this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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Air fryers are basically just small convection ovens. If you have an oven then an air fryer does nothing you can't already do. That said, it does cook some things slightly faster due to the confined space. I've found mine will cook a chicken in just over an hour saving maybe 20 or 30 minutes on a regular oven. I guess it also saves energy / money but whether it ever pays for itself is another question.
Also heats up considerably faster than a normal oven. It's so good for reheating most stuff.
Generally it will cook a lot of things better than consumer ovens because consumer ovens are fucking garbage.
But yeah, it's just a small convection oven that heats faster and more evenly. I love mine. I mostly only use the oven for things that require a solid tray or don't do well with the fan in close proximity (mostly certain frozen foods). And baking.
I have a convection hob that plugs in and it's way better than the electric elements built into the stove for most stuff.
I'm not going to cook a whole turkey any time soon. Bigger ovens like this are a product of post war consumerism.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/354_Appliances_53.jpg?fit=335,335
I've had multiple airfryers, not against them per se. There are some things they cook better IMO. Cocktail sausages come out well. Whole chickens too. Anything you can fit the relatively small dimensions and either lays flat on the bottom or can withstand agitation/stirring AND has good heat dispersion / circulation. Small portions work better. Generally they're easy to clean although steel baskets and plastic fixtures on tend to be very flimsy and they don't last more than a year or two of regular use. I even had an airfryer which had this stirring mechanism in it which supposedly negated the need to turn stuff over but often it just caused some foods to disintegrate into starchy crumbs.
As for consumer ovens, can't say I've had any major issues ever with them, be they electric or gas. They're less efficient and slower to warm which is their downside. Once they're up and cooking I think they work fine and are obviously more versatile.
Pick the best tool for the job at hand basically. I think also, that something like an instant pot (or similar) is a better and more versatile device to buy before an airfryer.
Air fryer is just pure convenience. I could cook the chicken in the oven and probably have it come out okay. But, I could cook it in the air fryer, have nice and crunchy skin and save a pan.
I find cleaning the air fryer to be a pain. It's got the rack at the bottom that I have to scrum, and then the catch pan. If I cook a chicken in my cast iron pan in the oven, I have one flat surface to clean, as opposed to 1 flat surface and one complicated surface. What am I missing?
Put tinfoil at the the bottom. Throw tinfoil away if dirty.
The bin itself isn't much of a problem. It's the rack that holds the food up so the air can circulate underneath that's the real bitch to clean.
Laziness.
I clean it infrequently. Pretty much when grease from previous foods starts impacting the flavor in a negative way.
I just heat it up and pour out the grease. Then scrub it, cleans up easily when everything is hot.
I should add, small air fryers suck. You need a good sized one for it to be worth using.
Yeah the oven you just need to turn on clean cycle, leave the house for a few hours and then shop vac any ashes once it cools down.
My oven doesn't even get dirty when I cook a chicken. I haven't needed to clean mine in the 5 years I've lived in my house and we cook multiple times every week.
But every time we use our air fryer, I need to clean it because it's a mess.
Yes but I have an air fryer setting on my oven. It was much more expensive and does nothing exciting!