The point of an air fryer is that hot air circulates and comes into contact with your food from different angles, helping it to cook in a lot less time. By adding a liner you're interrupting that flow of air, and your food will sit in the same fat or juices that it'd be swimming in on an oven tray. '
Food can take longer to cook
Using an air fryer liner adds another layer between the basket and the food that is being cooked. Silicone liners are a few millimetres thick and this will therefore affect the cooking time. Parchment liners are usually quite thin but they do still impact the cooking time.
Why Use Perforated Silicone Mats for Cooking Food in Your Air Fryer? NON-STICK LINERS: These liners or mats stops food from sticking to your air fryer basket, racks or trays. They also protect and extends the life of your air fryer baskets and liners. This minimizes harsh scrubbing on your air fryer cooking surfaces.
An air fryer liner is a pre-cut paper that sits in the bottom of the air fryer to absorb grease and trap crumbs. Tiny pre-cut holes allow hot air to circulate and crisp up food—something you won't get if you cut your own parchment paper into circles.
In conclusion, air-fryer parchment paper can be easily substituted with a variety of alternatives. Wax paper, aluminum foil, silicone mats, oil sprays, and air-fryer silicone pots are all viable substitutes that provide excellent heat stability or non-stick surfaces for easy cleanup.
Is It Safe to Use Aluminum Foil In the Air Fryer? An air fryer is simply a small oven that runs on convection heat. The heat is circulated around a tight space by a powerful fan that lies just below or behind the heating element. Just as in a standard oven, it is perfectly safe to use aluminum foil in the air fryer.
You can use foil or parchment paper in your air fryer to make cleanup easy. However, parchment paper is probably a better option. Some acidic foods should not be air-fried with foil—we're looking at you, tomatoes and citrus fruits.
"Put a slice of bread on the bottom of your air fryer," said Kang. "It's a green alternative to foil for catching grease and drips for easier clean-up." In order to minimize food waste, you may want to only use this technique when cooking especially greasy foods (like bacon), and also use bread slices that are stale.
You let fatty foods drip
Before you hit the start button, make sure you put water in the bottom of the cavity under the frying basket. This way, when the fat drips onto the hot surface, it will hit water—not hot metal, where it will burn, smoke, and smell.
And when it comes to what to use as a cooking surface in your air fryer, silicone mats are definitely the way to go. They're non-stick, easy to clean, and can be used over and over again. So if you're looking for a healthier cooking option, ditch the parchment paper and give silicone mats a try.
Our favorite sets of liners—one parchment and one silicone—were lightweight and had low sides, which allowed heat to circulate around the food without extending cooking times. The liners contained grease and sticky glaze so well that we usually didn't have to clean our air-fryer baskets at all.
Don't: Plastic
Unfortunately you cannot heat up your foods in plastic containers, such as Tupperware and plastic takeaway containers in the airfryer (like you can in a microwave). The general rule of thumb is what can go in an oven, can also go in the airfryer.
So, the question many people are asking is, can you put paper towels in air fryer? The answer is no; you can not! If you want to use them, they will pose a fire hazard and cause a fire in your home and your air fryer to combust. So, never, ever use a paper towel in the air fryer!
“Most of these foods slide out without any parchment,” Fleming adds. While generally you can put parchment paper in an air fryer for anything you're cooking, it's not required for any foods. It may make cleaning up easier, but it's not a necessity.
Another called it “a total gamechanger when it comes to cooking”, while Gordon Ramsay claimed the results are like food “cooked in oil, but [the air fryer] locks in the juice and the flavour is extraordinary”.
The downside
Air-frying also produces high temperatures at a very rapid rate, thus making it extremely easy to burn food. And charred food may be carcinogenic. In addition, Cucuzza adds, because most devices cook 1 to 3 pounds of food at a time, it can be challenging to air-fry meals for a large family.
Air fryers are a very intense way of cooking, and some granite countertops have cracked and even melted under the extreme heat. it's best to find some silicone mats for countertops to protect them properly.
Oven or Toaster Oven Style Air Fryers:
Quicker cooking foods can be on the top rack, while the foods that need more time can be on the bottom rack. This works if the two types of food can be cooked at the same temperature.
Aluminum foil can be used in an air fryer, but it should only go in the basket. Acidic foods react with aluminum, so avoid using foil when air frying tomatoes, peppers, or citrus. Using parchment paper or a bare basket is better because it won't interfere with cooking.
Depending upon the sturdiness of the glass dish, you can decide whether Glass Pyrex can be used in an air fryer. If the dish is oven-safe, made of borosilicate or tempered glass, it can work in an air fryer. However, if the dish is made of soda-lime glass, it can't withstand high temperatures in an air fryer.
Enter, air fryer paper liners! Available on Amazon (and on sale right this second), these pre-cut pieces of parchment paper come with teeny-tiny perforations that allow the hot air to circulate through the paper, resulting in crispy food and near to zero mess.
Seared outside, juicy inside, and fast, air fried steak is astonishingly easy and tastes phenomenal. It changed the way we cook steak at home!
If you don't have aluminum foil on hand, you may be tempted to use parchment paper instead. You can use parchment paper in an air fryer, but with many of the same caveats as with foil (never use wax paper, as its coating can melt at high temperatures).