They're closer to impingement ovens than convection ovens.
Convection ovens (or "fan forced ovens" in some countries) use a fan to gently and evenly circulate the hot air, whereas impingement ovens and air fryers use higher velocity fans to blow the heat directly onto the food.
Ah, you're a marketing drone, that explains a lot.
I use AI often enough and it's just a shiny turd for anything complex. Good thing it's good at stealing art, so that's a big boon for marketing people.
Things don't need to be revolutionary to be life changing. Could I have used the convection oven for this one slice of pizza? Sure. Would I ever? Hell no.
But yeah, microwaves really are neat. We're going to fling these electrons around in these very specific magnetic fields and out pops light you can't see.
Meanwhile a reliable full size oven can easily cost 1000$/€ and consumes much more energy. Not always cheap/easy to install either.
For people on a budget, who often live in a small/rented place, an air fryer's a life saver. Plug it in, cook something, pop it away if you need some more space. Don't even need a kitchen. Just use it next to an open window or vent.
A rice cooker is similarly useful. Cheap, but you can use it to cook far more than rice, keep stuff warm, and largely replace a stove top. Once again, often without the need for space or installation.
When I was working in repairs, we got orders sometimes to repair those microwaves. And the only thing that I learned is that if magnetron (coolest technology name in my opinion) died, then it similar to TVs with dead display — price of repair would be basically close to price of whole device.
Microwaves are cool in theory but in practice the food is almost always soggy and mushy. Maybe I just don’t know how to use them, but I’m rarely happy with the result. Even reheating leftovers, I’d rather do in a saucepan
While I had to learn that Microwave ovens don't magically work on the resonant frequency of water molecules, they do work by inciting motion in dipole molecules, and water with those little H atoms hanging off to one side is dipolar, so microwaves are rather good at heating them up. This means that you're sort of working in the same realm of temperatures and humidity as steaming or even boiling, for good or (mostly) for ill.
Heating frozen food specifically engineered to come out okay from a microwave? Well, it'll come out okay. Re-heating soup or re-steaming tamales (mmmmm. tamales....)? Pretty decent. Heating up anything that wasn't meant to have "wetness" as a major part of its mouthfeel will go poorly, often disastrously if you don't try to work around the microwave's limitations.
Microwaves are a prime example that if something's cool doesn't mean it's good for it's job.
Btw, the part of microwave that turns electricity into microwave is called magnetron. Freaking magnetron. I didn't know real inventions could have names as cool as that.
Microwaves are cool, sure, but they have a completely different utility. If I want a small amount of food hot, it goes in the microwave. If I want a small amount of food crispy, it goes in the air fryer. If I want a large amount of food hot or crispy it goes in the oven, with convection on or off depending on the end goal.
yeah you put it in a barrel, pump hotter oil through coiled pipe, hot (storage) oil floats to top, when you draw heat through another coiled pipe cold oil falls to bottom. just put mineral wool around it. much cheaper than batteries
solar water heaters work the same way except they use water
Hot oil piping between collector, storage and cooking appliance
I'll take the solar panels which I already have wiring for, are useful when there's a surplus (because I can sell the electricity) and which also power my computer. Not that I have panels at the moment.
You can store the heat in oil, but how do you transfer it into cooking oil? It's not like you can store it directly in cooking oil since it breaks down with heat.
The first night I owned an air fryer, I tossed in some shitty frozen tater tots that had been in my freezer for way too long, and they came out so delightfully crispy that I cooked two more servings.
I realized immediately that this would be a problem. It's a bit too easy to make delicious stuff that's pretty bad for me. I nearly made myself sick of wings within like 2 weeks. That was a close one. Fuckin love wings.
But it's also quick and cheap to make absurdly-delicious roasted veg.
My favorite: take a bag of frozen broccoli florets, mist it with some oil (it'll harden on them), sprinkle with some salt and pepper and toss in it at 400 degrees F for like, 15 minutes. Halfway through I pull the basket and drain the accumulated water in the bottom to increase browning.
Delicious, crispy, I can devour an entire pound of broccoli that way in like 5 minutes.
Yes. And I think it’s important to understand exactly what a convection oven actually is.
At its most basic, it’s an oven with a heating element and a fan that circulates hot air around the cooking chamber. That’s it. The circulating air improves heat transfer and helps food cook and brown more evenly.
