German here. You can also just do your best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression while saying “Airfryer” and this is acceptable.
It is possible to passionately disagree about the subject of air fryers
3 months ago by Wren to c/BrandNewSentence
saltnotsugar 35 points 3 months ago
grue 38 points 3 months ago
I'm gonna be honest: I was very much an air "fryer" skeptic, but as they kept getting more popular I decided to get one and now I see why people like them.
Yes, they're essentially "just" a convection toaster oven, but honestly they're better at it because they have much more convection. The fan goes faster and it blows straight down on the food instead of just around the oven. It actually does make a difference. Also, the form-factor with a drawer instead of toaster-oven-style is superior for cleaning.
Frankly, I've never been all that happy with my toaster oven anyway, between it being hard to clean and also how it's not actually that great at getting things crispy. I think my air fryer is going to be a complete replacement for it (and an upgrade).
(This is sort of a reply to @slampisko@lemmy.world and @AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world, but I'm making it top-level and pinging them instead so I don't have to post two copies.)
Zizzy 4 points 3 months ago
Crazy because with all the hype i finally caved and got one too. And my experience is that it sucked and was very annoying to clean. There was only one thing I tried that came out better in it than a regular oven, but i ended up quickly not using it ever again and then giving it away.
agamemnonymous 4 points 3 months ago
They're better than a regular oven for small portions because they're much smaller. If you're always making full meals for an entire family, they're not really that useful. But for one or two people, the air fryer is going to be done cooking before the oven has even finished pre-heating.
captain_aggravated 2 points 3 months ago
The thing that might sell me on them is the dishwasher safe basket.
mrgoosmoos 1 point 3 months ago
don't let it fool you, you can't just use it and toss it in the dishwasher. although tbf my dishwasher is not the most effective, and I should probably try different load settings when washing the air fryer basket
anyways, if you don't line the basket with paper, crud gets baked on there real good and is hard to get off, and the little tray is a pain to clean because of all the spots
totally fine if you always line it with paper when cooking meat or other soft things, though. I find most veggies are easy to clean off, compared to meat
anyways, my review: it's an effective tool for quickly making small batches of food with little cleanup. I like making single portions of home fries, toasting buns, reheating food, cooking a single hamburger patty. all with less effort and cleanup than using a pan, and better results than a microwave. and more efficient and effective than using the full oven. also, with less oil than using a pan on the stove.
also, I'm disgusting, so I often reuse the paper liner if it isn't gross. like today I cooked home fries for breakfast and then a hamburger for dinner on the same sheet, because the thing is barely dirtied by cooking some bare chopped potatoes with the tiniest bit of oil. and I don't need to clean it after cooking meat, because all of the meat juice stayed on the liner and I can just pull it out and toss it.
SaveTheTuaHawk 1 point 3 months ago
and you don't get all the unhealthy grease and mess from oil frying.
BorgDrone 1 point 3 months ago
Yes, they're essentially "just" a convection toaster oven, but honestly they're better at it because they have much more convection.
Exactly, the faster moving air transfers heat more efficiently and this results in faster browning. For commercial kitchens there is something called an impingement oven that does this with even faster air. An air-fryer sit somewhere between a regular convection oven and an impingement oven.
sudoMakeUser 36 points 3 months ago
There is no English word for air fryer. It's two ordinary words. One is an adjective to describe what type of fryer it is.
sudoMakeUser 5 points 3 months ago
Why stop there? We should just combine all adjectives with all nouns! I'll just put my bookmark in and go outside with my sunglasses and raincoat and look at the sunflowers. Wait...
Psydefisch 22 points 3 months ago
There is no English word for air fryer
chiliedogg 14 points 3 months ago
I was annoyed by the term for a long time, and refused to get one over it.
But having used one for a bit now, it is kinda its own thing. The key difference between them and a standard convection oven is the small volume of the air fryer, which allows the volume to heat up faster and for the air to be cycled more quickly. That does make them seem more like a middle ground between an oven and a fryer.
BorgDrone 3 points 3 months ago
The key difference is the speed at which the air circulates. The faster moving air transfers heat more efficiently. I have 2 full size ovens that can also air-fry.
It’s nothing like an actual fryer though, which cooks by immersing in hot oil.
An air-fryer is a middle ground between a regular convection oven and an impingement oven.
rumba 2 points 3 months ago
I used to just use a range, a decent toaster oven and a microwave for most stuff. Heating up a regular oven is such a huge waste of power for a meal for 3-4 people.
When Instant Pot made a countertop oven with an "air fryer" feature, I bought one. When I wore that one out, I bought another.
An oven with a circulation fan is a convection oven. When I worked in a pro kitchen, our Blodgetts blew a hell of a lot harder than any air fryer, but no one would actually say they're frying the food.
To each their own on what they consider things.
chiliedogg 1 point 3 months ago
Yeah, but for residential purposes a regular convection overnight and an air fryer are very different categories of products, and if you put oil on something in an air fryer you get similar enough results to an actual fryer that I'm comfortable with the term now.
All 3 products use convection for quickly heating the outer layers of food, but the difference in the rate of the circulation between my Ninja and my oven isn't even close. The air fryer will actually throw light food around, whereas the convection over just lightly circulates. The end result is the air fryer (especially when oil is added to the food) ends up cooking more like a fryer than a standard convection oven.
Stern 22 points 3 months ago
Having been on the internet my entire adult life I can assure you people will passionately argue about anything. Airfryers, crucifixion in anime, whether aliens haven't visited us or don't want to visit us, the list goes on.
AbsolutelyNotSpez 7 points 3 months ago
Unexpected Star Trek: Enterprise reference.
