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.
The biggest win I've found is for roasted Brussels sprouts and asparagus. And falafel that isn't deep fried.
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.
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
We use ours exclusively for leftovers. Mostly fries and blooming onions. It's been revolutionary.
A full size electric oven, even a convection oven is heating up a lot of airspace. They need to preheat to heat up that air inside which is then lost when you open the door to put your food in but overall it is heating the inside surfaces and rack in order to transfer that heat into your food.
An air fryer is just a very small and efficient convection oven that heats up a very small space very quickly usually not needing preheating even.
Is it frying? no it isn't cooked in a pan/deep fat fryer and the food usually only uses the oil within or sprayed on the food.
You’re right, the term is misleading because air fryers don’t fry air. They should be called food fryers instead.
Fry airrers
They don’t truly fry like a deep fryer, but in my subjective experience it does produce a similar result, much closer to the deep fryer than an ordinary convection oven, so I’m okay with the branding. I don’t think we’ve used our deep fryer in years at this point.
Because only the French were buying small worktop convection ovens so they needed a marketing term.
People know that they love fried food.
Air fryers use air to emulate frying.
When the term first came out, I assumed from pure speculation, there was a little tray you add oil to, and it would control temperature so as to lightly aerosolize the oil thereby "deep frying" but only with enough oil to do the job while also not letting it combust. If this is possible, and I don't think such control is, then it sounds like a useful kitchen appliance. Instead I got got by marketing 😡
You are supposed to spray oil onto the food to get the effect you are talking about. Have you not been doing that?
Oil is used for cooking specifically because it does not do such things under designated operating temperature
They fry with hot air, the alternative being to fry with hot oil.
Functionally, they are the same as a fan force (convection) oven, but smaller.
I’m struggling to find a source that defines “frying” as anything other than cooking in hot oil.
After writing the comment, I remembered pan frying exists, so that adds a third mode :/
Wikipedia has some conflicting info:
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat
Frying techniques vary in the amount of fat required, the cooking time, the type of cooking vessel required, and the manipulation of the food. Sautéing, stir-frying, pan frying, shallow frying, deep frying, and air frying are all standard frying techniques.
So I guess 0 is an amount of oil that satisfies the frying definition :D
It's to achieve the desired outcome of frying. There's no reason to use oil, it just happens to be the only way that works normally.
They fry the air, but air is invisible so it's hard to tell
This has been Cunk on Cooking
I would try to explain it, but that would just be blowing hot air
an air fryer is just a smaller (read: less efficient) convection oven, which is itself basically just an oven with a big fan. it circulates the air and gets a crispier and more even bake than a regular oven.
i think the “air fryer” term is just a marketing fad right now? the moving air is a little similar to the way hot oil would cook, but you’re absolutely right about them not really “frying” anything lmao
just a smaller (read: less efficient) convection oven
With a connection oven you're heating a volume of air to then heat the food inside. It is more efficient to hear the smaller volume of air in an air fryer than in a large connection oven.
They are similar to convection ovens, but there are critical differences that result in a very different outcome from a convection oven.
A convection oven circulates hot air around the food to maintain an even cooking temperature.
An air fry uses a much stronger flow of hot air, and the air is not circulated but instead evacuated from the cooking chamber, taking steam away with it. The removal of steam allows the food to fry and become crispy, and is much more effective (read: more efficient) than a convection oven.
You’re actually kind of correct though, as air fryers have exploded in popularity, now any standard toaster oven with a convection feature is deceptively being marketed as “air fryers”, when they actually are not air fryers but instead just standard convection ovens.
With the oil on the frozen foods i put in one, its definitely using hot air to fry the oil drenched foods inside. EDIT: the food comes preoiled, i dont add any.
I thought this was a nice, short, extremely to the point clip from Chris Young about dedicated air fryers. He's got quite a few fun, well-produced videos about various cooking techniques, but the thumbnails are rather clickbaity.
They're toaster ovens with convection. Everything else is branding.
They are similar to convection ovens, but there are critical differences that result in a very different outcome from a convection oven.
A convection oven circulates hot air around the food to maintain an even cooking temperature.
An air fry uses a much stronger flow of hot air, and the air is not circulated but instead evacuated from the cooking chamber, taking steam away with it. The removal of steam allows the food to fry and become crispy, and is much more effective at this than a convection oven.
You're actually kind of correct though, as air fryers have exploded in popularity, now any standard toaster oven with a convection feature is deceptively being marketed as "air fryers", when they actually are not air fryers but instead just standard convection ovens.
A convection oven circulates hot air around the food to maintain an even cooking temperature.
An air fry uses a much stronger flow of hot air, and the air is not circulated but instead evacuated from the cooking chamber
My convection oven works the way you describe the air fryer. I'm shocked to learn they actually make them without vents. Why do they do this??
Do you want to cook a meal for one possibly two people, or use a normal oven and definitely be able to cook for 2 or more people.
Also pizza, cant cook a pizza in an air fryer
The hell you can't lol. I tried it once (cut the frozen pizza into quarters and air fried one at a time). Though I guess it depends on your definition of "pizza".
The result: Imagine pizza but with the consistency of a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie. Definitely different, definitely delicious.
I think you proved my point, quarter of a pizza at a time 🤔
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