Some thoughts on my new Air Fryer

I used a pottery dish M0nica- and it cracked in half so what's your secret?

I live alone now and have an airfryer but still have much to explore with it. However one of the things l like is if I buy or make a pie, putting it in the airfryer on bake at 3/4 of the time suggested for an oven gives me an excellent result. No good using a microwave as it heats it and the pastry can be soggy. Have one of those george forman kind of grill which I use to grill sausages but again it would squash the pie but the bake on the airfryer is great.

I make home made meat and chicken pie etc for my husband then freeze. Then after thawing it takes 10 mins+to heat the oven then 45 mins approx to slowly reheat them ready for eating. I am finding now i have just purchased my air fryer its taking very little time to reheat ready for eating. Must be saving us a fair amount of gas.

I live alone and only use my oven when I know it will be full ie: when my children &co come round for a meal (usually with a baked pudding!) or I am actually baking-often cakes, pies etc for the three of them and their families. I never use it for just myself as I have microwave, slow cooker, pressure cooker and air fryer etc for the bits I cook. I certainly save money on my bill just by using the oven so little as I can see the difference on my meter!

Thank you for explaining. I've read 10% faster, am considering.

Today being cool damp, lovely heat off the cooker all day.

BlueBelle

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

Mine was reduced to just under £50 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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 .

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.