These magical little cooking machines can save you money on electricity and save calories while making crispy and tasty fried food, but how do they work?
Mini Oven
The air fryer is a mini oven, a significantly scaled-down version of a conventional fan oven but with one big difference.
The small size of the air fryer means it can heat up more quickly. There is also less space to keep it hot while it cooks the food. These factors help it use less electricity to cook the same food as a conventional oven, with one exception. The air fryer is limited in its space, and this limited space over a conventional fan oven is one of the reasons it can be more economical to run.
Big Difference
The big difference between a conventional fan oven and a worktop air fryer is the location of the heating element. The air fryer has its heating element at the top of the oven, and a typical fan oven has the heating element at the back of the oven wall. The heating element and fan on the back of the oven wall are best for a large oven to get an even cook.
The air-fryer has a heating element and fan at the top of the oven facing down on the food. This large heating area with a powerful fan forces hot air to circulate the food as it cooks. This is why you must regularly shake the basket for fries or flip the burgers, as it primarily heats on one side.
The Basket
The air fryer basket has a perforated tray at the bottom, which serves two purposes not present in a conventional oven. The perforated tray lifts the food from the very bottom of the oven, allowing the forced hot air to circulate the food and into the space below.
The space below the air fryer’s perforated tray is where the minimal quantity of added fat is stored. Only a minimal quantity of extra fat must be added to the air fryer, and some foods don’t need extra. The hot forced air blows tiny droplets of the added oil around the basket and onto the food.
This is how you can air fry with such a small amount of fat. The added oil is atomised a slight coating is efficiently applied to the food surface. It is not the same cooking as deep fat frying because so little added oil is deposited onto the food.
Not overcrowding the air fryer basket allows for a better and more complete circulation of the hot air to the very bottom of the basket.
The Food
An air fryer can cook nearly all the food a conventional fan oven can cook. The exception is usually frozen or fresh pizza; they just don’t fit inside the air fryer. They come out lovely when you find a pizza that fits in the air fryer. Much better than a conventional fan oven can do pizza.
No need to add any fat to pizzas. Not all food needs added fat; most don’t. Oven-ready fries and frozen coated fish or chicken work well without adding fat. Roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings from scratch need oil added to cook correctly.
Forced Air
The hot oil-laden forced air in the air fryer basket is ideal for making the food crispy. This is unlike the deep fat fryer, which needs a lot of oil to fry the food to a crispy state. A conventional fan oven can’t generate enough air force to atomise and deposit the fat on the food.
Wattage
An air fryer has a wattage element similar to a conventional oven, and the element-to-oven size ratio makes the difference. A similar power heater with a much smaller area to heat makes the air fryer more economical to run. The powerful fan in such a small space atomises the hot oil to coat the food and make it crispy.
Rear vent
You will find a vent on the rear of your air fryer. This vent allows the moisture from the food to escape the oven. This moisture extraction further helps keep the food crispy by drying it out as it cooks.
Programmer
The programmer or control panel has buttons and displays to provide timers, shake reminders, temperature regulation and different modes. These modes can alter the fan speed and automatically switch the heating element on/off.