I’ve examined a variety 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 cook dinner – for easy duties, no less than.
I began to surprise 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 search out out. In spite of everything, an air fryer doesn’t truly fry meals. It’s a mini convection oven that may cook dinner nearly something an bizarre oven can.
The principles of the experiment had been that I needed to cook dinner every little thing within the air fryer that I’d normally cook dinner within the oven, and I couldn’t begin consuming beige frozen meals for each meal.
Right here’s what I realized 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 bit too lengthy, which swiftly and effectively reworked them into olive-speckled items of cardboard.
In case you have a strong air fryer and also you’re cooking nearly something besides frozen, breaded hen or chips, one of the best 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 good cooking temperatures, you possibly can at all times add a few minutes of additional time. You’ll be able to’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 no less than 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 a substitute.
They got here out completely – and had been executed rapidly – with a light-weight, crispy crust on the potato. However it was nonetheless a little bit of a nuisance to maintain testing the centre of the pie to see if it was cooked.
The best choice, because it turned out, was to microwave the shepherd’s pies first to heat them via, 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. However it’s not solely doable, 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’d for an oven however flip down the warmth by round 20°C/70°F.
If the air fryer is simply too sizzling, the surface of the cake will cook dinner a lot extra rapidly 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 had been aiming for.
I began to make use of the air fryer for every little thing: even issues I wouldn’t usually cook dinner within the oven
Experimenting is price it
Drunk with the success of the air fryer cake, I began to make use of the air fryer for every little thing: even issues I wouldn’t usually cook dinner within the oven. I crisped up gnocchi, made toasted sandwiches, roasted greens and defrosted peas.
The place I’d normally steam greens, I’d air fry them as a substitute, with a bit oil and garlic. It is probably not as wholesome as steaming however this concern was considerably outweighed by the advantages of deliciousness.
Neglect 10-inch pizzas
Nonetheless, there’s one factor {that a} conventional air fryer simply can’t do. You’ll be able to overlook about cooking a grocery store pizza in it. It simply received’t match.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
As soon as, as a way to observe the letter of the problem I’d assigned myself, I lower a pizza in half and cooked the items one after the opposite within the air fryer. They turned out advantageous however actually, it’s a bizarre factor to do.
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Emma Rowley / Foundry
Except you need to spend money on an air fryer oven or a devoted pizza oven, you’ll want to make use of your common oven for pizza.
There are a number of different stuff you shouldn’t cook dinner in an air fryer: leafy greens, together with spinach, which might be blown round, and something with a moist batter. I additionally wouldn’t cook dinner a steak in something aside from a pan.
My oven now appears Medieval
Why is it so gigantic? Why does every little thing take so lengthy to cook dinner? Why is it nearly inconceivable to wash?
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 solely 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 until I’m making a full roast dinner, or cooking a pizza, it doesn’t get switched on.
It’s arduous to guage how important the vitality financial savings of this experiment had 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 take advantage of?
I made a decision on the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer as a result of, because the title suggests, it’s a versatile cooker. You need to 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 cook dinner entire roasts, or bake full-size truffles.
You’ll be able to learn my FlexDrawer evaluate to search 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 accessible within the US however the very comparable Ninja Foodi FlexBasket is. Keep in mind that it’s a bit smaller, with a 7QT capability throughout the 2 cooking areas.
To get the same quantity of cooking area to the FlexDrawer, you might additionally use an air fryer oven. We’ve examined and reviewed among the greatest, which you’ll be able to browse in our air fryer oven round-up. We’ve additionally acquired suggestions for one of the best Ninja air fryer and one of the best air fryer total.