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Lord_Botond t1_j2dswgc wrote

Can someone explain air fryers? I dont get it, it cooks stuff with hot air, it does the same thing as an oven. It is an oven

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lowfreq33 t1_j2dwrpr wrote

It’s just a mini convection oven. Cooks food more evenly and uses less electricity than a full size oven. Very convenient if you’re just cooking for one or two people.

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GlendaleActual t1_j2e9hzr wrote

Also, makes it real easy to shake em up during cooking!

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jumpsteadeh t1_j2ef0bm wrote

The food or the dinner guests? For the latter, I usually leave out a ramekin of gochugaru and eat pinches of it during conversation.

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LesbianCommander t1_j2ecs8l wrote

It's not anything special, it's just a convection oven. However, I do feel like it does better than a convection oven for airflow, at least mine does.

The most important thing if you want to compare it to a deep fryer though, you still need oil.

If you airfry something you want to deepfry without oil, it'll be terribly dry and starchy. You need to finish it with a spray of oil at the end. But it definitely uses less oil than deepfrying.

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lupuscapabilis t1_j2ez0a6 wrote

Make chicken wings in the oven and then make them in an air fryer and you’ll understand.

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Jkirek_ t1_j2f90b8 wrote

Ovens are great if you're cooking for a large family, they're less great when you're cooking for a few people, since it still uses the same amount of power either way. Having a small oven can be very useful instead.

I'd love it if they were renamed to tabletop convection ovens to accurately reflect that, but they remain useful either way

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KesonaFyren t1_j2fi5u1 wrote

When you deep fry something, it gets extra crispy because submerging something in hot oil sucks out a lot of water very fast.

Air fryers emulate this effect by blowing hot air through the food, which removes more water faster than just baking it in an oven. Even a convection oven will not have the same effect-because of scale, fan speed, and the baking tray blocking half the air

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Gcodelife t1_j2e38jh wrote

Well that article is a complete lie. According to them it works just as good as a deep fryer and does the same thing. Couldnt be more wrong, french fries in a air fryer are complete garbage.

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minesaka t1_j2e7l3a wrote

It does do almost the same thing, minus all the oil.

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SN0WFAKER t1_j2eew8r wrote

You have to coat the fries in a thin layer of oil.

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ForceOfAHorse t1_j2ehkqg wrote

Yes, it's a small electric oven with fan. It's perfect when you just want to cook/reheat small amount of food.

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interlopenz t1_j2fwmh7 wrote

They are a greasy plastic toaster oven with a fan that blows air over a heated coil inside a shitty draw, they get very dirty inside and out and are not really useful if you already have an oven or stove.

"Air friers" will be the Western version of the rice cooker when all you have is a 230V socket instead of a kitchen in your coffin apartment.

Swinging them around by the cord and smashing them against a wall is fun.

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Gcodelife t1_j2e2vzv wrote

They are awful. We had an airfryer. Couldnt wait for that thing to break so I could have good french fries again.

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MacAndRich t1_j2e6p2x wrote

I don't think you can compare a deep fryer to an air frier.

Taking French fries as an example:

Deep fry > air "fryer" > regular oven.

It's definitely more efficient than an oven for smaller portions and because it's a compact convection oven, it definitely does a better job at cooking evenly.

But no, it is NOT A DEEP FRYER. They call them air fryers so they sell better, its more catchy.

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Able_Example_160 t1_j2f4uek wrote

so a deep fryer is better? why?

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ApotheounX t1_j2f8kik wrote

Oil fryers (deep fryers) get food way crispier because it transfers heat better than air. Essentially, you want to cook the food before it dries out. Air fryers work by convection, which is just blowing hot air over the food, which works better than just sitting in a hot oven.

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Caracasdogajo t1_j2f7qdm wrote

IMO the best use of an air fryer isn't cooking stuff, it is heating stuff up.

Left overs are 100x better after being air fried back to temp instead of microwave. Ovens take too long to be worth using just to heat something up.

You can also cook stuff like Corn dogs, pre cooked nuggets etc really fast and they taste just as good as oven heating.

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interlopenz t1_j2fx4ln wrote

Regardless of the down votes you are right that they are terrible.

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