3 ms·

I don't know why restaurants need to use oil in this waste-generating way, presumably for frying. All of the same things can be cooked in an air fryer oven with

I don't know why restaurants need to use oil in this waste-generating way, presumably for frying. All of the same things can be cooked in an air fryer oven without oil. Granted, it takes longer, and uses plenty of electricity, but it can be done all day long.

D-Machine 11mo ago
This is completely incorrect. Air-fryers are just small ovens, they do not meaningfully crisp almost anything without serious modifications to the recipe and approach, and most crispy textures can only be properly achieved by deep frying. Air fryers are mostly useless and the name borders on fraud IMO.
- OutOfHere 11mo ago
  They cook, which is the point. Being crisp isn't actually necessary. Being cooked is. If it's really necessary, one can always use spray oil before inserting them into the air fryer.
  - D-Machine 11mo ago
    Yes, I guess we can just steam or even microwave all our food then, texture and moisture content is just an irrelevancy.
    - OutOfHere 11mo ago
      Actually a microwave or steamer or cooker works fine for me for things that can cook so simply, but not everything can. Some things require a fryer. The point is that there is a 1:1 correspondence between what can cook in an oil fryer versus what can cook in an air fryer, and the result is 85% as crisp. In fact I hold the oil against the restaurant because the oil is a multi-faceted health hazard.
- Kirby64 11mo ago
  This seems like you’ve never used an air fryer. They aren’t a replacement for a deep fryer, of course, but they can certainly crisp many different foods much differently from a traditional oven. The high cfm convection of an air fryer makes food behave much differently than a regular oven or a standard convection oven.
  - D-Machine 11mo ago
    Air fryer cultists must administer lidocaine prior to eating or something, air fryers can't even get close to proper deep or shallow frying, unless you are re-warming something pre-packaged that was already deep fried prior. The "crisp" achieved from air frying is woefully inferior, and no serious chef or anyone with basic cooking experience defends them for anything other than trivial use-cases. They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway). EDIT: So to be clear, yes, there is a narrow use case for people who can't afford e.g. a good countertop convection oven (same thing as an air fryer but more versatile) or decent convection oven, and for whom cooking consists mostly of store-bought and pre-cooked small meals for 1-2 people max, and definitely for people that don't care about the dramatic textural difference from actual fried food, or that aren't attempting to emulate fried food with it. But air frying was mentioned by GP as an alternative for restaurants in place of deep frying, which is woefully out of touch with the most basic facts of reality.
    - Kirby64 11mo ago
      > They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway). Chris Young, of Modernist Cuisine and Chefsteps fame, disagrees with you. There’s a difference in the physical construction of actual air fryers vs just fast convection ovens. Every convection oven/air fryer combo I’ve ever seen has the fan on the side, so the behavior and performance is different. See: https://youtu.be/yw--NLjZBNk https://youtu.be/yw--NLjZBNk
eudamoniac 11mo ago
If you consider 1. Almost no restaurants have made this substitution and 2. Cooking oil is pretty expensive, then you can realize that 3. No, air fryers are not a quality substitute for real frying
- OutOfHere 11mo ago
  That's not the reason why. Air fryers take longer to cook an item than does a regular fryer. When it comes to meat, often I have to cook it for nearly 30 minutes just to have it reach a safe internal temperature in its center. Restaurants do not have this much time. Even then, the number of servings is small. Restaurants need speed and volume; an air fryer grants neither. Fwiw, one can always spray oil before placing an item in the air fryer, although it's entirely unnecessary from a cooking pov.

D-Machine 11mo ago

This is completely incorrect. Air-fryers are just small ovens, they do not meaningfully crisp almost anything without serious modifications to the recipe and approach, and most crispy textures can only be properly achieved by deep frying. Air fryers are mostly useless and the name borders on fraud IMO.

OutOfHere 11mo ago
They cook, which is the point. Being crisp isn't actually necessary. Being cooked is. If it's really necessary, one can always use spray oil before inserting them into the air fryer.
- D-Machine 11mo ago
  Yes, I guess we can just steam or even microwave all our food then, texture and moisture content is just an irrelevancy.
  - OutOfHere 11mo ago
    Actually a microwave or steamer or cooker works fine for me for things that can cook so simply, but not everything can. Some things require a fryer. The point is that there is a 1:1 correspondence between what can cook in an oil fryer versus what can cook in an air fryer, and the result is 85% as crisp. In fact I hold the oil against the restaurant because the oil is a multi-faceted health hazard.
Kirby64 11mo ago
This seems like you’ve never used an air fryer. They aren’t a replacement for a deep fryer, of course, but they can certainly crisp many different foods much differently from a traditional oven. The high cfm convection of an air fryer makes food behave much differently than a regular oven or a standard convection oven.
- D-Machine 11mo ago
  Air fryer cultists must administer lidocaine prior to eating or something, air fryers can't even get close to proper deep or shallow frying, unless you are re-warming something pre-packaged that was already deep fried prior. The "crisp" achieved from air frying is woefully inferior, and no serious chef or anyone with basic cooking experience defends them for anything other than trivial use-cases. They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway). EDIT: So to be clear, yes, there is a narrow use case for people who can't afford e.g. a good countertop convection oven (same thing as an air fryer but more versatile) or decent convection oven, and for whom cooking consists mostly of store-bought and pre-cooked small meals for 1-2 people max, and definitely for people that don't care about the dramatic textural difference from actual fried food, or that aren't attempting to emulate fried food with it. But air frying was mentioned by GP as an alternative for restaurants in place of deep frying, which is woefully out of touch with the most basic facts of reality.
  - Kirby64 11mo ago
    > They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway). Chris Young, of Modernist Cuisine and Chefsteps fame, disagrees with you. There’s a difference in the physical construction of actual air fryers vs just fast convection ovens. Every convection oven/air fryer combo I’ve ever seen has the fan on the side, so the behavior and performance is different. See: https://youtu.be/yw--NLjZBNk https://youtu.be/yw--NLjZBNk

eudamoniac 11mo ago

If you consider 1. Almost no restaurants have made this substitution and 2. Cooking oil is pretty expensive, then you can realize that 3. No, air fryers are not a quality substitute for real frying

OutOfHere 11mo ago
That's not the reason why. Air fryers take longer to cook an item than does a regular fryer. When it comes to meat, often I have to cook it for nearly 30 minutes just to have it reach a safe internal temperature in its center. Restaurants do not have this much time. Even then, the number of servings is small. Restaurants need speed and volume; an air fryer grants neither. Fwiw, one can always spray oil before placing an item in the air fryer, although it's entirely unnecessary from a cooking pov.