Now, manufacturers have increasingly started calling a particular implementation of convection an “air fryer” and charging a premium for it, as though they’ve invented an entirely new cooking technology. They haven’t. Convection cooking has been around for decades.
An air fryer is essentially a compact, highly optimized convection oven: hot air is circulated rapidly around the food, usually with a basket or perforated tray that allows that air to contact more of the food's surface.
So when you’re shopping for a range and you see one advertised as having an “Air Fry” function, don’t automatically assume you’re getting some revolutionary new appliance. In many cases, you’re paying extra for a marketing term applied to a convection system that has existed for generations.
Companies like Ninja charge premium for everything. Air fryers are stupid cheap otherwise, which makes sense for what they are (heating element, fan and a drawer).
To put it in perspective, that's just over 100 years out of 4.5 billion the earth has existed. Or 300 million years or so complex life existed (that mostly wouldn't be able to fathom the core concepts you'd need to know to even understand what having an air fryer means, where I'd consider "figured out that forest fires can contain more delicious food in some places (where intensity is high enough to cook plants and animals but not enough to turn them to charcoal)" to be pretty smart). Or several million that hominids have existed and using stone or better tools. Or several thousand since we figured out how to manage our food production rather than depend on always finding it. Or several hundred since we got much better at harnessing energy.
Also, I'd push back on a) the invention date being more relevant than the mass release date, and b) early convection ovens counting as "air fryers", so that 100 years should probably also be reduced.
The appliance that mostly everybody already had under another name (at least in Europe). An then they renamed it as another thing and everyone bought one. The marketing worked.
Cleaning is much easier than the oven? Wut? We just used the baking sheets or whatever, 99% of the time making food in the oven involved zero cleanup for the oven.
You can of course get the same sort of baking sheets for an air fryer but it messes with the airflow. It's not as good that way, I prefer the cleaning
Well, the only person who is screeching are you with your car manufacturer comparison, which does not make any sense in that context. As if airfrying is ferrari and ofen with a fan is honda?
I think its the small volume that makes it worth it (faster to heat up, efficient) so I can see why people would buy one.
I personally don't have one because I don't exactly value my time. I throw my food in the cold oven and set it to whatever and check back later. I don't have any motivation what so ever to care about pre heating or having my food ready 10 minutes earlier.
Its a small convection oven, that works more efficiency because the heating element is like an inch above the food, and heating a very tightly confined area, so intense temperatures can be more concentrated and easily achieved.
They are good for quick small batch stuff, but way less efficient than modern fan oven for anything bigger. Once you run for long enough to mitigate heating the ovens larger thermal mass, oven always wins.
Even fan-forced, a normal oven recirculates the same air around, which carries moisture evaporated from whatever you're cooking.
Air Fryer is just a much smaller oven, with a similar sized element and a bigger fan, that also has an exhaust, so moisture-laden air is expelled from the unit and the air hitting the food is always hot and dry.
But all-in-all it's just a type of oven and you can absolutely use one as a regular little oven or if you crack the door a little and turn the heat up a bit, you can use regular fan-forced oven as an 'air fryer'
I've never tried an air fryer. I don't have the counter space for one and am concerned I'd eat more unhealthly more often if I owned one but it's possible that's not true.
Most toaster ovens, even ones with strong convection for "air frying", are not quite consistent enough in their heating. You have to pay far more than you would for an air fryer to get even heat coil distribution and a good door seal for that. The specific kind of rapid cooking that dessicates and browns the surface you get out of air fryer devices is just kind of hard to replicate outside of them.
If you ever look inside an air fryer you can kind of immediately see why -- the heater-to-volume ratio is absurdly close. You have the equivalent of the biggest coiltop stove burner directly above a few quarts of air volume with a fan forcing air from it to circulate. It's just kind of unfair of a comparison for both toaster ovens and even full-size ones that advertise an "air fryer" mode by comparison for that reason.
I have an old toaster oven that has a really weak convection fan but it moves so little air it is nowhere near an air fryer. The timer doesn't work anymore and it's ugly but I have another timer and it just works. I don't own an air fryer and I'm not going to buy one until my toaster oven dies.
Meh. Strangely easy. Especially if you do it almost immediately instead of letting it bake on.
Good point though, there are more nooks and crannies. If I put something juicy in there without a little foil tray, it'd get nasty. It's not a mesh basket in mine, it's a stamped metal bucket thingy with occasional holes. The foil doesn't mess with the cooking, afaik.
