• terranoid@lemmy.cafe
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    27 days ago

    They’re literally small convection ovens rebranded. They’re not magic.

    Look up how microwaves work. Those are way, way fucking cooler. The way they generate the microwaves is cool as hell.

    • rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz
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      27 days ago

      you know what would be a lot cooler? same thing not needing electricity (concentrated solar can get hot enough and heat can be stored in hot oil)

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      Things don’t need to be revolutionary to be life changing. Could I have used the convection oven for this one slice of pizza? Sure. Would I ever? Hell no.

      But yeah, microwaves really are neat. We’re going to fling these electrons around in these very specific magnetic fields and out pops light you can’t see.

    • dan@upvote.au
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      27 days ago

      They’re closer to impingement ovens than convection ovens.

      Convection ovens (or “fan forced ovens” in some countries) use a fan to gently and evenly circulate the hot air, whereas impingement ovens and air fryers use higher velocity fans to blow the heat directly onto the food.

    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      Microwaves are cool in theory but in practice the food is almost always soggy and mushy. Maybe I just don’t know how to use them, but I’m rarely happy with the result. Even reheating leftovers, I’d rather do in a saucepan

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        While I had to learn that Microwave ovens don’t magically work on the resonant frequency of water molecules, they do work by inciting motion in dipole molecules, and water with those little H atoms hanging off to one side is dipolar, so microwaves are rather good at heating them up. This means that you’re sort of working in the same realm of temperatures and humidity as steaming or even boiling, for good or (mostly) for ill.

        Heating frozen food specifically engineered to come out okay from a microwave? Well, it’ll come out okay. Re-heating soup or re-steaming tamales (mmmmm. tamales…)? Pretty decent. Heating up anything that wasn’t meant to have “wetness” as a major part of its mouthfeel will go poorly, often disastrously if you don’t try to work around the microwave’s limitations.

    • Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      27 days ago

      A more efficient and quicker small convection oven you can easily buy for 30 bucks and pop in a cupboard when you’re not using it.

      • Axolotl@feddit.it
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        26 days ago

        The price really depends where you live, eg: where i live an air fryer can cost 20-40€ , a microwave is often on the 50€ price range

        • Souvenir@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          26 days ago

          Same here.

          Meanwhile a reliable full size oven can easily cost 1000$/€ and consumes much more energy. Not always cheap/easy to install either.

          For people on a budget, who often live in a small/rented place, an air fryer’s a life saver. Plug it in, cook something, pop it away if you need some more space. Don’t even need a kitchen. Just use it next to an open window or vent.

          A rice cooker is similarly useful. Cheap, but you can use it to cook far more than rice, keep stuff warm, and largely replace a stove top. Once again, often without the need for space or installation.

    • TheRealKuni@piefed.social
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      27 days ago

      Microwaves are cool, sure, but they have a completely different utility. If I want a small amount of food hot, it goes in the microwave. If I want a small amount of food crispy, it goes in the air fryer. If I want a large amount of food hot or crispy it goes in the oven, with convection on or off depending on the end goal.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        26 days ago

        If you want crispy, heat with the air fryer.

        If want moist and hot, use a microwave.

        Don’t cook soup in the air frier or toast in the microwave.

        • Aqivex@fedinsfw.app
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          26 days ago

          You’re allowed to mix and match your appliances a little bit, as a treat.

          Microwave start to air fryer finish is leftover recover makeover.

    • cinoreus@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      Microwaves are a prime example that if something’s cool doesn’t mean it’s good for it’s job.

      Btw, the part of microwave that turns electricity into microwave is called magnetron. Freaking magnetron. I didn’t know real inventions could have names as cool as that.

  • polle@feddit.org
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    27 days ago

    airfrier

    The appliance that mostly everybody already had under another name (at least in Europe). An then they renamed it as another thing and everyone bought one. The marketing worked.

    • makeshift0546@lemmy.today
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      27 days ago

      Not it’s not and I’m tired of the nerds screeching.

      A Ferrari is very different from a Honda.

      Air friers have a much lower total volume while moving a much higher volume of air. The effect is far more pronounced and cook times are halved.

      • polle@feddit.org
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        26 days ago

        Well, the only person who is screeching are you with your car manufacturer comparison, which does not make any sense in that context. As if airfrying is ferrari and ofen with a fan is honda?

      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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        27 days ago

        Being smaller also means cleaning the is much easier, specially when you can put the basket and lid bits in the dishwasher.

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      I think its the small volume that makes it worth it (faster to heat up, efficient) so I can see why people would buy one.

      I personally don’t have one because I don’t exactly value my time. I throw my food in the cold oven and set it to whatever and check back later. I don’t have any motivation what so ever to care about pre heating or having my food ready 10 minutes earlier.

  • FreddiesLantern@leminal.space
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    26 days ago

    And with the results of climate change going on, you don’t even need an airfryer anymore. Just a bucket of air will do the trick.

  • lemmygarden@lemmy.today
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    27 days ago

    I’ve never tried an air fryer. I don’t have the counter space for one and am concerned I’d eat more unhealthly more often if I owned one but it’s possible that’s not true.

    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      It’s a little more complicated than this, but basically it’s just a smaller, faster convection oven. They’re cool but not lifechanging IMO

    • Brimstone@lemmy.ml
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      27 days ago

      Nah we cook fish in ours.

      Losing weight is easier (less oil) and cooking times are faster.

      It’s just a more compressed oven. You can eat healthy or unhealthy with it

    • architect@thelemmy.club
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      27 days ago

      I toss sweet potatoes in there for a good snack. Roast veggies. Mostly the air fryer cooks healthy foods fast which is nice.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    26 days ago

    I think air frying technology isn’t so grand as a stable, functioning society.

    Essentially we got fucked once Falwell figured out anti-abortion-access radicals will vote against their own interests. It didn’t hurt that white America really hates blacks.

    Anyhow, that helped to get Reagan in to power and the economy turned K-shaped and never recovered, and at that point liberal democracy in the US was doomed.

  • raspirate@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    The first night I owned an air fryer, I tossed in some shitty frozen tater tots that had been in my freezer for way too long, and they came out so delightfully crispy that I cooked two more servings.

    I realized immediately that this would be a problem. It’s a bit too easy to make delicious stuff that’s pretty bad for me. I nearly made myself sick of wings within like 2 weeks. That was a close one. Fuckin love wings.

    • DoctorWhoDMC@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      I got rid of my home deep fryer for health reasons. It is dangerously easy, cheap, and quick to make quality fries…

      • Kay Ohtie@pawb.social
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        26 days ago

        But it’s also quick and cheap to make absurdly-delicious roasted veg.

        My favorite: take a bag of frozen broccoli florets, mist it with some oil (it’ll harden on them), sprinkle with some salt and pepper and toss in it at 400 degrees F for like, 15 minutes. Halfway through I pull the basket and drain the accumulated water in the bottom to increase browning.

        Delicious, crispy, I can devour an entire pound of broccoli that way in like 5 minutes.