Why are air fryers called air fryers?
Why are air fryers called air fryers?
Since they don't technically fry... Or do they? They're basically mini electric ovens. What's the difference between an air fryer and an electric oven, other than size and energy consumption?
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It's a small convection oven. Air fryer is probably marketing.
There's some marketing going on, but they really do blast that air hard in a way that convection ovens don't. It makes a difference because food gets a lot more external heating at the same temperature compared to a convection oven.
The biggest win I have found so far for the air fryer is reheating leftover fries, like from a take-out meal.
In the air fryer, the fries wil go from fridge-limp to perfectly crisp but still moist inside in 4-5 minutes. In the convection oven, by the time the fries are crisped, they are dry.
I definitely prefer the air fryer for that task, and other similar things.
Yeah the fan blasts the cheese off of cheesebread so we have to be carefull to first cook with a bake setting to melt the cheese THEN fry the bastard.
In the convection oven, by the time the fries are crisped, they are dry
Put them in a colander, give them a good rinse under the kitchen tap to get them wet all over, then tip onto a tray and into a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes. Arguably better as leftovers than originally.
We use ours exclusively for leftovers. Mostly fries and blooming onions. It's been revolutionary.
Are you using a wire basket/rack/similar in the convention oven, or a solid pan/dish?
Good point, I'm sure that's a big part of it