Baking is letting the food sit in hot air for a while. Air frying is blowing the heat directly onto the food. They also vent the air to release excess steam and moisture, which is why air fried things are crisper.
I think air frying technology isn't so grand as a stable, functioning society.
Essentially we got fucked once Falwell figured out anti-abortion-access radicals will vote against their own interests. It didn't hurt that white America really hates blacks.
Anyhow, that helped to get Reagan in to power and the economy turned K-shaped and never recovered, and at that point liberal democracy in the US was doomed.
130 Comments
slaacaa@lemmy.world · 160 pts · 22h
We can fry shit with the air, so nice
Malica@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 15h
Alps look ok!
arrow74@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 14h
The glass is half not boiled kinda guy
Slovene85@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 12h
*air fried
Redjard@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 9h
20° where there used to be glaciers :|
terranoid@lemmy.cafe · 116 pts · 1d
They're literally small convection ovens rebranded. They're not magic.
Look up how microwaves work. Those are way, way fucking cooler. The way they generate the microwaves is cool as hell.
dan@upvote.au · 34 pts · 23h
They're closer to impingement ovens than convection ovens.
Convection ovens (or "fan forced ovens" in some countries) use a fan to gently and evenly circulate the hot air, whereas impingement ovens and air fryers use higher velocity fans to blow the heat directly onto the food.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 34 pts · 22h
So it's an overkill blowdrier, got it.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 22h
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 20h
Just saying it's not new or miraculous technology 🤷🏼 it's just a clever and convenient consumer product.
The better we can differentiate consumer trends and marketing from actual technological innovation, the better off we'll be. cough AI cough
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 19h
chunk6235@piefed.social · 4 pts · 18h
Ah, you're a marketing drone, that explains a lot.
I use AI often enough and it's just a shiny turd for anything complex. Good thing it's good at stealing art, so that's a big boon for marketing people.
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · -1 pts · 18h
victorz@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16h
AI is more of a drug than an innovation, IMPO.
victorz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 14h
lol, this was their comment before they deleted all their comments in this thread:
What I said was a meaningful addition, IMO. It was related to the thread and added another perspective.
"I AM GIVEN REASONABLE ARGUMENTS AGAINST MY POINT AND I LASH OUT AND DELETE ALL MY COMMENTS"
lol. 🫶
Eyekaytee@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 16h
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 20h
Alright but hang on, let me preheat the oven first
CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 16h
Cheaper version.
SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 18h
And a blow dryer is just overkill evaporation.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 20h
Things don't need to be revolutionary to be life changing. Could I have used the convection oven for this one slice of pizza? Sure. Would I ever? Hell no.
But yeah, microwaves really are neat. We're going to fling these electrons around in these very specific magnetic fields and out pops light you can't see.
Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 18h
A more efficient and quicker small convection oven you can easily buy for 30 bucks and pop in a cupboard when you're not using it.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 1 pts · 16h
The price really depends where you live, eg: where i live an air fryer can cost 20-40€ , a microwave is often on the 50€ price range
Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 14h
Same here.
Meanwhile a reliable full size oven can easily cost 1000$/€ and consumes much more energy. Not always cheap/easy to install either.
For people on a budget, who often live in a small/rented place, an air fryer's a life saver. Plug it in, cook something, pop it away if you need some more space. Don't even need a kitchen. Just use it next to an open window or vent.
A rice cooker is similarly useful. Cheap, but you can use it to cook far more than rice, keep stuff warm, and largely replace a stove top. Once again, often without the need for space or installation.
DeLancre@piefed.social · 7 pts · 19h
When I was working in repairs, we got orders sometimes to repair those microwaves. And the only thing that I learned is that if magnetron (coolest technology name in my opinion) died, then it similar to TVs with dead display — price of repair would be basically close to price of whole device.
Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -2 pts · 18h
Meh.
I have an old NEFF microwave. Fixing that involved popping in some new mica paper for a few bucks.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 16h
Microwaves are cool in theory but in practice the food is almost always soggy and mushy. Maybe I just don’t know how to use them, but I’m rarely happy with the result. Even reheating leftovers, I’d rather do in a saucepan
wjrii@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 12h
While I had to learn that Microwave ovens don't magically work on the resonant frequency of water molecules, they do work by inciting motion in dipole molecules, and water with those little H atoms hanging off to one side is dipolar, so microwaves are rather good at heating them up. This means that you're sort of working in the same realm of temperatures and humidity as steaming or even boiling, for good or (mostly) for ill.
