Experts praise air fryers for their versatility, energy-savings and the 'endless recipes' which are possible.
Professional chefs have been utilizing convection cooking—fine, air frying—to quickly cook everything from potatoes to roasted veggies and more for decades.
Despite this, professional chefs and culinary experts alike seem to hate the thing. You don't have to look far to find examples, either: Pretty much every YouTube cooking video involving a chef and an air fryer is riddled with disdain. "It's just a convection oven," they whinge.
Research shows that air fryers are more energy efficient than using an oven and that means savings on energy bills. They are healthier than deep frying or using an oil-soaked frying pan so there are some health benefits too. The Instant Vortex itself is a good bit of kit.
Air frying is essentially glorified convection baking — but faster. Air fryers are outfitted with internal heating elements and high-powered convection fans that work to surround your food in hot air and achieve a crispy, golden result that's similar to actual frying — without the oil.
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.
At their core, air fryers are essentially smaller-sized convection ovens. For this reason, commercial businesses don't benefit from them. Convection ovens may find uses in the food industry for certain items but have many limitations for broader service menus.
The pros are that air fryers are versatile, easy-to-use, and very quick allowing you to make healthier food efficiently in your own kitchen. Despite this, these rather large devices quickly take up space on your kitchen counter or in your cupboards and can be tricky to clean.
According to their appliance expert, Samantha Cooper, “[air fryers] are loud … don't do anything significantly better than an oven … and they also require bumping your toaster and coffeemaker onto a storage shelf.”
Gordon Ramsay uses a Philips brand airfryer with technology that creates a “tornado” of hot air to fry, roast, grill, and bake foods with little to no oil added. The versatility of Philips airfryer that can't be beaten.
Air fryers are popular because they are affordable, don't use as much oil as a traditional fryer, and heat food evenly and quickly. These appliances are much healthier than deep fryers and work more rapidly than a standard convection oven.
In an air fryer, the food you're cooking also sits inside a perforated basket, allowing lots of air flow all around your food. Combined, this results in food that cooks really fast and with lots of crispy edges, which makes it taste delicious!
French fries are arguably the most popular thing to cook in an air fryer.
The difference in air fryer vs. deep fryer taste boils down to individual preference. Because deep frying requires more oil, the flavor of oil you use will coat the entire food. This is where air frying can be an asset since using a limited amount of oil can enhance the natural flavors of the food.
You can limit the amount of acrylamide in air-fried food by cooking it for the shortest amount of time and at the lowest temperature necessary to achieve perfect results. French fries should be cooked until golden-brown, and meat should be cooked to a safe internal temperature.
So if you often eat deep-fried foods, switching to an air fryer could be helpful. If you're cooking a food that you wouldn't normally add fat to when you cook it, whether that's ready-made oven chips, bacon, sausages or breaded chicken, being cooked in an air fryer is unlikely to make it healthier.
Air fryers cook quicker than convection ovens and don't require heating a large appliance, like your full-sized oven. Their perforated racks also allow fat to drip onto the drip pan so your food doesn't absorb excess oil, which minimizes calories and becomes crispier since it is more dry.
An air fryer or a countertop oven on the air fry setting usually circulates the air a bit faster than in a convection oven. This can sometimes give you a crispier finish that is just a bit closer to an actual deep fried finish, depending on your recipe.
Air fryers don't use a lot of electricity, with most requiring between 800 and 1800 watts (W) to run, though some large models need more. Air fryers also use less electricity than electric ovens, which typically use around 2,200 W to 5,000 W, and therefore cost more to run.
The size of the air fryer basket will determine how many rashers you can cook at one time. Set the air fryer to 200C and cook streaky bacon rashers for 6-10 mins – just-cooked bacon will take 6 mins, but crispier bacon will take 9-10 mins.