How does the air fryer work? Healthy frying!

Frying has always been the cross and delight of cuisine: everyone loves frying. Many traditional recipes do not ignore it, but it is among the most popular opinions that eating fried foods hurts.

And if it is true that a passage in the boiling oil does not enhance any food, it is equally difficult to find a more persistent smell than any attempt to fry imposes on clothes, hair, and entire rooms.

From the pan to the fryer

At one time, it was essentially fried in large pans filled with oil. The solution chosen most frequently is the so-called ” deep ” frying, which involves the total immersion of the food in the oil. The electric fryer is faster than frying in a pan; it gets less dirty and, to some extent, reduces the problem of strong odor by limiting the heated area inside a closed cooking chamber.

Over time, there have been updates and improvements in the electric fryers’ field (rotating baskets, cold zone fryers, etc.). But the real evolution in the field of frying is much more recent. It promises to prepare tastily fried even without oil to delight health-conscious and particularly sensitive noses. Like? With the air!

How does the air fryer work?

Let’s see how it is possible to fry our food using a tool that works literally with hot air instead of oil and pans. So how does the air fryer work? As with any deep fryer, also in the air fryer’s case, cooking takes place in a cooking chamber, inside which scorching air circulates (for some preparations, it is recommended to use a temperature of 200°C).

It works like this in a nutshell: the hot steam circulating inside the cooking chamber replaces the oil as a carrier of the heat used for frying. This is not a very different process from that of the fan oven, so the air fryer can also prepare roasts, savory pies, and desserts.

Usage is straightforward. After loading the basket and inserting the food into the deep fryer, you only need to set the temperature and timer based on the recipe you intend to follow. The food, immersed in a stream of hot air circulating inside the cooking chamber for the indicated time, cooks uniformly and quickly.

Although it is not necessary, you can add a little oil if required by particular preparations and seasoning on the food’s surface. At the end of the operation, it will be sufficient to remove the basket from the fryer.

Is that healthy?

Some air fryers say that this type of cooking can decrease food intake by 75%, compared to traditional frying. This is because the absence of oil in the process inevitably reduces the amount of fat and calories present in our foods.

Numerous studies are linking large consumption of fried food to cardiovascular disease and other health problems. Besides being fatter than other foods, fried foods can contain compounds harmful to the body, such as acrylamide, which can develop in carbohydrate-rich foods in high-temperature cooking processes.

The hot air fryer significantly reduces the problem of fats by eliminating the oil and reducing by about 90% the possibility of forming harmful compounds for the organism.

Foods prepared with an air fryer are healthier than those fried traditionally. Even if cooked in the absence of oil, air-fried foods are fried in all respects. Starting from the premise that fried food hurts, a healthy approach will prefer other types of cuisine, such as steaming, baking, etc.

What can be cooked with an air fryer?

After seeing how an air fryer works, we can think about what to cook. Almost all air fryers provide cookbooks that help define the right cooking times and the right temperatures to cook food. But it’s not just about fries: in the air fryer, you can cook roasts, savory pies, desserts.

There are recipes for cooking chocolate muffins, meatballs, roasted, and fried vegetables of all kinds. In the cooking chamber of an air fryer, very high temperatures develop, which allows cooking evenly an almost infinite quantity of food.

The use of the air fryer is ideal for all those recipes that need high and constant temperatures. Small oven dishes and containers suitable for the oven can then be placed inside the fryer, making it possible to cook cakes and soft foods.

The reviews of those who have purchased an air fryer and have experimented with the instrument’s various functions tend to be positive: you can cook everything in an air fryer. However, you have to be careful not to put too many liquid foods or batters in the fryer without support, as they would leak beyond the basket, compromising the cooking and the appliance’s health.

Pros and Cons

In conclusion, an air fryer is undoubtedly an ideal purchase for those who want to decrease their diet’s fat and calories without giving up a crispy fish fry. However, it is less suitable for those who are particularly attentive to energy consumption, as reaching the high temperatures necessary for hot air cooking requires considerable electricity consumption.

The use of air fryers provides consumption between 800 and 2,000 watts. On the other hand, the high-energy demand is offset by eliminating other resources otherwise necessary for the process, such as the oil we would have used for frying, gas, etc.

Despite the indisputable qualities, an air fryer is not large enough to replace the traditional fan oven, nor is it a magical tool that cooks for us or works independently. However, it can easily replace a traditional electric fryer and potentially enrich the kitchen with a versatile appliance, simple to use and clean.

There are various models of air fryers on the market. According to consumer opinions and reviews of the various models on the market, choosing the model that best suits your needs is essential. In particular, it is good to check that the basket’s capacity is adequate for the use we want to make and that the temperature is adjustable if we need it.

SEE OFFERS!