Heating frozen food specifically engineered to come out okay from a microwave? Well, it'll come out okay. Re-heating soup or re-steaming tamales (mmmmm. tamales....)? Pretty decent. Heating up anything that wasn't meant to have "wetness" as a major part of its mouthfeel will go poorly, often disastrously if you don't try to work around the microwave's limitations.
Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 14h
Great for vegetables, IME.
architect@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 17h
I almost never use my microwave or oven because of the air frier.
cinoreus@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 13h
Microwaves are a prime example that if something's cool doesn't mean it's good for it's job.
Btw, the part of microwave that turns electricity into microwave is called magnetron. Freaking magnetron. I didn't know real inventions could have names as cool as that.
TheRealKuni@piefed.social · 1 pts · 17h
Microwaves are cool, sure, but they have a completely different utility. If I want a small amount of food hot, it goes in the microwave. If I want a small amount of food crispy, it goes in the air fryer. If I want a large amount of food hot or crispy it goes in the oven, with convection on or off depending on the end goal.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 16h
If you want crispy, heat with the air fryer.
If want moist and hot, use a microwave.
Don't cook soup in the air frier or toast in the microwave.
Aqivex@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 12h
You're allowed to mix and match your appliances a little bit, as a treat.
Microwave start to air fryer finish is leftover recover makeover.
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · -11 pts · 23h
you know what would be a lot cooler? same thing not needing electricity (concentrated solar can get hot enough and heat can be stored in hot oil)
Bruhh@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 23h
But it wasn't sunny today and I wanted fries and don't have space to store hot oil :(
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 23h
skill issue
Bruhh@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 23h
For a rain enjoyer, you sure like spreading pro sun propaganda
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · -1 pts · 23h
There would be no rain without sun
Bruhh@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 23h
skill issue
W98BSoD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 19h
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burn_centers_in_the_United_States
Janx@piefed.social · 1 pts · 17h
That doesn't sound right. But I don't know enough about rain to dispute it...
dan@upvote.au · 7 pts · 22h
Just power it using solar panels?
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · -2 pts · 22h
concentrated solar heating gets you there using 1/4 of that space and allows for simple energy storage
FishFace@piefed.social · 10 pts · 22h
"simple" storage of burning hot oil mmhm
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz · -1 pts · 21h
yeah you put it in a barrel, pump hotter oil through coiled pipe, hot (storage) oil floats to top, when you draw heat through another coiled pipe cold oil falls to bottom. just put mineral wool around it. much cheaper than batteries
solar water heaters work the same way except they use water
FishFace@piefed.social · 6 pts · 20h
So now to cook something I need:
I'll take the solar panels which I already have wiring for, are useful when there's a surplus (because I can sell the electricity) and which also power my computer. Not that I have panels at the moment.
DrunkenDuckling@lemmus.org · 1 pts · 18h
howrar@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 3h
You can store the heat in oil, but how do you transfer it into cooking oil? It's not like you can store it directly in cooking oil since it breaks down with heat.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 38 pts · 23h
affordable housing and healthcare
snoons@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 23h
Best I can give you is corporate pittance for menial labour.
raspirate@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 21h
The first night I owned an air fryer, I tossed in some shitty frozen tater tots that had been in my freezer for way too long, and they came out so delightfully crispy that I cooked two more servings.
I realized immediately that this would be a problem. It's a bit too easy to make delicious stuff that's pretty bad for me. I nearly made myself sick of wings within like 2 weeks. That was a close one. Fuckin love wings.
DoctorWhoDMC@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 15h
I got rid of my home deep fryer for health reasons. It is dangerously easy, cheap, and quick to make quality fries...
kayohtie@pawb.social · 5 pts · 15h
But it's also quick and cheap to make absurdly-delicious roasted veg.
My favorite: take a bag of frozen broccoli florets, mist it with some oil (it'll harden on them), sprinkle with some salt and pepper and toss in it at 400 degrees F for like, 15 minutes. Halfway through I pull the basket and drain the accumulated water in the bottom to increase browning.
Delicious, crispy, I can devour an entire pound of broccoli that way in like 5 minutes.
