No vertical or planetary mixers are allowed.
  • Tools: A wood or aluminum peel to introduce the pizza inside the oven, a long handle steel round peel to turn and remove the pizza from the oven, a metal (steel or copper/tin) oil cruet, a 5 inches spatula and polyethylene proofing boxes are widely suggested.
Ingredients:

Only fresh, all-natural, non-processed ingredients (preferably imported from Naples or Campania region) are accepted.

As far as eating at a non VPN pizza places, I suppose that it is very probable that somebody out there can make a very good pizza and simply not be part of the VPN network. If I find a great pizza place near me, that I really enjoy I am going to enjoy it from time to time. To ignore good pizza because the proprietor does not have VPN status would be extremely foolish, IMO.
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I learned to cook from my mother who made excellent pizza, but not in the style of Napoli. I can't imagine a person turning down a slice of her pizza because the letters VPN were not attached to her cafe. But, I guess I now need to stretch my imagination a bit more.

FWIW, I make my own pizza - dough, sauce and prepare the toppings. However, I do draw the line at putting pineapple on pizza. :eek:
 
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Chuckanut said:
FWIW, I make my own pizza - dough, sauce and prepare the toppings.
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We have made our own pizza a few times. It was OK to us, but if someone else tried it, they might laugh out loud. :)

Speaking of having real Neapolitan pizza, the last time we were in Italy was in 2017.

We may go there again later this year, if Covid does not flare up again.
 
MichaelB said:
Just asking. No disagreement about fast food. Not all take out is fast food, though. Some take out is fine dining or ethnic restaurants, and the only way to get it home is in a box.
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You would be surprised how many chefs eat basically garbage. (I've never seen so many SysCo breaded chicken fingers consumed until I started working in the industry.)

The only time my wife and I eat out is if the restaurant is a destination in itself. And when we go there, we're going with one thing in mind -- stealing every recipe we can and adding it to our bag of tricks. (She's quite a good cook as well.) We have eaten at a place for lunch. And then made dinner reservations that night so we could steal some more recipes.

When we vacation, we stay in places that have a kitchen -- one of the true joys of foreign travel is going to markets, buying local foodstuffs, and cooking it. If we eat out on vacation it is because it is something we want to try, or we have heard good things about the chef, or they're famous for doing something better than anyone else. (Au Pied de Cochon in Paris is an example of all three at the same time.)

The best part of this strategy is that we never get a bad meal.

To illustrate just how different a drummer I march to, when we order, we never order from the menu. "Hi! We've heard great things about Chef Jacques. We'd like two different appetizers, two different entrees, and we'll share a dessert. Chef's choice. Whatever he (or she) thinks we should have."

This is called "omakase" in sushi restaurants. It translates to "leaving to another to decide what's best." We do this everywhere -- all over the world. I'm up to 73 countries and counting. I was hoping to hit the Century Club by the age of 50. Sadly, it's going to take a little longer.

Not once in 30 years of ordering this way has the chef pulled a "send them the most expensive items on the menu." It's always whatever is freshest today. And often, the chef will whip up some dish from his or her childhood, and then sit down with us and tell us how to make it.
 
NW-Bound said:
We have made our own pizza a few times. It was OK to us, but if someone else tried it, they might laugh out loud. :)
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Italy is probably my favorite food destination. With China following close behind.

What I like most about Italy is that Italians take food as seriously as I do. Ever eaten at a truck stop in Italy? I highly recommend that if you return, try it. You will get a better meal in an Italian truck stop than you will at 90% of all restaurants in the United States.

It's a real shame that Mario Batali turned out to be a [sphincter], because for awhile he was leading the charge for hyper-local, utterly fresh food. We need as much of that as we can get in the US.

As for pizza, here are some suggestions:

1) Make a sourdough starter. Get it going and use it in your dough recipes. You can do a hybrid yeast/sourdough pizza dough and approximate what they do around Naples.

2) You don't absolutely need 00 flour. But it can't hurt. If it's hard to acquire in your area, buy some vital wheat gluten online and mix a tablespoon with your usual flour.

3) Pizza dough should be fermented. There's still debate raging about how long to ferment. But try a two or three day fermentation and see if you get easy-to-stretch dough that doesn't fight you the whole way.
 
aja8888 said:
Certainly no discussion of Texas BBQ or good chili going on in this thread!:D
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Just wait until some company introduces a high-heat, "ready in 30 minutes" gadget that claims to make decent brisket "just as good as Texas" and I'll be right there to point out why nobody should buy one. ;)
 
ScoopKana - I have enjoyed your comments, opinions and ideas. I have looked up all of the products you mentioned. I have learned a few things. Don't know that I will be at your level, ever. But, thanks for the info. I will try...

Chuckanut - I come from an Italian-American family on my father's side. Do not have a name for the style of cooking. I just know that we always did dough from scratch. Always did sauce from scratch. Never, ever any store bought sauce in our household. Stanley Tucci describes the various customs and rules in his Italian-American household, as a kid. This pasta must be used with this sauce, etc. My wife doesn't understand these kind of rules. I must say that even using the word "Pineapple" in a sentence with the word Pizza would get me a spanking.
 
Z3Dreamer said:
I must say that even using the word "Pineapple" in a sentence with the word Pizza would get me a spanking.
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Don't get me started on store bought pesto made with cotton seed or soybean oil. :eek: And Yes, every year I plant basil in my containers, make a bunch of pesto (using olive oil), freeze it in an ice cube tray, and use it the rest of the year. Yummy.

This reminds me, I need to plant my tomatoes. Basil has to wait. It's still too cool here for the plants to do well.
 
Chuckanut said:
freeze it in an ice cube tray, and use it the rest of the year. Yummy.
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This is the way.

