Ant wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:13 pm
I actively call my air fryer a mini oven, as it's not an air fryer, it doesn't fry, doesn't fry air. They're bloody good at what they are and that's being a mini oven. I did bacon in mine last week and it turned out very well.
How do they differ from the thing I use? It's a Panasonic combi thing so it will microwave and be a small convection oven. I only ever use the microwave to thaw stuff out but use it as an oven a lot. Is it just bigger than an air fryer? If so I might try some air fryer recipes in it - there's quite a few that look useful but I'm reluctant to buy yet another piece of kit that might end up in the cupboard with the juicer etc.
Because mine is a mini oven basically, yours sounds like a combi microwave oven, which have been around for years and are very useful.
I always feel like there should be some optimum you can achieve with a microwave / oven combo you can't get with either alone. Microwaves are hugely more efficient at heating stuff up and they heat much more evenly, but they don't get any of the roasty toasty goodness that really hot air does.
Microwave heating in an industrial sense is an area of much research, particularly when you're trying to heat up really thick stuff. Feels like Blumenthal is dropping the ball here.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:34 pm
I always feel like there should be some optimum you can achieve with a microwave / oven combo you can't get with either alone. Microwaves are hugely more efficient at heating stuff up and they heat much more evenly, but they don't get any of the roasty toasty goodness that really hot air does.
Microwave heating in an industrial sense is an area of much research, particularly when you're trying to heat up really thick stuff. Feels like Blumenthal is dropping the ball here.
Well the Panasonic will do both, even at the same time I think, but it will also just do the fan assisted oven thing, which I assumed was what the air fryers do, just in a smaller, more insulated space. I don't do anything in it that would necessitate cleaning the interior after each use though...that sort of thing goes in the oven, which will get blitzed on occasion. I believe you could microwave a chicken then blast it to get a crispy outside in the Panasonic. (If you wade through the manual it would have you believe you can do everything in it. )
Us Brits have odd ideas about 'roasting' things too. Modern ovens just bake food so our roast beef/chicken is really baked beef/chicken as it's all about hot air - convection - rather than radiation, which is roasting, because the elements are shielded.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
My halogen oven and microwave both broke about the same time so I bought a combi microwave with a grill element and no turntable.
It is OK but not as good as I'd expected, only good for small amounts of food and the special inserts for different functions are a pain.
After being badgered by my son I bought a rice cooker which is now consigned to the back of the cupboard, the only gadget i really like is the egg cooker as it's less faff than boiling a saucepan.
I'm waiting for an induction cooker to arrive now so I'll find out if they are as good as the hype.
Count Steer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:24 pm
How do they differ from the thing I use? It's a
Perhaps easiest to describe it? (Air 'fryer')
A small-ish saucepan with a matched collander inside, that has hot air blasted through. The 'fry' aspect is from coating the food with oil before placing it in the oven (that's, as said, what it is).
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:11 pm
I've just started doing dippy eggs in the air fryer. 10 minutes at 120°C and they're perfect. Zero clean up afterwards.
I suppose technically you could do them in a normal oven too, but that feels wrong somehow
It would probably never have occurred to me to try that but I will be now!
Count Steer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:24 pm
How do they differ from the thing I use? It's a
Perhaps easiest to describe it? (Air 'fryer')
A small-ish saucepan with a matched collander inside, that has hot air blasted through. The 'fry' aspect is from coating the food with oil before placing it in the oven (that's, as said, what it is).
You couldn't do rice in ours!
They are all small convection ovens - they heat up quickly, cool down quickly, so are more efficient. They don't really fry per se
Count Steer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 4:24 pm
How do they differ from the thing I use? It's a
Perhaps easiest to describe it? (Air 'fryer')
A small-ish saucepan with a matched collander inside, that has hot air blasted through. The 'fry' aspect is from coating the food with oil before placing it in the oven (that's, as said, what it is).
You couldn't do rice in ours!
They are all small convection ovens - they heat up quickly, cool down quickly, so are more efficient. They don't really fry per se
Parcelforce lost my air fryer, but we ordered another. Tried it out on Friday for sossie sandwiches, perfect. Then the wife did the roast spuds and yorkshires in it. Again perfect. I'm impressed so far...
BTW, rice = Chinese grandmother method, as taught by Ken Hom.
Rice in pan, cover with cold water until it's half a thumb deep above the top of the rice. Bring to the boil and keep boiling over a medium-high heat until the water level drops to the surface of the rice and small 'pockets' start appearing in the rice. Put the lid on and turn it down as low as it will go and DON'T LOOK for 10 minutes. Well you can look, but don't take the lid off
Just bought a 14 in 1 Ltd edition ninja.
Just getting to grips with it, but chips, oh yes, sausages, Gregg's frozen sausage rolls, a couple of slow casseroles, black pudding, bacon.
Got a few recipes to try out, but were mid return to France so waiting til were properly settled again.
We have a Ninja Foodi. Air fryer, slow cooker, pressure cooker, the works. Bloody good. Even makes yogurt, apparently. I tried and ended up with four pints of sour milk.
Admittedly I didn't actually read the instructions on what to actually do.
)
ninja.