Vespair@lemmy.zip · 21 pts · 15h
The first commercial convention oven was released in the 1940s. The first prototype of the general concept happened in the 1910s.
Even if you mean the modern household tabletop convenience version, the Nuwave convection oven was already an informercial staple by 2003.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 13h
When talking about air fryers, my husband once rightly pointed out that air fryers are just countertop convection ovens.
I walked over to him, held my index finger up to his lips, and whispered to him, "shhh. Air fryer. AIR FRYER." 🤣
mechoman444@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 13h
Yes. And I think it’s important to understand exactly what a convection oven actually is.
At its most basic, it’s an oven with a heating element and a fan that circulates hot air around the cooking chamber. That’s it. The circulating air improves heat transfer and helps food cook and brown more evenly.
Now, manufacturers have increasingly started calling a particular implementation of convection an “air fryer” and charging a premium for it, as though they’ve invented an entirely new cooking technology. They haven’t. Convection cooking has been around for decades.
An air fryer is essentially a compact, highly optimized convection oven: hot air is circulated rapidly around the food, usually with a basket or perforated tray that allows that air to contact more of the food's surface.
So when you’re shopping for a range and you see one advertised as having an “Air Fry” function, don’t automatically assume you’re getting some revolutionary new appliance. In many cases, you’re paying extra for a marketing term applied to a convection system that has existed for generations.
filcuk@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 1h
Companies like Ninja charge premium for everything. Air fryers are stupid cheap otherwise, which makes sense for what they are (heating element, fan and a drawer).
OozingPositron@feddit.cl · 1 pts · 12h
Wouldn't the presence of a fan turn them into a forced convection oven?
mechoman444@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 12h
Yes.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 14h
Air fryers, and to a lesser extent fan ovens, use a fan to move the air rather than just using air convection currents.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 14h
To put it in perspective, that's just over 100 years out of 4.5 billion the earth has existed. Or 300 million years or so complex life existed (that mostly wouldn't be able to fathom the core concepts you'd need to know to even understand what having an air fryer means, where I'd consider "figured out that forest fires can contain more delicious food in some places (where intensity is high enough to cook plants and animals but not enough to turn them to charcoal)" to be pretty smart). Or several million that hominids have existed and using stone or better tools. Or several thousand since we figured out how to manage our food production rather than depend on always finding it. Or several hundred since we got much better at harnessing energy.
Also, I'd push back on a) the invention date being more relevant than the mass release date, and b) early convection ovens counting as "air fryers", so that 100 years should probably also be reduced.
polle@feddit.org · 16 pts · 22h
The appliance that mostly everybody already had under another name (at least in Europe). An then they renamed it as another thing and everyone bought one. The marketing worked.
makeshift0546@lemmy.today · 24 pts · 20h
Not it’s not and I’m tired of the nerds screeching.
A Ferrari is very different from a Honda.
Air friers have a much lower total volume while moving a much higher volume of air. The effect is far more pronounced and cook times are halved.
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 17h
Being smaller also means cleaning the is much easier, specially when you can put the basket and lid bits in the dishwasher.
Saapas@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 13h
Cleaning is much easier than the oven? Wut? We just used the baking sheets or whatever, 99% of the time making food in the oven involved zero cleanup for the oven.
You can of course get the same sort of baking sheets for an air fryer but it messes with the airflow. It's not as good that way, I prefer the cleaning
polle@feddit.org · 1 pts · 14h
Well, the only person who is screeching are you with your car manufacturer comparison, which does not make any sense in that context. As if airfrying is ferrari and ofen with a fan is honda?
makeshift0546@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 14h
👌👍
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 21h
I think its the small volume that makes it worth it (faster to heat up, efficient) so I can see why people would buy one.
I personally don't have one because I don't exactly value my time. I throw my food in the cold oven and set it to whatever and check back later. I don't have any motivation what so ever to care about pre heating or having my food ready 10 minutes earlier.
Calfpupa@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 21h
Most countries have ovens
affenlehrer@feddit.org · 6 pts · 21h
Umluftofen!
iamericandre@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 18h
Same with the electric kettle. I remember being so surprised half the world had been using them for years.
architect@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 17h
What are you talking about? An oven? An oven cooks like shit compared to an air frier.
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 18h
Weren't we frying shit in the air with old cast iron stoves as well?
Airfried@piefed.social · 5 pts · 16h
We probably did in old Mesopotamia with clay ovens or something.
Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 18h
And breathing in fly ash from the coal, which contains increased concentrations of uranium and thorium.
Compared to that an airfryer is a god send.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 16h
Is an airfryer just a small fan oven?
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15h
Its a small convection oven, that works more efficiency because the heating element is like an inch above the food, and heating a very tightly confined area, so intense temperatures can be more concentrated and easily achieved.
village604@adultswim.fan · 2 pts · 16h
Yes, they're countertop convection ovens.
kandoh@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 13h
I haven't used my oven at all since I got the air fryer.
bountygiver@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 12h
Oven still gets the last laugh when you learn what air fryers are
spicehoarder@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 10h
Yeah, but an oven heats up your whole house when turned on...
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 4 pts · 8h
You should probably close the door then /j
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 12h
An ez bake with a fan?
zarathustrad@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
Literally just the old school stove top burner turned upside down with a fan on it, for the one I own.
locahosr443@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 12h
They are good for quick small batch stuff, but way less efficient than modern fan oven for anything bigger. Once you run for long enough to mitigate heating the ovens larger thermal mass, oven always wins.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 12h
Wait until you find out about microwaves!
QueenHawlSera@piefed.social · 7 pts · 23h
Airfryers make me feel old because I don't know how to use one.
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 23h
It's just an oven optimised for airflow.
Even fan-forced, a normal oven recirculates the same air around, which carries moisture evaporated from whatever you're cooking.
Air Fryer is just a much smaller oven, with a similar sized element and a bigger fan, that also has an exhaust, so moisture-laden air is expelled from the unit and the air hitting the food is always hot and dry.
But all-in-all it's just a type of oven and you can absolutely use one as a regular little oven or if you crack the door a little and turn the heat up a bit, you can use regular fan-forced oven as an 'air fryer'
czl@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 16 pts · 22h
I used to hate air-fryers. “They still need some oil, it’s not really FRYING ANYTHING WITH THE AIR”.
My parents got me one for Christmas and I didn’t show it, but I was livid. I do t need this shit.
Then I realized it’s just a small oven. And now I love my small, really quick heating, slightly less easy to clean oven that can make passable fries.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15h
Tbh the name is very bad 😂
StillAlive@piefed.world · 7 pts · 22h
Turn dial to set temperature
Turn another dial to set time
dan@upvote.au · 5 pts · 22h
Use it like a regular oven but reduce temperature by 25°F or 15°C and reduce cooking time by 20%.
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22h
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 17h
What if I want to fry food with the fires of 7 Hells
ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 16h
I hope that's real brick behind that. I've seen some pretty gnarly damage from people using their BBQs too close to the side of the house.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 13h
I hate that I ever, or will ever, eat food that didn't involve this. What is it?
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 12h
A wok burner. It's used a lot in Southeast Asia, and is specially associated to Cantonese cuisine.
That being said, fried rice/noodles/veggies is universal, and you might be able to buy or set up something similar yourself.
fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com · 7 pts · 22h
Healthcare
lemmygarden@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 22h
I've never tried an air fryer. I don't have the counter space for one and am concerned I'd eat more unhealthly more often if I owned one but it's possible that's not true.
Brimstone@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 21h
Nah we cook fish in ours.
Losing weight is easier (less oil) and cooking times are faster.
It’s just a more compressed oven. You can eat healthy or unhealthy with it
lemmygarden@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 20h
Breaded fish or grilled fish?
Can it toast bread?
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 17h
If you can do it in an oven, chances are you can do it in an air fryer. Just be careful not to burn the outside.
architect@thelemmy.club · 4 pts · 17h
I toss sweet potatoes in there for a good snack. Roast veggies. Mostly the air fryer cooks healthy foods fast which is nice.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 15h
It’s a little more complicated than this, but basically it’s just a smaller, faster convection oven. They’re cool but not lifechanging IMO
chunes@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 15h
why do people like air fryers more than toaster ovens? i don't get it
kayohtie@pawb.social · 5 pts · 15h
Most toaster ovens, even ones with strong convection for "air frying", are not quite consistent enough in their heating. You have to pay far more than you would for an air fryer to get even heat coil distribution and a good door seal for that. The specific kind of rapid cooking that dessicates and browns the surface you get out of air fryer devices is just kind of hard to replicate outside of them.
