Air fryer cooking

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

The other problem for me is space. I have a very nice kitchen, but is is on the small side (for modern American kitchens, at least). I don't have space for a lot of countertop appliances. I also don't have storage space in my kitchen for a lot of that sort of thing. I have to be very selective about what I buy for the kitchen. I can have a deep fryer, OR an air fryer, but not both.

In a way, the decision not to have an air fryer was made for me.

CD

Even if you do have the space making a decision to use up counter space and have to look at something tha’ts not aesthetically pleasing is still a factor for me.

I’m fortunate to have a bit of workspace in my utility, it’s not a nice utility but all my electrical appliance are out there. The ugly ones that I want to use regularly (microwave, air fryer, ninja 10 in 1 and the bread maker) stay out, the rest are put away.

If I didn’t have the option and it had to be in my kitchen I would be a lot more descerning and at least half would never have even been bought!

 

[caseydog]

Even if you do have the space making a decision to use up counter space and have to look at something tha’ts not aesthetically pleasing is still a factor for me.

I’m fortunate to have a bit of workspace in my utility, it’s not a nice utility but all my electrical appliance are out there. The ugly ones that I want to use regularly (microwave, air fryer, ninja 10 in 1 and the bread maker) stay out, the rest are put away.

If I didn’t have the option and it had to be in my kitchen I would be a lot more descerning and at least half would never have even been bought!

I would actually like to have a bread maker, but I just can't make myself buy one, because of my space limitations.

CD

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I would actually like to have a bread maker, but I just can't make myself buy one, because of my space limitations.

CD

I hesitated because unless it’s out I’m not going to use it and they‘re bulky.
It has taken the last available space on the utility worktop, no more bulky kit for me.

It does make fantastic bread very easily but they were a huge craze here about 5 years ago, I didn‘t know anyone who didn’t have one and I didn’t know anyone who didn’t rave about theirs.. at first.
Then everyone complained how much weight they‘d put on since getting one and put them away in the back of a cupboard!

 

[TastyReuben]

My sister's oven takes a long time to heat up, too. My 20-year-old basic Sears Kenmore oven gets to 400F/200C in less than ten minutes.

CD

There are probably additional safety features on newer ones to make extra sure we don’t Darwin ourselves - “Increases cannot exceed 12.5° Fahrenheit per 10 minutes of heating, to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion.”

 

[caseydog]

There are probably additional safety features on newer ones to make extra sure we don’t Darwin ourselves - “Increases cannot exceed 12.5° Fahrenheit per 10 minutes of heating, to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion.”

Old school Sears Kenmore appliances were top-level. Too bad Sears was so badly run, that they went down the tubes. Kenmore appliances and Craftsman tools were excellent up until around 2000. Then, just like Sears, they went downhill fast.

You can still buy Kenmore and Craftsman branded stuff at Lowe's, but it is not the same. Craftsman tools are now made in China, and no longer anything a professional would use.

CD

 

[grumpyoldman]

my son just bought a new stove with an "air fryer " oven, i'll be the 1st to admit i don't get what all the fuss is about, after all its just an oven with a fan
by the way he paid a small fortune for it

 

[caseydog]

my son just bought a new stove with an "air fryer " oven, i'll be the 1st to admit i don't get what all the fuss is about, after all its just an oven with a fan
by the way he paid a small fortune for it

I'd bet good money that five years ago, that "air fryer oven" was called a convection oven. The name was changed to air fryer oven to appeal to the air fryer community.

CD

 

[grumpyoldman]

the only thing i could see from the pictues he sent me was it had a fan to blow the hot air around
other than that it looked just like any other stove ( but it does have a small griddle between the burners which i kinda like )

 

[TastyReuben]

Here’s another air fryer win, in my book:

This morning, I included a frozen hash brown patty/potato cake thingy with breakfast.

When I’m not in a hurry, I generally use the oven. Instructions on the bag say to heat oven to 450F, then bake 7-8 minutes per side.

Today, they were a last-minute request, so I pulled out the air fryer, and the patties came out crispier than the oven, and a total of 10 minutes at 400F.

“BFD, Tasty, you saved five whole minutes there!”

But wait, there’s more:

To get my oven up to 450F, it takes about 40 minutes. I’ve timed it. That’s 40 minutes of just waiting around to come up to temp.

The air fryer…three minutes to preheat. That means those patties came out, done to a turn, in 13 minutes total, while my standard oven would have taken a whopping 55 minutes, start to finish.

Go, air fryer! I’d keep it around just for that, even if that’s all I ever used it for.

 

[LissaC]

Here’s another air fryer win, in my book:

This morning, I included a frozen hash brown patty/potato cake thingy with breakfast.

When I’m not in a hurry, I generally use the oven. Instructions on the bag say to heat oven to 450F, then bake 7-8 minutes per side.

Today, they were a last-minute request, so I pulled out the air fryer, and the patties came out crispier than the oven, and a total of 10 minutes at 400F.

“BFD, Tasty, you saved five whole minutes there!”

But wait, there’s more:

To get my oven up to 450F, it takes about 40 minutes. I’ve timed it. That’s 40 minutes of just waiting around to come up to temp.

