I’ve examined loads of air fryers. At any given time, I’ve two or three air fryers lined up on my kitchen counter, giving the room the nice and cozy, welcoming vibe of an home equipment showroom.
As I spent extra time utilizing them for work, I broke the behavior of mechanically switching on my oven when it got here time to prepare dinner – for easy duties, at the very least.
I began to marvel if I actually wanted to make use of my oven in any respect. So I made a decision to swap all my oven cooking to an air fryer for a month to seek out out. In spite of everything, an air fryer doesn’t truly fry meals. It’s a mini convection oven that may prepare dinner virtually something an bizarre oven can.
The foundations of the experiment have been that I needed to prepare dinner every thing within the air fryer that I’d often prepare dinner within the oven, and I couldn’t begin consuming beige frozen meals for each meal.
Right here’s what I discovered in that month.
Reheating means rethinking
My first act of meals violence was unthinkingly reheating a few pizza slices utilizing the beneficial reheating temperature of 170°C/340°F for a little bit too lengthy, which swiftly and effectively remodeled them into olive-speckled items of cardboard.
If in case you have a strong air fryer and also you’re cooking virtually something besides frozen, breaded rooster or chips, the most effective little bit of cooking recommendation is to show down the warmth by 10°C/50°F.
There’s a studying curve to switching to air fryer cooking, and when you’re determining excellent cooking temperatures, you’ll be able to at all times add a few minutes of additional time. You possibly can’t flip cardboard again into pizza.
Microwave + air fryer continues to be quicker than an oven
I made particular person shepherd’s pies in stoneware dishes, as a result of I’m fancy like that, and heated them up the following day. Ordinarily, I’d put them within the oven for at the very least 45 minutes (and so they’d nonetheless in all probability be chilly within the center) however because the oven was banned, I used the air fryer as an alternative.
They got here out completely – and have been executed shortly – with a light-weight, crispy crust on the potato. Nevertheless it was nonetheless a little bit of a nuisance to maintain testing the centre of the pie to see if it was cooked.
The most suitable choice, because it turned out, was to microwave the shepherd’s pies first to heat them by, then put them within the air fryer for 7 minutes for a golden glow-up. The microwave + air fryer combo additionally works nicely with jacket potatoes.
Don’t attempt to pre-cook pastry pies in a microwave: the outcomes will make you unhappy.
Baking is simpler than you count on
Baking a cake in an air fryer has the air of a novelty efficiency, like taking part in Clair de Lune on the kazoo. Nevertheless it’s not solely potential, it’s quicker and cheaper. Crucially – and maybe surprisingly – the cake will style precisely the identical.
The principle limitation is the quantity of cooking area in your air fryer. To bake in a 5-6-litre/quart single-drawer mannequin, you’ll want a small, 15cm/6in spherical cake tin (purchase one from Amazon UK/Amazon US).
Nevertheless, the air fryer I used, the FlexDrawer, supplies sufficient room to bake a full-size cake.
Crucially – and maybe surprisingly – the cake will style precisely the identical
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Comply with the recipe precisely as you’ll for an oven however flip down the warmth by round 20°C/70°F.
If the air fryer is just too sizzling, the skin of the cake will prepare dinner a lot extra shortly than the within that it’ll forestall it from rising correctly. The cake will wind up dense and yurt-shaped, which is unlikely to be what you have been aiming for.
I began to make use of the air fryer for every thing: even issues I wouldn’t usually prepare dinner within the oven
Experimenting is value it
Drunk with the success of the air fryer cake, I began to make use of the air fryer for every thing: even issues I wouldn’t usually prepare dinner within the oven. I crisped up gnocchi, made toasted sandwiches, roasted greens and defrosted peas.
The place I’d often steam greens, I’d air fry them as an alternative, with a little bit oil and garlic. It is probably not as wholesome as steaming however this concern was considerably outweighed by the advantages of deliciousness.
Overlook 10-inch pizzas
Nonetheless, there’s one factor {that a} conventional air fryer simply can’t do. You possibly can neglect about cooking a grocery store pizza in it. It simply gained’t match.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
As soon as, in an effort to observe the letter of the problem I’d assigned myself, I minimize a pizza in half and cooked the items one after the opposite within the air fryer. They turned out positive however actually, it’s a bizarre factor to do.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Until you need to put money into an air fryer oven or a devoted pizza oven, you’ll want to make use of your common oven for pizza.
There are a couple of different belongings you shouldn’t prepare dinner in an air fryer: leafy greens, together with spinach, which could be blown round, and something with a moist batter. I additionally wouldn’t prepare dinner a steak in something aside from a pan.
My oven now appears Medieval
Why is it so gigantic? Why does every thing take so lengthy to prepare dinner? Why is it virtually unimaginable to scrub?
Opening my oven now could be like time-travelling again to a dirty Medieval forge, which is a spot I very a lot don’t need to have lunch.
After a month of completely utilizing an air fryer, I hardly ever use my oven now. I haven’t fairly reached the stage of storing classic denim in it, as Carmy does in The Bear, however except I’m making a full roast dinner, or cooking a pizza, it doesn’t get switched on.
It’s exhausting to guage how important the vitality financial savings of this experiment have been (though air frying cooking will certainly prevent cash in the long run) however the period of time and trouble I saved myself in cooking and cleanup was large.
Opening my oven now could be like time-travelling again to a dirty Medieval forge, which is a spot I very a lot don’t need to have lunch
Which air fryer did I exploit?
I made a decision on the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer as a result of, because the identify suggests, it’s a versatile cooker. You should use its two, 5.2L cooking zones individually, or solely use one, or take away the divider between them to create an enormous, 10.4L “megazone”. This offers you the area to prepare dinner entire roasts, or bake full-size desserts.
You possibly can learn my FlexDrawer evaluation to seek out out extra, or see our most beneficial dual-zone air fryers to see the way it stacks up towards the competitors. The FlexDrawer isn’t obtainable within the US however the very related Ninja Foodi FlexBasket is. Keep in mind that it’s a little bit smaller, with a 7QT capability throughout the 2 cooking areas.
To get the same quantity of cooking area to the FlexDrawer, you possibly can additionally use an air fryer oven. We’ve examined and reviewed a number of the finest, which you’ll be able to browse in our air fryer oven round-up. We’ve additionally acquired suggestions for the most effective Ninja air fryer and the most effective air fryer total.
