Yeah, I was in the same boat, but I really wanted the air fryer and dehydrator. It got a ton of good reviews from everyone, so I decided what the hell.
But yes, I think it was you that made me get it by linking to the smart oven, where I then saw the other models. Damn it.
I kind of want an air fryer too, but have held off for the same reason. And furthermore, I was worried that the Breville one with the air fryer feature was a gimmick, so I’m glad to see that it isn’t.
I’ll have to check it out when our current toaster oven kicks the bucket.
Not sure how much you enjoy Indian, but the VahChef, a Youtube personality I learned a good 40% of my Indian cooking lore from, did a series of ad-recipes for the Philips Air Fryer that are honestly pretty legit. Maybe give some of them a shot? They’re all in this playlist (among other “healthy” recipes):
I absolutely will. I was just looking all over for stuff to do with it. Interestingly, the oven came with no recipes at all, which struck me as odd.
I wasn’t sure exactly how it would work, so I just used it with the same temp and time settings as a normal oven, and it did the tater tots perfectly.
From what I can tell, it’s basically an oven with super high convection. That’s a thing to note, it’s not quiet when in that mode. It’s probably about as loud as a microwave? Similar sound level I’d say.
Edit:
Heh, that guy reminds me of an Indian Martin Yan for some reason
I did too, but while the ovens themselves have gotten great reviews, it was tough to find good info on the performance of the air fryer, with some people saying it worked great and other reports less stellar. In the end, I got the regular, and will give the mini to our son for his new apartment.
I will report on the air fryer now after using it, but the initial tests with tater tots and fish sticks were very good.
Conceptually, at least, it has some advantages over other air fryers. First off, it’s huge by comparison. It’s a large basket, and you can actually load up to 4 of them at once. Second, it’s got heating elements on the top and bottom, so there is no need to move stuff around or flip things, as is usually part of the process with other air fryers.
I think I’m gonna try making some fries from scratch, and see how well it does with them. But for frozen stuff it seemed to handle it just fine.
Can it do something like a mozzarella cheese stick or wings and make them taste legit?
That’s what I’m curious about with air fryers (in general, but especially this one since the Breville comes so highly recommended for its other qualities). I love chicken wings but I’m not a fan of deep frying in my wok, so I end up having to do them in the oven, and it’s tough to get them to turn out well.
Yeah, that’s the main reason I was interested too (wings). And it was a case of not being certain that feature was worth an extra 200 bucks.
Yeah, it should be able to.
I will test.
There are lots of things that I would like to make, but I absolutely hate deep frying stuff. It’s just a huge mess in so many ways.
From a scientific perspective, air fryer tech makes sense. The basic idea is that it is able to do the high heat transfer of a convection oven/broiler, but with the added bit of getting moisture out of the air fast while cooking. This is similar to what goes on when deep frying, except in that case the moisture is turned to steam and then ejected out of the oil.
With normal oven cooking, the moisture is pulled out slower, so the effect is that moisture keeps wicking out of the food while being transferred into the air, so in order to get the same dryness of the outside, the inside ends up being more dried out.
The tater tots and fishsticks turned out with a texture similar to deep frying. The outside was super cruncy, but the inside was still moist. The flavor is a bit different, just because it lacked the additional oil from the deep fryer, but this isn’t a bad thing. The food tasted like it was cooked in an oven, but with the texture of a fryer. The big thing is that there is no oil to deal with.
The flip side of all this, is that if you buy an air fryer, they basically also function as a convection oven. The technology is very similar (basically, broiler + a fan).
Got a tip here for all you sous vide people. Tired of things like veggies and potatoes floating to the top of your water bath? Get a bunch of pennies and seal them in a small snack bag or vac bag. When you bag your veggies put the penny bag at the bottom and seal it up with the veggies. This should sink your food so it cooks properly. If you clip you bag to the side of the container, this will pull the bottom of the bag down as well. I tried it the other day and it worked well.
I just clip a knife to the bag if I need to.
I got some stuff to try out in the air fryer. Various vegetables, as well as some frozen mozzarella sticks since someone. asked how they worked.
Also got some chicken wings.
Tonight and tomorrow will be for experimentation.
Yay thank you! I was hoping for real mozzarella sticks though since the frozen kind are probably already crisped up some. But I’m still interested because I’m lazy enough to buy them frozen too. :)
Yeah, I’m not gonna make cheese sticks from scratch, sorry. But we will see if the air fryer can make them crispy without having their guts all ooze out.
A worthy goal!
Some tests from last night.
This was for simple, but turned out really good. Just chopped up some zucchini and yellow squash, tossed with a small bit of oil, thyme, and oregano from my garden. Salt and pepper. Air fried at 400 for 30 minutes.
Essentially roasted them, and turned out better than in the oven, since they held their internal structure better. Didn’t get too mushy.
Also treated some french fries. Just chopped up some russets, tossed with a tiny bit of oil, some berbere spice, salt, pepper.
Turned out quite good. Not as crispy as fries that are double fried, or frozen ones, but quite good. Better than a normal oven would do.
I tied a few mozzarella sticks. They turned out pretty well, although one did leak. I’d say they are fine, but not really some major difference than an oven maybe? They were still crunchy. I haven’t made them in the oven in a long time though, so maybe these were better.
TBF, most of the easily purchasable brands have such a thick coating of coarse breadcrumbs it’s almost impossible for them not to be crunchy.
Not to discount the powers of your air fryer at all (do the Vahchef stuff! :P ), just noting that they may be one frozen “fried” food least affected by final cooking method (as I can tell little difference, aside from “richer” oiliness, between deep frying and baking these suckers).
Looks great! Now stop it! I can not afford a Breville Smart Oven.
Ya, this is exactly the impression I was getting.
I think maybe a better test of what it can do might be too try and make some pakora. Something I wouldn’t normally make because I wouldn’t bother with deep frying, but which I love eating.