Some thoughts on my new Air Fryer

We have a combined one, bought for about the same price as yours, but does grilling, baking, steaming, slow cooking, pressure cooking, frying, and of course air frying. We have no need to put the oven on at all when it is just the two of us. They take up a fair bit of space on the worktop, but really pleased with it.

Since I acquired a black & silver, coffee machine which matches my black & silver air fryer and my water boiler cum kettle, I keep all three in a row on the ceramic hob of my cooker, which is seldom used now, maybe once a fortnight (to poach an egg). My black and silver microwave sits beside the hob making a neat row. As the oven has not been used for ages, I have saved more space in my small kitchen by storing pots, pans and baking trays, in the oven. The sandwich maker and toaster now live in the cupboard where the pans used to be. It all looks very neat and tidy.

Have you tried poaching eggs in your air fryer Granny23 ?

Grease a ramekin then add your cracked egg, Put 2 tbsp water on top. Cook for 4-5 mins on 180.

I get better results this way than on my stove top.

Hipsy thank you for your egg poaching tip. Do you airfry or bakeat 180 please?
I've had my dual drawer Ninja for a year. I'm delighted with it and have not used the main oven since. Salmon, chops, chicken, whole or pieces all cook beautifully. Roast potatoes, parmentiere potatoes, roasted vegetables and chips too, occasionally all so easily cooked. Lots more beside the above. I know people who make cakes and bread in their airfrier. I am thinking of buying silicone dishes so I can make lasagne and Shepherds pie. Happy cooking, Floradora9.

B9exchanged I’m puzzled you say you have a combined air fryer that does everything for about the same price as floradora but floradora didn’t say how much her air fryer cost ??
I have one that cost about £30-40 and it air fry’s
I enjoy using it and it only takes marginally more room than a kettle

My first air fryer was a very cheap one from Wilko a few years ago. It really came into its own one Sunday when the main oven blew up in the middle of cooking a small joint of pork.
The joint fitted the af easily and, although I had to keep turning the timer back on every half hour, it cooked the meat beautifully.

I wish I still had one but I bought an Intelligent Chef when I moved here, which is more of a Cookpot thing which can slow cook, pressure cook, bake, sing, dance and recite Shakespeare, and I don't have room for an air fryer too.

I have an air fryer oven with shelves. Apart from the few occasions when I need to cook a family meal or a large cake, I hardly use the main oven at all, and haven’t used the grill for over a year. It makes the most wonderful scones and cakes, meat is moist and tasty, and it’s great for fish, which I eat a lot of. I can cook a whole meal in the time it take a for my main oven to come up to temperature, so it has to be saving me money.

I use my ordinary pottery dishes in my airfryer. I do not need special ones.

Very pleased with our air fryer, which we've had for about 6 months now. Our electric oven is now almost redundant, so we have most definitely reduced our energy costs. The only slight change I would make if I was to be buying one again, would be to go for one with a digital rather than a clockwork timer, purely because digital is better both in terms of visibility and accurate setting. The same applies to microwaves.

on 22 april copied and pasted.

Consumer expert Martin Lewis has issued a warning for those trying to cut back their energy bills by using airfryers or microwaves instead of their oven.

Many cooking for themselves and their families have invested in airfryers during the cost-of-living crisis in the belief that they are more economical than an oven, but Mr Lewis suggested this isn't always the case.

In some circumstances it can actually be cheaper just to turn the oven on, the consumer journalist said on his podcast.

I have an airfryer whch I'm pleased with, just saying

Your comments are a bit misleading, lemsip Martin Lewis's comments refer almost entirely to the cost of using microwave ovens rather than ovens and to my mind rather suggested that Martin lewis does very little cooking because most of his shock horror revelations are basic info to anyone who cooks regularly

For example 6 potatoes in a microwave take a lot longer to cook than 1. Doesn't mention cooking baked potatoes in an air fryer. He also says cooking a full roast dinner in a microwave could be more expensive than an oven. Does anyone use a microwave to cook a roast dinner? Put a small joint in an air fryer, yes, but a microwave, with roast potatoes? /www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-12002077/Martin-Lewis-says-using-air-fryer-microwave-instead-oven-NOT-save-cash.html

I poach eggs in micro. Takes all of 1 min 15 sec.

