If I got an oven with grill and fan forced, do I really need an air-fryer?
I don’t see an overwhelming reason to be honest.
You don’t need it. You won’t get the same end result with your setup, but if you don’t feel like you’re missing anything there’s no reason to get one.
So they’re for… Small meals, fast(er)meals (frozen is still a quick meal), and … those people without a normal oven?
Well… kind of? I have a normal oven, but still appreciate my air fryer. The quality of breaded or fried foods is better than a normal oven, and I use less energy. The difference isn’t big enough to make it a completely different thing, but it’s there.
deleted by creator
No.
For some reason I knew it was technology connections just by reading the title
And the duration
The man spent like half an hour discussing light switches.
And I watched every second of it
Convection ovens. The branding of ‘air fryer’ always makes me cringe.
I was like you once and believed a convection oven and air fryer are the same thing and produce the same results. But I was wrong!
There is a subtle but crucial difference between an air fryer and a convection oven. A convection oven only circulates air around inside the oven, keeping the steam trapped with the food, while an air fryer actually removes all of the steam away from the food, allowing it to get much crispier much faster than is possible with a convection oven.
You are kind of right though, because now that air fryers have become popular, they’ve started marketting small toaster-oven-style convection ovens as “air fryers”, even though they legitimately are not air fryers and do not cook the food the same way that an air fryer does.
so an air fryer is more like a small convection oven?
if you want the steam to escape, you can just open the oven door for a few seconds and there it goes.
That would help, but I doubt it would be as effective as a real air fryer that is actively blowing air while heating it, instead of just circulating it. An air fryer gets really loud because it is moving so much more air.
also the air circulation is more intense in an air fryer, and it’s a smaller enclosed space which is easier to keep at a high temperature. both of these also help food cook more evenly.
I wonder if I could DIY an air fryer with a heat gun, a metal box, and a PID controller.
Hmm. Diluting the air will be the hardest thing: A run off the mill heat gun will do 600C at 2000W in a concentrated stream, if you regulate it down to air frying temperature you’ll get very little total power so you’ll want to cool it down by pulling in additional ambient air instead. But with that out of the way… add a metal box and a timer? The heat gun already regulates the temperature. Probably not via PID though, just pre-set power levels for coils and fan they’re not exactly precision instruments.
…and all that made me wonder and apparently there’s no culinary heat guns which would be a smart choice because they’d pay attention for all materials to be food-safe. But there are hobbyists reporting great results using standard heat guns instead of the usual torch. Not, to be honest, that you’d expect standard lighter gas to be food-grade, of course.
I wasn’t thinking of trying to regulate down the power on the heat gun itself, I was thinking of cycling it on and off (or cycling between heat and fan-only mode) to maintain thermostatic control of the temperature in the box.
Set a temperature, have an exhaust, the temperature inside will be within a wibble of your set-point because the air stream will completely dominate over any other source of temperature raise/drop. You’re way overcomplicating things. Forego subtlety, consider the air as a bulldozer: If this was a closed system having feedback control would be a good idea but air frying is supposed to use fresh outside air so that the hot air is really dry and the intake air being a couple degrees hotter or colder won’t make a difference in practice. Just smash that shit.
it’s the same general idea but they don’t perform the same.
You should watch the video, they had that same thought
Watch the video
someone in the comments on youtube pointed out that many purpose built air fryers exhaust the air so the interior stays drier, where convection ovens recirculate air and hang onto humidity.
That’s a big point in the video, the creator also thought that they’re just glorified convection ovens. But it turns out that air fryers and convection ovens are optimized for different tasks so the food comes out differently, and there are other advantages to an air fryer too, depending on the situation. Just because they use the same technology doesn’t mean they do the exact same thing.
My oven has gas burners in the top and bottom of the oven, and a tiny fan in the back for convection bake. The wee fan is meant to help distribute heat evenly throughout the oven. Convection is meant for baking multiple trays on both racks - it spreads the heat evenly throughout.
The air fryer has a big fan right behind the big heating element, which sits a few inches above the food, and blasts heat directly onto the food.
Similar components, but entirely different results.
