Airfryer - worth buying? Any hints and tips to make the most of them

This has me concerned as in one case you get molten chocolate everywhere and in the other you get a visit from the RSPCA.

 

Right thanks for the explanation, just one thing, if it's hot air, in a similar way to how an oven works, how does it cook veg,do they come out baked, I usually boil veg.
May fry peppers, but I'd boil beetroot.

 

I've found it really useful to have an air fryer which has a bunch of different cooking modes, particularly slow cook and pressure cook...

 

I’ve never been comfortable with pressure cookers, found them scary. I used to keep a long bamboo cane in the corner of the kitchen to poke the top weight and let the steam out!
I use my small slow cooker for things like beef or chicken in wine, or rice pudding. It wouldn’t help me to combine this with an airfryer, as I could be wanting to use both at the same time.
I cook red or green peppers in the air fryer, and also asparagus, lightly brushed with oil before they go in.
The biggest failure I have had was cheese on toast! I love this, but the only grill I have is in the top of the oven, and I find it a bit of a faff, and don’t fancy cleaning it afterwards. So I was quite excited to read that I could make this in the airfryer. All went horribly wrong. I lightly toasted some bread, buttered it and covered it in cheddar, sliced using my cheese plane.
Into the airfryer on the airfryer setting. Within minutes, there was an unpleasant greasy burning smell. The circulating air had thrown the cheese off the toast and onto the element above the drawer. Thank heavens I hadn’t used grated cheese. It did clean off ok, but it still smelt slightly cheesy for quite a few days. Such a shame.

 

Don't have an air fryer but i use a rayburn

 

And where do you plug that in?

I've got a combination microwave which has a grill setting but never used that setting, just bung cheese on toast under the gas grill on the cooker.
I'm surprised people actually clean stuff that gets up to nuclear temperatures every time you use them.

 

Yes - we've always been nervous of pressure cookers. It's been a real gamechanger that the airfryer takes the fear out of pressure cooking - it manages the temperature, pressure and timing automatically, and is much better insulated so uses less energy.

 

I thought most pressure cookers used weights, to hold the pressure, the one we had years ago did, so if the pressure got too high the weights just lifted and let the steam out.

 

I've always been a fan of pressure cookers and have an aged Prestige Hi Dome (you can still get spares for it), my mother had a similar one.
I find it useful for cooking some pulses, making soup and stock, marmalade, cooking bacon joints and similar.

They do, mine has 3 possible weights 5, 10 and 15 lbs; the different weights in effect setting the temperature.

 

Mine was also a Prestige Hi Dome, and I remember being able to buy replacement seals for it. Made fantastic steamed puddings in it, but I was still waiting for it to blow up at some stage! Maybe influenced by the knowledge that the compressor at work had to be regularly inspected and pressure tested!
For many years, I had a combination microwave / convection oven. I rarely used the microwave bit, as I had a separate cheap microwave oven I used to cook vegetables and the like. I could do a roast dinner for two using the tiered wire racks, and cheese on toast cooked beautifully on the top rack. I was heartbroken when the door finally fell off, and it was declared beyond repair.

 

OH is also happy to indulge his love of cinnamon swirl pastries, which we buy frozen, and crisp up deliciously in 15 minutes.

 

Wow, you must have very different air fryers than we @Stephen Southwest . Ours are really just little convection ovens. Heat and blow the air at high speed. (My older one can stir too to keep chips flipping etc)

The electric version of a presser cooker over here is sometimes called a Rapid cooker or Instant pot. And it does seal up to enable it to use pressure.

I use the old style with the weight on top.Same as @NigelJ , the 22 quart one has 5, 10, 15 pound weights plus a pressure gauge.

I have smaller ones 4,6 & 9 quart ones that I use much more often

Heat until the weight bobbles then lower burner temp to maintain that pressure. Easy peasy.

The pressure cooker does beet root in about 15 minutes tops and turnip cut on big chunks in about 10.

I was given an instant pot but those are too small for most of the things I make. It's new, in the box and I'll find someone who will use it.

I put my harvested crabapples in the pressure cooker and 10 minites later it has steamed juice out them which just needs to be filtered for making jelly.

I made stew in it this week.

That said, the airfryer is a real time saver too for crispy chips and chicken sticks etc.

 

@CanadianLori , what are chicken sticks please? I want some now (Having a finger food moment while the healthy soup is bubbling on the stove)

 

@Selleri they're just made from ground chicken (probably rubbish cuts) shaped like a french frie , breaded and ready to fry. Some call them chicken fries. Certainly not one of the healhy options to cook but they do make a nice, easy snack when granddaughter and her friends are hanging out. The air fryer I have down in the rec room turns on with a twist of the timer knob so it may be allowed at uni.

 

A bit like the infamous "Turkey Twizzler" from the early 2000s.