Air Fryers

[ChTTay]

Hey,

 

Has anyone got or used an airfryer?

 

I have been reading about Philips air fryers on a few cooking website.  I searched on Taobao and you can get Chinese brand ones for around 400rmb.

 

It seems like it might make a nice addition to home cooking in China. It looks like you can cook potato, meats, essentially anything you would usually deep fry.

 

 

[abcdefg]

Looks pretty slick. Unfortunately my kitchen is old fashioned and I don't have space to store any more counter-top appliances. Otherwise I might be tempted to try it out, for making chicken wings if nothing else.

 

My personal history with such things (back in the US) was to buy them, use them for a while, and then sort of forget them when the newness wore off.

[ChTTay]

I would probably use it for sweet potato fries (oh yes!) and, like you say, wings. Might try and "air fry" a Mars bar for kicks.

 

I don't have too much room either ... it will probably come down to an oven or one of these.

 

I was just curious if anyone has one. Seems like a real nice idea and makes deep frying stuff a lot safer/easier.

[abcdefg]

Hadn't thought of sweet potato fries. Now I may have to get one.

[Shelley]

I am the same with new kitchen gadgets, use them for awhile and then they don't get used much, usually when the cleaning of said gadget outweighs the fun of using it.

 

I always underestimate the amount of cleaning these things need.

 

I have a air popper for popcorn great but really noisy, scares the whatsit out of the cats.

[abcdefg]

Was in a big store (Carrefour) yesterday for something else and stopped to look at them. The Phillips brand sold for ￥1500。They had two others for less that were brands I did not recognize.

 

I suppose the advantage of buying Phillips is that there is lots of information on the internet about how to use them, including YouTube videos. I always struggle with the instruction booklets and operating manuals of Chinese electronics.

 

And I agree with Shelley about the cleaning issues. Very important consideration.

[ChTTay]

Taobao has a load of different brands for 400ish rmb.

According to one website, there are just two main types of technology with these air friers. One is used in the Philips model and this is where the food doesn't move around (you would have to physically shake the machine half way through making fries) and the other kind (i forget the main brand) uses air to move the food around the chamber where it's deep fried.

I'm sure it's more complicated that above, however, the point I make is...

If the technology of a cheaper Chinese brand is roughly the same as the Philips one, then whatever you read about using the Philips manual might have a good amount of "transfer" to the cheaper model. At least enough for you to try it and perhaps tweak it a bit for your model.

Things shouldn't get too oily in there if you are just using a teaspoon of oil. Guess there could be lots of "bits" and batter left inside though.

[abcdefg]

You make good points @ChTTay. I hope you get one, try it out, and let those of us who are less adventurous benefit from your first-hand experience.