The air fryer…three minutes to preheat. That means those patties came out, done to a turn, in 13 minutes total, while my standard oven would have taken a whopping 55 minutes, start to finish.

Go, air fryer! I’d keep it around just for that, even if that’s all I ever used it for.

To me that's the strongest use case for an air fryer. You can use it to cook stuff that's in such small quantity it would be wildly inefficient to cook it in an oven.

 

[caseydog]

To get my oven up to 450F, it takes about 40 minutes. I’ve timed it. That’s 40 minutes of just waiting around to come up to temp.

Sumpthins' wrong with that oven. Mine can get to 450F in about ten minutes.

CD

 

[Morning Glory]

To get my oven up to 450F, it takes about 40 minutes. I’ve timed it. That’s 40 minutes of just waiting around to come up to temp.

That is a huge amount of time. It ought to take around 10 minutes as caseydog says.

I don't have a 'traditional' air fryer but I have a halogen cooker (sits on counter) which uses a halogen light to heat and blows air around inside it. I think it is in, all but looks an air fryer. It takes no time at all to heat at and I do almost all my cooking that would normally go in an oven in it, plus things that would be grilled (broiled in US). Its round and can easily cook a whole chicken.

 

[TastyReuben]

Sumpthins' wrong with that oven. Mine can get to 450F in about ten minutes.

That is a huge amount of time. It ought to take around 10 minutes as @caseydog says.

Reading my oven owner’s manual and doing about 15 minutes of internet research, I have a very strong feeling I’ve just sussed it out, but…you all have to wait until I can test my theory.

Ohhhh, kitchen science…exciting! ️

 

[TastyReuben]

Ohhhh, kitchen science…exciting!

…and the problem is solved. Science, FTW!

Let me start at the beginning: first, I went to my trusty owner’s manual, and there I found a handy-dandy chart that told me my oven should reach 450F in 20-25 minutes. Mine clocks in at 39 minutes and some seconds.

Hmmmm…

Reading through the possible causes…is the door seal leaking? Nope, no heat escaping around the door. Am I opening the door to watch it heat up (seriously?)? Nope, I don’t need to check how done the air is.

Is my kitchen unusually cold? Actually, yes it is much colder than the rest of the house, but I can’t really fix that. Are there other items in the oven that may be slowing down the heating cycle?

Wait a minute…

Further reading reveals that if you have other things in your oven, they can absorb heat as the oven is generating it, possibly significantly extending the heating time. They even recommend removing any racks not being used, which seems a little ridiculous to me, but that’s what they say.

What do I store in my oven? Let’s see…why, there’s a 7” cast iron skillet, that probably can absorb a bit, and a 12” cast iron skillet, that can probably absorb quite a bit more…and, oh yeah, my 2” thick 16-pound 16” square pizza stone!

Took out the skillets, wrestled out the pizza stone, set the cold oven to 450F, kicked off a stopwatch, and 17 minutes and 27 seconds later, oven was up to temp.

That’s what’s been causing my long preheat times all along. Funny thing is, all the pizza enthusiasts say to keep your stone (or steel) in the oven full time, because it helps the oven hold temp more evenly…but none of them mention the increase in heating time, and of course, I have a behemoth of a stone, not one of those thin department store stones, and I keep two cast iron skillets in there as well.

I’m surprised it only took 40 minutes with all that in there.

 

[caseydog]

…and the problem is solved. Science, FTW!

Let me start at the beginning: first, I went to my trusty owner’s manual, and there I found a handy-dandy chart that told me my oven should reach 450F in 20-25 minutes. Mine clocks in at 39 minutes and some seconds.

Hmmmm…

Reading through the possible causes…is the door seal leaking? Nope, no heat escaping around the door. Am I opening the door to watch it heat up (seriously?)? Nope, I don’t need to check how done the air is.

Is my kitchen unusually cold? Actually, yes it is much colder than the rest of the house, but I can’t really fix that. Are there other items in the oven that may be slowing down the heating cycle?

Wait a minute…

Further reading reveals that if you have other things in your oven, they can absorb heat as the oven is generating it, possibly significantly extending the heating time. They even recommend removing any racks not being used, which seems a little ridiculous to me, but that’s what they say.

What do I store in my oven? Let’s see…why, there’s a 7” cast iron skillet, that probably can absorb a bit, and a 12” cast iron skillet, that can probably absorb quite a bit more…and, oh yeah, my 2” thick 16-pound 16” square pizza stone!

Took out the skillets, wrestled out the pizza stone, set the cold oven to 450F, kicked off a stopwatch, and 17 minutes and 27 seconds later, oven was up to temp.

That’s what’s been causing my long preheat times all along. Funny thing is, all the pizza enthusiasts say to keep your stone (or steel) in the oven full time, because it helps the oven hold temp more evenly…but none of them mention the increase in heating time, and of course, I have a behemoth of a stone, not one of those thin department store stones, and I keep two cast iron skillets in there as well.

I’m surprised it only took 40 minutes with all that in there.

Ah yes, thermal mass. It does help keep temperatures stable, but also takes longer to reach a temperature.

CD