Is An Air Fryer Just A Small Oven?

[sandyRoe]

If I'd two pieces of fish in batter I'd pop them in the oven for 20 minutes at whatever temp was recommended and flip them over after 10 minutes. Is it the same with an air fryer?

[barry1010]

Some you don't need to flip, others you do. An air fryer is a small fan oven that blasts the hot air more aggressively so it should be cheaper and quicker to cook. Being smaller they also heat up quicker

[barry1010]

It can be just as quick and cheap to cook many foods in my combi microwave using the oven and microwave combination.

[Zacs-Master]

An air fryer usually uses a small amount of oil, or the foods natural fats to ‘fry’. An oven bakes things.

[pastafreak]

An air fryer doesn't *fry*...it bakes, roasts,re-heats. It does what a larger fan oven would do.
Also incredibly easy to clean and no bending over to see how things are cooking

[barry1010]

Zacs, air fryers cook in exactly the same way as a fan oven - blows hot air around the food. I cook home made chips in my fan ovens with just a brush of oil and they come out brown and crispy because I use a perforated cooking tray, similar to this one https://www.prestige.co.uk/products/inspire-non-stick-chip-tray#:~:text=waved%20surface...-,Made%20from%20carbon%20steel%2C%20this%20specially%20designed%20chip%20tray%20makes,no%20mess%20%26%20no%20lost%20chips!

[Old_Geezer]

Roasting still needs some fat/oil. There are parallels between an air fryer and a fan oven, but the former is designed to be smaller, thus cheaper to heat, and more aggressive moving the air around, which should make it quicker.

[bednobs]

there imo are 2 types of air fryer
ones like the actifry that you add oil to and it moves the food around, and ones that are like a mini fan oven that you cant really addoil to because they cook in a basket rather than on a surface

[bednobs]

but they do it quicker than an oven cause of the fan, and doing the bottom at the same time

[pastafreak]

The hot air circulates with the fan.
My airfryer gives 8 minutes as the standard time for fish. I find less is often better.

[barry1010]

Bednobs, both my main cooker oven and combi microwave have fan ovens.
Every fan oven cooks quicker than a standard oven and needs a lower temperature

[bednobs]

i find my air fryer takes quicker and needs to be cooler than even my fan oven though barry. i did some oven chips in it yesterday, and in my fan oven they take about 16 mins on 200 but in the air fryer they took 10 mins on 180

[barry1010]

About the same time as my combi microwave, then. My combi is big and can cook two shelves at once, it doesn't have a turntable.