Kitchen gadget fads

[Underseer]

Are air fryers just another stupid fad?

I already have a big convection oven, so I never saw the point of this air fryer fad going on right now.

Besides, my counter space is already at a premium (I really need to discard or store some stuff in the kitchen that never gets used).

When I was a teenager back in the 1980s, I remember a similar fad with countertop convection ovens. My parents got one while the fad was going on, and to be honest, after a few months of experimentation, everyone just went back to using the big oven and it became just another piece of junk that no one wanted to throw away.

Hence my curmudgeon-like response to air fryers. They sure don't look like they do anything different from those old countertop convection ovens, other than have less available space for cooking stuff.

If anyone wants to prove me wrong and tell me that air fryers are something everyone needs to try, let's have your arguments, but for now I'm going full cranky grandpa on this one and saying "Bah! Fad!"

 

[Underseer]

[YOUTUBE]VcOdqJhu-wg[/YOUTUBE]

This guy is a curmudgeon like me, and he argues that you don't even need a convection oven to do what an air fryer does.

 

[steve_bank]

I was just rethinking about that.

Anybody using an air fryer or convection oven and what are the results. The only gadget I use is a hamnd can openor. These days it is hard to find one that lasts more tan a few minths.

I do use a simple low cost rice cooker. Perfect rice every time.

 

[Treedbear]

I bought a countertop convection oven because my wall mount oven burned out after only 50 years. Wall mount ovens seem to be ridiculously expensive. I live alone so no need to cook a turkey. I mainly bought it for baking bread so it's also got a rotisserie feature and therefore extra internal height (7"). But I use it all the time now. Heats up much quicker than a big oven would and uses less electricity and doesn't heat up the kitchen in summer. In fact I just bought a second one for $100 that's a bit bigger that easily fits a 4 quart dutch oven. I used it to make a beef roast this past weekend. Also made braised beef in wine sauce and some braised pork loin in apple cider sauce.The meat is always fork tender and the sauce is great too (I never could make a good sauce before).

But I have a hard time passing up a great deal. I never thought I could afford a good dutch oven but $280 Staub cocottes are on sale for $90 now. I live in a town that has a Wusthof knife store and they sold me a $280 European model chinese-style cleaver for $55. Never thought I could afford one so now I have to figure out how to use it.

The rice cooker has me hesitating because once I started looking at them and reading reviews the price point goes from $10 to $250 or so for one with "neuro-fuzzy logic". The more you spend the fewer bad reviews. The cheap ones seem to spatter water all over, cook unevenly or over-cook the rice. I'd appreciate some suggestions, but more than $100 and I'm better off doing it the old fashioned way on the stove top.

 

[steve_bank]

I paid $15 at Waymart for a simple rice cooker. No electronics. Add rice and water and push a switch. It operates on temperature. When the water is used up temperature rises. A thermal switch puts it into a warm mode.

There was a little trial error. The rice bag instructions say 2 to 1 water to rice, I use 3 to 1.

I was thinking a convection oven probably uses a lot less electricity.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The big part of my regular oven does the convection thing. I used it once. I don't know what the hell it did. Pizza took just as long and tasted the same.

I like my countertop to have a minimalist look. I got a Panini maker as a gift. This great big gadget just to do what I could probably do in a skillet. It went to Goodwill brand new.

Pffft on kitchen gadgets. Toaster, coffee maker, rice maker. Anything else and you're just supporting a Trump economy.

 

[Underseer]

The big part of my regular oven does the convection thing. I used it once. I don't know what the hell it did. Pizza took just as long and tasted the same.

I like my countertop to have a minimalist look. I got a Panini maker as a gift. This great big gadget just to do what I could probably do in a skillet. It went to Goodwill brand new.

Pffft on kitchen gadgets. Toaster, coffee maker, rice maker. Anything else and you're just supporting a Trump economy.

Weird. I have to reduce the heat on my convection oven by 25[ent]deg[/ent]F or else recipes and frozen food items come out burnt.

If you want to use it like an air fryer, you want the air to get under the food, which means a rack-on-top-of-a-sheet arrangement. Otherwise, is it possible the fan isn't spinning as fast as it oughtta?