Cooking used to be simple and old school. Turn on the oven, follow your grandma’s secret recipe and voila! The evergreen taste you grew up with just like that. You can still do that, and you can even do better. Modern technology continues to invent tools that can change the way you cook, faster, tastier, healthier, more efficient, more effective and all that with less energy. Sounds awesome right? An air fryer is a modern cooking machine that can fry your food using circulated hot air. From the busy mom to the professional Chef, it is now a must have tool at every modern kitchen! So if your asking yourself “what is an air fryer?” Well then read on and let’s dig a little deeper.
How does an air fryer work?
Air frying is a revolutionary cooking method. The theory is to circulate hot air evenly around your food so the outside is crispy but the inside is soft and tender. An advanced air fryer can produce hot air up to 400 F which is more than enough to fry many foods like chicken, fish, potatoes, other vegetables, chips or pastries and more! It usually has an automatic fan on top of it that distribute the hot air evenly around the food. Most air fryers have adjustable temperature control systems and preset timers. Many models even have one press heat and time settings for different foods to make cooking easier. Just like the traditional deep fryers, it comes with a cooking basket where you need to place your foods. But for the hot air to be effectively applied, the food must be cooked in a closed compartment. With some air fryers its necessary to manually shake the cooking basket time to time to ensure even cooking all around, but many of the more recent models has integrated food shaker/agitator that can automatically swirl the food during the entire cooking process.
Air Fryers around the world
Europe and Australia started to use air fryers around 2010. Soon they also became very popular in Japan and many parts of North America. Different regions started to use them to cook different foods. As an example, in the Netherlands and United Kingdom, air fryers are very popular for cooking chips and fishes. The Japanese use them for cooking fried prawns. In the USA, air fryers are widely used to cook chicken wings and french fries while the Indians make Samosa with them.
Why should you use an air fryer?
What’s the point of using anything if it’s not useful? Well let me assure you, air fryers have plenty of uses.
The best news of all is that air fryers use very little to no cooking oil. This revolutionary cooking method allows you to cook or fry your food with lot less oil than you would normally use with a traditional deep fryer. Less oil means less cholesterol and less fat, which is a very important factor to every health conscious person. You would be totally surprised to know how less oil an Air Fryer uses compared to traditional deep frying. Most Air Fryer models can fry or cook your food with as less as 20% oil than normal deep fryers. That is a massive 80% reduction in cooking oil and cholesterol.
If you were wondering about the impact of using less cooking oil on taste of your favorite food, fear not. Even with so little oil, air fryers can cook your food just as tasty as other traditional methods. Some would say even tastier. With an air fryer, fried foods have crispier outside but the inside remains juicy and soft. What better way to cook your favorite chicken nuggets?
Its cost effective!
Cost may not be an important factor to home consumers, but when it comes to professional and industrial use, even a slight reduction in cost can make a big difference on the price tag. Air
fryers can save as much as 80% cooking oil needed compared to traditional frying methods which, needless to say, is huge. Most industries are already using air fryers to produce healthier yet cost effective foods. But the oil cost is not the only thing an Air Fryer will save. Most Air Fryer models use a lot less electricity than normal deep fryers. Who doesn’t love a greener environment while saving from power bills huh?
Its more efficient!
Air fryers are very efficient tool to cook or fry your foods. It’s faster and takes a lot less time than traditional fryers. A plate of your favorite chips will take less than 12 minutes and an entire delicious cake won’t take more than 25 minutes if you are using an air Fryer. Of course, the same fact applies to other types like fried chickens. Air fryers are faster better and smarter in every way, it’s without a doubt the most efficient cooking machine you can get your hands on today!
Its user-friendly and easy to use!
Trust me if you can use a microwave oven then cooking with air fryers will be a walk in the park for you. Most recent models have built in presets for different type of foods. Put some oil (or none at oil), preheat the fryer like any other oven, put your food on the cooking basket, select your preferred preset and that’s all. Your food will be done in no time. You can easily fine tune air temperature and cooking timers as you need. Most home kitchen models are portable and can be moved around easily.
Deep Fryers vs air fryers
It’s a no-brainer. Air fryers are better at every aspect compared to traditional deep fryers. Some would say the deep frying food tastes better but the recent improved models of air fryers can produce just as tasty foods as any other deep fryers if not better. If you consider the reduced oil and fat, energy savings, well…let’s not say anymore.
Many Chefs and cooking experts called air fryers the replacement of deep fryers, a better version, an improved cooking machine. The revolutionary Rapid Air Technology cooks your food just as tastier with less cholesterol and that alone is all the reason you need to go for an air fryer right now. It is by far the best frying solution you can get. We hope this article sufficiently answered the question “what is an air fryer” for you? If your now considering buying one for yourself be sure to check out our air fryer buying guide!