I always have several bags of pesto cubes in the freezer. Back on the mainland, I made this the traditional way. Mortal and pestle. Pine nuts. Loads of real parmesan from Parma -- sourced from Italy. Same with the pecorino. (Here, I'm mixing it up a bit and making what the tourists want.)

This pesto is then frozen in silicone molds in the freezer and then bagged. I drop a couple "flavor bombs" in many, many dishes. I probably use 10 cubes a week -- just cooking for myself. I brought frozen pesto with me to the farm. It's a kitchen staple I will never be without.


Once I feel I am in a position to open this farm to the public, I plan on selling food in our coffee tasting room. One of the advantages to practicing what I preach -- buying kitchen gear that is used in commercial kitchens -- is that all of my gear is already approved for commercial use. A health inspector isn't going to have a conniption walking into my tasting room.

The farm menu will include:


  • 100% estate-grown guacamole (I have more avocados than I know what to do with. Even now, I make my guac in a five-gallon bucket. Avocados freeze quite nicely. The only item I lack is cilantro.)
  • Kalua pork -- by the deli container
  • Huli Chicken
  • Macadamia-nut pesto
  • Macadamia candies -- estate-grown cocoa
  • Chocolate-covered espresso beans
  • Panini sandwiches


I also sell spice rubs and coffee wood for barbecuing. (You haven't lived until you have tried coffee-cold-smoked salmon.) Since there are so many people who would rather have a root canal than learn to cook, I think I have a ready market for life.

Best of all, I don't have to work to do this -- I do this already. All I need to do in the future is up my volume.
 
NW-Bound said:
The reason we did not use the stovetop pressure cooker much was that it took too much babysitting. And the pressure rocker was noisy.

With the Instant Pot electronic control, just hit a few buttons, and forget about it till it's done. Cleaning is so easy too.
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Yes. And my sister will leave it on keep stews warm overnight if she doesn’t feel like dealing with it right away!

She’s a public health professional so I guess she knows what she is doing.
 
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tmm99 said:
They all sound delish! I got to look into a German-style red cabbage recipe. I've never tried okra in my Instant Pot, but I steam artichokes which takes so little time in it.

I'm sure you experienced this too - one thing I like about making chicken bone broth using a pressure cooker is that the broth is tastier than the bone broth made in a slow cooker.. The broth from a pressure cooker is clearer (less cloudy), with a cleaner taste with no strange smell...
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This is our guide for I stand pot okra and tomatoes https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/recipe-instant-pot-okra-and-tomatoes/

I usually don’t have a jalapeño and we use the cayenne which really makes it zing. We don’t cut the okra but leave it whole. It has to be fresh nice looking (youngish) okra. DH loves this, so he makes it. Bacon is essential!

On the German style red cabbage I just adapted an old recipe. I think I let it pressure cook for about 10 mins, and do quick release. I stir in some red wine after and let that simmer a bit. I made it much lower carb by eliminating any added sugar and just using 1 Granny Smith apple, and it still tastes sweet!

I haven’t been brave enough to try artichokes as they are so timing sensitive. I steam them often.
 
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MRG said:
109 post and no mention of rabbits...
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Eh, to stay within the scope of the thread, you've got to describe how to do your dish with an air fryer. ;)
 
audreyh1 said:
Yes. And my sister will leave it on keep stews warm overnight if she doesn’t feel like dealing with it right away!

She’s a public health professional so I guess she knows what she is doing.
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While the IP lid is not as tightly sealed as the lid of a canning jar, it will not let air+bacteria in to contaminate the content that quickly. I agree that what she does is safe.
 
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MRG said:
Sorry I didn't see his implementation. Here's one one at 9:00 they're air frying on YouTube:https://youtu.be/cah_Qe1-R7k
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Looks good at the end, but I wonder if the meat is a bit dry. But what do I know? I have not eaten rabbit in decades.

I meant to get some to make a stew with red wine, but my wife said she would not eat rabbit, and I would have to eat it alone. So, I have not done it.
 
I've been told multiple times that if you have a "Convection Oven" you have an air fryer and it's much larger too.

But for me, I like the old fashion way....with OIL. :dance:
 
The HalfBreed said:
I've been told multiple times that if you have a "Convection Oven" you have an air fryer and it's much larger too.

But for me, I like the old fashion way....with OIL. :dance:
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Much larger and cooks much better.

Actual frying, done correctly, isn't significantly less healthy than trying to cheat the process in an air fryer. We are at least at "in for a penny, in for a pound" territory.

It's sort of like the difference between a countertop electric quesadilla maker and a skillet. The skillet does a better job, and does more than just make quesadillas.
 
audreyh1 said:
This is our guide for I stand pot okra and tomatoes https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/recipe-instant-pot-okra-and-tomatoes/

I usually don’t have a jalapeño and we use the cayenne which really makes it zing. We don’t cut the okra but leave it whole. It has to be fresh nice looking (youngish) okra. DH loves this, so he makes it. Bacon is essential!

On the German style red cabbage I just adapted an old recipe. I think I let it pressure cook for about 10 mins, and do quick release. I stir in some red wine after and let that simmer a bit. I made it much lower carb by eliminating any added sugar and just using 1 Granny Smith apple, and it still tastes sweet!

I haven’t been brave enough to try artichokes as they are so timing sensitive. I steam them often.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I will try them.

The okra recipe looks really good (maybe because bacon is one of the ingredients!).
 
NW-Bound said:
While the IP lid is not as tightly sealed as the lid of a canning jar, it will not let air+bacteria in to contaminate the content that quickly. I agree that what she does is safe.
Click to expand...

It’s also maintaining a high temp.
 
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