If you ever look inside an air fryer you can kind of immediately see why -- the heater-to-volume ratio is absurdly close. You have the equivalent of the biggest coiltop stove burner directly above a few quarts of air volume with a fan forcing air from it to circulate. It's just kind of unfair of a comparison for both toaster ovens and even full-size ones that advertise an "air fryer" mode by comparison for that reason.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol · 2 pts · 15h
I have an old toaster oven that has a really weak convection fan but it moves so little air it is nowhere near an air fryer. The timer doesn't work anymore and it's ugly but I have another timer and it just works. I don't own an air fryer and I'm not going to buy one until my toaster oven dies.
TheparishofChigwell@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 14h
I got a ninja air fryer for 50 bucks because the old Philips one needed internal cleaning to stop it smoking
I'm all for reducing waste, this was the first time I threw something out that technically was functional
I didn't lose any sleep. And I fry free of smoke. Can recommend new stuff sometimes just because we don't live that long anyway
teslekova@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3h
I like it because it's easier and quicker to put a few chicken legs in the basket than to put them on a tray in the toaster oven.
That and our toaster oven is too complex but our air fryer is two dials.
howrar@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 3h
But cleaning the basket vs cleaning a baking tray?
teslekova@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 34m
Meh. Strangely easy. Especially if you do it almost immediately instead of letting it bake on.
Good point though, there are more nooks and crannies. If I put something juicy in there without a little foil tray, it'd get nasty. It's not a mesh basket in mine, it's a stamped metal bucket thingy with occasional holes. The foil doesn't mess with the cooking, afaik.
wuffah@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 23h
Also, check out the size of that absolute fucking loomster in the back of the basket.
If they can make a crinkle-cut fry like that, anything is possible. If this is what we get, imagine what the military has!
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22h
Potato Fries, Crinkle-Cut, M2
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 4 pts · 16h
I'd like to not be reliant on a small handful of corporations and cheap plastic devices, tbh.
Naich@piefed.world · 4 pts · 23h
Frying with air = baking.
dan@upvote.au · 8 pts · 22h
Baking is letting the food sit in hot air for a while. Air frying is blowing the heat directly onto the food. They also vent the air to release excess steam and moisture, which is why air fried things are crisper.
ftbd@feddit.org · 5 pts · 22h
You mean like the convection oven I use for baking?
snooggums@piefed.world · 4 pts · 19h
Similar but not exactly the same, kind of like how pans of different materials are similar but not the same when it comes to cooking on a stove top.
0ops@piefed.zip · 4 pts · 16h
Eh, that's like comparing a little fan in the corner of the room with a full-sized box fan pointed directly at your crotch.
dan@upvote.au · 2 pts · 15h
No... A convection oven's fan just circulates the air. It doesn't blow it directly onto the food. It's similar, but not the same.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 2h
I think air frying technology isn't so grand as a stable, functioning society.
Essentially we got fucked once Falwell figured out anti-abortion-access radicals will vote against their own interests. It didn't hurt that white America really hates blacks.
Anyhow, that helped to get Reagan in to power and the economy turned K-shaped and never recovered, and at that point liberal democracy in the US was doomed.
lemmygarden@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 22h
We're air frying the world too
Stefan_S_from_H@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 21h
One of my best investments in the last few years.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 21h
My grandma could do that already.
anugeshtu@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
Make air of fries? At least the ones that went cold
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 14h
I prefer to fry potatoes, but you can fry shit if you like. Just keep it in your air fryer.
KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 14h
You've heard of boiling shit in a kettle, now get ready for frying shit in an air fryer
Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57m
"I was born in the wrong generation" says person who just discovered The Beatles or Led Zeppelin
rustyfish@piefed.world · 1 pts · 23h
I want to gather the boys with the Normandy and get hammered on Tuchanka. Did I ask for too much?
Take your hot air machine and shove it up your ass.
jlow@slrpnk.net · -3 pts · 14h
Cool, where can I trade in my air-fryer for a capitalism-free world that isn't ai-enhanced descend into fascism while the planet is burning?
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 13h
Can I suggest you take a break from the Internet for a while?
zarathustrad@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 10h
Instructions unclear, went outside and threw a flaming air fryer at a data center, while ranting about "the new world order".
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h
Oh no. The instructions were pretty blatent. Well done good sir or madam or non binary superhero!
teslekova@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3h
Good.
Slovene85@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 12h
Let's air fry the rich.