AwesomeLowlander 4 points 3 months ago
Oh come on, that's ridiculous.
AngryCommieKender 3 points 3 months ago
It's just marketing for a function that toaster ovens have had forever. The air fryer is basically a miniature convection oven. They realized they could market that one function and sell a cheaper appliance for the same price.
atomicbocks 8 points 3 months ago
Yes and no, the technology that is air fryer was largely known as “European convection“ in the US before. The difference is whether the fan itself has a heating element. So there are convection ovens that can’t air fry because there’s only the traditional bottom and top elements. There are also ovens like the ones they use on the British Bake Off that have no bottom element just the air fryer element, and that’s why everybody can’t bake their shit correctly on the bake off.
AngryCommieKender 3 points 3 months ago
Ahh, see that is the type of issue I didn't have to know about. I generally buy used commercial grade equipment, because the stuff just works, and I'm used to how to cook with it.
black0ut -1 points 3 months ago
Convection ovens always have a fan. A convection oven can't just have the heating elements because that's just an oven. The convection part means that it has a fan in addition to the heating elements.
atomicbocks 5 points 3 months ago
I don’t think you completely read what I said. I said that the difference was whether or not the fan had its own heating element.
SaveTheTuaHawk 3 points 3 months ago
completely wrong.
NigelFrobisher 2 points 3 months ago
We did an entire Christmas dinner in a combi oven once. The proper oven died on christmas eve so went to the shops and got one. Smaller convection ovens do crisp bacon up quite well so I can see where the “fryer” idea comes from, sort of.
NigelFrobisher 2 points 3 months ago
In pretty sure it’s all the same people who started playing Pickleball instead of Tennis, and then whatever it is next year.
mrgoosmoos 1 point 3 months ago
add a fourth for me then, since I have one and simply appreciate it being another tool that does a job. I don't love it. it's just a tool. no different than my cast iron pans or microwave.
espentan 7 points 3 months ago
Maybe they were arguing over something else, and the air fryer was the threat?
Also, they might have a word for it but often marketing pushes the English word for products and so eventually it becomes the common word(s) to use, especially if the native word is not one typically used frequently.
Btw, luftfrityrsteker is the Norwegian word for air fryer.
Mouselemming 3 points 3 months ago
When I mispronounce that it sounds like luft fritter steaker and makes me hungry to eat steak with vegetable fritters while aloft in a hot-air balloon. You might prefer fries but I'm not a big potato fan.
LifeInMultipleChoice 17 points 3 months ago
What's the scam? They reduced the size and made it have a fan than had more effect. I don't currently have one but people seem to like the results. It's like calling a toaster a scam, sure... But like the people who want them will get one.
Atropos 12 points 3 months ago
When we were living in a rental with a leaky propane stove, we got an air fryer and did all of our cooking in it! I shut the gas off to the stove so we didn't explode.
The air fryer did a great job, and we still use it for small stuff today! Or if it's hot and we don't want to heat the whole oven up.
Mouselemming 2 points 3 months ago
I have a convection toaster oven which is fine, but it heats up my kitchen because it's less insulated than my oven and not right under the vent fan.
My question about air fryers is, how are they on making plain toast? Also can I turn off the fan to bake ?
SaveTheTuaHawk 3 points 3 months ago
No and no. Unless you want to start a fire, then yes.
SaveTheTuaHawk 4 points 3 months ago
What’s the scam?
The Chinese spies are watching you make tater tots!
atomicbocks 3 points 3 months ago
I’m not sure if this is what this person is on about, but we had a desktop air fryer that we got rid of because it didn’t do anything it claimed to. I didn’t get what all the fuss was about until a few years later we got an oven with an air fryer mode that actually does what people claim air fryers do.
e8d79 5 points 3 months ago
Sure, I could heat up my oven just to reheat two par-baked rolls but the air fryer doesn't heat up my whole apartment while doing it and uses a lot less power. Also, where is the scam these air fryers barely cost anything.
Kaligalis 3 points 3 months ago
Air fryers are convection ovens optimized for fast air replacement and high heated air throughput. So more heat gets lost to the environment because of the high air replacement rate. But that also means, moisture is extracted faster - and that is good for making stuff crispy.
If you often want crispy stuff, get an air fryer. If you often want to toast sliced bread, get a toaster. If you often want coffee, get a moka pot. If you often want tea, get an electric kettle. You can just use a combined convection microwave oven instead. But optimized tools are better for what they are optimized for.
ShinkanTrain 3 points 3 months ago
Me heating up a 120l oven to make a handful of fries
boonhet 1 point 3 months ago
I avoided them for a long time because it's just a small convection oven! Then watched the Technology Connections video where he tests them out and it convinced me into buying one.
I get much crispier fries and other stuff. Preheating is half a minute not 10 minutes, or you can pretty much just skip it because it heats up so fast.
The small size and powerful fan do a lot to make it stand out from regular convection ovens.
Oh and it doesn't heat up my entire kitchen which is a bonus in the summer.
Swedneck 1 point 3 months ago
have you, like, actually used an air fryer? Even the cheapest shittiest ones (at least 'round here) are so obviously effective that they're worth it just to cook frozen french fries and nuggets.
When i moved into my own apartment i got a two-basket one specifically to cook fries and nuggets at the same time lmao, it's a life saver when you have no energy and can't afford fast food.
SaveTheTuaHawk 1 point 3 months ago
Convection ovens work worse as a function of size. Maybe try one before saying something stupid.
SirSnufflelump 1 point 3 months ago
Did you just get personally offended over someone not liking air fryers? How strange.
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I have owned an air fryer for quite some time now and I have just looked up the German word for it. Heißluftfritteuse (hot air fryer) apparently.
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