I’ve got the ninja 2 drawer one and it’s brilliant. Rarely use the main oven now. At Christmas it came into its own as we used it for veggies and parsnips as no room in the oven . I haven’t tried cakes and puddings yet , but I’m tempted to try the egg poaching .

How do you prepare your veggies for the air fryer, Floradora? Do you roast or bake them? Which do you use - root veg?

I prepare vegetables for the air fryer as I would normally. baked potatoes get washed and pricked and in they go. I make Pommes Parmentier, potatoes diced, a quick spray of oil and in they go again, ditto chips. tomatoes, aubergine, courgettes, again as pommes parmentier. I have a round air fryer and everything goes dirctly into the air fryer with the rack removed. I would imagine in an air fryer with shelves you would just put them on a metal tray as you would in a full size oven.

Thanks, Monica. I imagine soft items such as tomatoes cook pretty fast? I’ve got a small AF and I have done jacket potatoes in it but mostly steam other veg. I need to get more creative!

My attitude is try anything once, if it doesn't work do something different next time.

I tried putting frozen bread rolls in an air fryer rather than a microwave, hoping they would come out defrosted with a crisp crust. They had the warm crisp crust, but they were still frozen in the core. So now they start in the microwave and the crust is crisped in the air fryer afterwards

Trial and error indeed! My dd is a guru - she has two AF’s and makes all sorts of things for her family. The main gets cooked in her Ninja and the veg in a simple drawer AF.

Floradora9 I have been wondering for ages if I sould buy an air fryer taking into consideration there are only two of us to cook for and I already own lots of ways of cooking ...I have a load of things I still want to try so it has rekindled my love of cooking so I would say go for it if you fancy one.

Daughters have such, however, rather than be rude and ask them stupid questions, I'll ask my 2 stupid questions here.

1) does it use much work top space?
2) is anything you cooked in it tastier or faster?

1) does it use much work top space?
that depends what type you get. They come in all shapes and sizes, but two main types - a 'bucket' one, and a shelf one. They are very different. In the bucket ones you tip everything in and shake to separate and cook evenly, or you use the bucket as a casserole dish for 'wet' food, such as lasagne or chilli. The shelf ones are basically convection ovens on a small scale, so you can use serving dishes in them, which I prefer. They are faster and cheaper because they are so much smaller than a conventional oven.

2) is anything you cooked in it tastier or faster?
Yes. Pretty much everything is faster, and texture can be better in the AF, as they cook very evenly.

Also, they are badly named. They only 'fry' things to which you add oil. People think they are just for chips and ready meals, but that is not the case. You can roast, bake and grill in them too.

I put dishes in my bucket( I would say saucepan shaped) air fryer. I have several pottery dishes, deep ones and flat ones that fit in it. I use it to crisp the cheese on top of cauliflower cheese and other gratin dishes. It doesn't burn the top like a grill can.

DH cooks sausages in our. I did some home-made pitta pizzas this week and cooked them in it. I have roasted a guinea fowl in it, with roast potatoes

Things do cook faster, but not much. That was the mistake I made when I first had one, I tended to time it like a microwave, but you should still time things like a conventional oven, but reduce the time by 10-15%.

As for taste, I cannot honestly say I have noticed any difference.

With the saucepan air dryers, the pan can be put in the dish washer like any other saucepan.

When I said ‘bucket’, I just meant that those ones are a deep(ish) container, which contrasts with the shelves and door of the other ones. They come in all shapes and sizes. I have one of each - a Ninja 14 in 1, which is a beast of a thing, and has 14 functions, but you can only get tiny dishes in it because it is round. The other is a Tower 5 in 1, which is at the lodge, and it has the shelves. It won’t pressure cook or slow cook, but is easier to use (you don’t have to reach into a bucket-shaped receptacle to get things in and out, and the shelves mean that you don’t have to faff about with circular racks to cook more than one thing at a time. You do, however, need to move the food about by swapping shelves instead of just shaking the bucket. It comes down to preference in the end.