Your comparison is rightly dispels the misconception that any “frying without oil” is happening though. An air fryer is closer to an oven, convection or otherwise, than it is to a deep fryer and pan-frying with oil. You just won’t get the same speed or results with a convection oven, though. They’re different designs.
Any decent electric convection oven has an element around the fan. Mine is 2500w, 1000w more than most countertop appliances.
https://www.partselect.com/PS2368832-Frigidaire-318255511-Convection-Element-2500W.htm
Even the ones built into microwaves have it but they’re a measly 900w it seems.
I’m not entirely against calling it frying, in both cases you have heat transfer by immersion in a dry liquid as contact medium, as opposed to heating with infrared radiation (e.g. toaster, many kinds of spits), direct contact with no or little contact medium (hot pan with no/minimum oil, waffle iron), using water (which is wet) as contact medium which invariably makes things soggy instead of crispy and thus very different, or directly moving the atoms in the food (microwave).
That is: If you have a look at all the different ways to transfer heat into things then frying and baking are actually darn close to each other in the first place, compared to the rest. It’s the reason you can definitely make a passable calzone in a pan. And air frying in particular brigs baking into the frying range of crispiness so I’d say fair is fair, you can fry with air as long as you make you air mean enough.
TIL the new “air fryer” version of my old convection toaster over is the same device, but with a basket accessory.
great. now I want a sunbeam radiant control toaster.
My client struggles with showing youtube thumbnails but at this point I recognize technology connections videos just by how he writes his titles.
Most of them are a pain in the ass to properly clean. My mom has a ninja air fryer. There is no way to remove the top grate. The grease builds up in it.
Pff, it’s just heating and stirring the air, not frying it.
Yup. And that’s still damn useful.
That’s the whole point of the video.
The video doesn’t explain how to fry air
…fuck, now I get what you meant! Sorry I kind of ruined your joke.
(I’m one of those primitives still taking raw air all the time. Just seasoned with a bit pollution, mmnh, tasty NOx)
No worries. From the votes I gather only 1 to 2 got the joke.
I got an air fryer this year, and I definitively recommend it. It was cheap, I paid 350 reals (roughly 70 euros). In some cases the food is really similar to deep-fried food, but the biggest appeal of the device is as a small but powerful oven - specially for stuff like
- chicken wings - they turn out wet but well cooked, with a crispy outside
- reheating stale bread - pat it with a bit of water, then plop it in the air fryer.
- frozen potato fries - as he mentions in the video they get damn great
- milanesa - it doesn’t get identical to deep-fried milanesa but it’s really good, and way better than doing it in the oven.
If looking for a model make sure to get one with a detachable false bottom, otherwise you’ll get the problem andrewta mentioned and won’t be able to clean it right.
My dude… Get ready for some more great suggestions…
Reheating Pizza
Cooking salmon or any kind of fish really. Suggest panko breading
Same goes for pork chops. Go with the thick ones - they get wonderfully crispy but very juicy inside
BACON!!!
Roasted potatoes - make sure to cut them into larger chunks than you usually do
Reheating greasy/fried foods alone makes these things worth it imo. Im no detractor of cold pizza but its just not necessary anymore, this shit is magic
Agreed. Only way ive found to reheat fries from a restaurant. used to just leave them if i couldnt finish them.
We got take away a few weeks ago, and the fries were already soggy by the time we got home. Think i popped them in for like 3 mins or something and they were seemingly fresh again
Dont they also fill all ur food with micro plastics?
The components inside it are metal, plastic wouldn’t be able to handle that heat so they are unable to add any plastics to your food
Not that I’m aware of, no.
It’s not microplastics that worry me. It’s heated plastics, which is why I don’t use plastics in the microwave or use non stick cookware. BTW, the fancy air fryer seems to be all metal, like the toaster ovens.
Also, why the downvotes to a reasonable question?
Why downvotes? I think cos everyone is using it and they dont wanna have to confront the idea they fucking themselves.
Because the comment itself is kind of useless. Do they fill food with microplastics?
19 minute video on air fryers? I don’t own an air fryer. I’m not in the market for an air fryer. I’m not very interested in air fryers.
technology connections
Fucks sake
Clicks link
