Air fryers use a circulation of hot air to cook food that would otherwise be submerged in oil. The air fryer's cooking chamber radiates heat from a heating element near the food, thus cooking it more efficiently. A fan is used to circulate hot air around the food. The opening at the top is used to take air in and there is an exhaust at the back that controls the temperature by releasing any undesired hot air. It is also used to counter any increases in internal pressure. The temperatures inside can go up to 230 °C depending on the model. For safety, it is essential to not put oil inside the air fryer or have flammable objects near the air fryer. In general, cooking times in the air fryer are reduced by 20% in comparison with traditional ovens. This varies per brand and the quantity of the food cooked in the air fryer. Traditional frying methods induce the Maillard effect by completely submerging foods in hot oil, which attains considerably higher temperatures than boiling water. The air fryer works by coating the desired food in a thin layer of oil while circulating air heated up to to apply heat and initiate the reaction. As a result, the appliance is able to brown foods like potato chips, chicken, fish, steak, cheeseburgers, french fries or pastries using 70% to 80% less oil than a traditional deep fryer. Most air fryers have temperature and timer adjustments that allow more precise cooking. Food is cooked in a cooking basket that sits atop a drip tray. The basket and its contents must be periodically shaken to ensure even oil coverage. High-end models accomplish this by incorporating a food agitator that continuously shakes the food during the cooking process. However, most air fryers require the user to perform the task manually at periodic intervals. Convection ovens and air fryers are similar in the way they cook food, but air fryers are generally smaller in capacity than convection ovens and give off less heat. The taste and consistency of foods cooked using traditional fried methods compared with air fried techniques are not identical, because the larger quantity of oil used in traditional frying penetrates the foods and adds its own flavor. With air fryers, if food is coated only in a wet batter without an external barrier of a dry coating like breadcrumbs that are pressed firmly to ensure adhesion, the air fryer's fan can blow the batter off the food. Some air fryers are equipped with additional accessories for specific kinds of cooking, such as pizza pans, skewer racks, grilling trays, and cake barrels.
History
The original patent for the air fryer was filed by Turbochef Technologies in 2005 and was targeted at large hotel chains and eating outlets. In 2010, Philips introduced the Airfryer, a new kitchen appliance at the Internationale Funkausstellung, a consumer electronics fair in Berlin. It was developed using the patented Rapid Air technology. In the earliest days of air frying, air fryers' shapes resembled pods. In more recent years, as air fryer functions were combined with those of toaster ovens and pressure cookers, air fryers have begun to look more like these appliances. According to Consumer Reports in 2019, the five top brands of air fryers in the USA were Elite, Farberware, GoWISE, Ninja, and NuWave respectively.
Application
Counter-top air fryers provide an alternative to traditional oil frying. The circulating hot air has many applications in the kitchen, including cooking:
