After all the positive replies on this I went for a Salter EK4548 Dual Air Fryer, Double Drawer which arrived this afternoon. Cooked my first meal in it this evening, jacket potato and a couple of lamb chops (I used the microwave for the beans).
It was brill, took 30 minutes and was slightly overcooked, I will try 20 minutes next time. Had to wash the two drawers afterwards but they're non stick and the oven has got no dirtier.
Definitely looks like a good investment.
It would be interesting if you could describe in what way the results were better than, say, doing it all in a microwave oven, which probably would have used fewer watt-hours in total.
The texture of the lamb chops isn't as good in a microwave, and there isn't a nice crust to them. IMNSHO.
I don't do chops or steak in the air fryer, I do those on one of those heavy cast iron platers under the grill. I do lots of chicken in the air fryer and get a vastly better result than in the microwave, particularly the stuff wrapped in filo pastry, or crumbed or wrapped in bacon or proscuitto.
Much prefer roast potatoes, peeled and dipped in olive oil in the air fryer than jacketed whole potatoes done in the microwave that I previously used to mostly eat. I still do the jacketed potatoes done in the microwave with steak and chops and sausages.
Yeah, but I don't care about that, I prefer what tastes much better.
Not sure if a microwave oven is different to a microwave? I don't like the texture of microwaved meat and the microwave produces soggy jacket potatoes. The results from the air fryer were just like the results from an oven.
I've never had much successwith meet in a microwave myself.You can get combination ovens now of course, so they might help the carnivores out a bit. Potatoes tend to be very dry in a microwave. However its great for reheating stuff, and lots of other things. The thing is I have a very small kitchen, no room for yet another gadget. How hot does the outside get? Could it be used by a blind person? IE tactile controls, no lcd displays and an audible timer settable by touch. This lack of accessibility is often why people who are older with poor site seldom use such devices as they need good sight. The makers, I think would rake in the dough if they bore this in mind at the design stage.
Brian
Morning Brian.
The outside doesn't get hot but none of your other requirements are met sadly. Pure LCD display with a shiny surface and no visual cues.
LCD/LED or VFD displays are very useful, as long as you have sight. You can't relly set a mechanical timer to exactly 12 seconds (as I do frequently to soften butter) and selecting the options we had on our old oven without a display would have been impossible - use microwave to defrost by weight, cook for v minutes at full power, continue to cook at
70% power until the core temperature attains w°C, hold for x minutes, enable fan oven element to y°C for z minutes to crisp up the outside. All set at the start and no further intervention required.I suppose a voice interface could be added, but do the majority of people want to have to talk to their microwaves, struggling to be heard over other noises and probably having to have their instructions interpreted by the manufacturer's servers, that could be turned off permanently at any time?
Correction - I meant to say no audio clues.
We've had one for ages, with the air fryer and the instant pot if our full size oven broke down i'd probably not replace it.
Longer term what about the (internal) body of the frier becoming caked in greasy residue? Anything with fat or oil cooked in such a device will result in the innards of the device becoming contaminated either with the oil/fat in the food spitting at cooking temperatures minor smoking causing a thin greasy film to be deposited.
With a conventional oven, or even a microwave, this problem can be reduced by placing the food in a lidded container but a conventional oven/microwave still requires internal cleaning from time to time.
I wonder if air friers will end up the same way as those mini sealed deep fat friers. Although sealed whilst frying small splashes of hot oil do get deposited to the casing/hinges when removing food which is hard to clean. Over a prolonged period it builds up and allows dust to stick. Everyone I know, including myself, who has had one of these sealed mini fryers has sent them to landfill a year after purchase, never for them to be replaced.
There are microwaves with Alexa support - that would probably be a good starting point for a blind-friendly microwave. If you have accessibility on your phone you can do the setup that way, and then ask Alexa to do things.
There are obvious tradeoffs with using a service like Alexa, but if it allows you to do things you couldn't otherwise (like cooking food), perhaps it's worth it?
(the original Amazon Basics one was $75 but seems to have been discontinued)
Theo
The best of them are fine, but it would be tricky getting some food out of the basket after it has been cooked without getting burnt for a blind person.
Some are alexa, google and siri controllable.
Not bad in that respect.
With a few.
Some are alexa, google and siri controllable.
Proper digital displays don't.
I doubt it given that the those individuals are very set in their ways.
And has been with the best of them.
Works fine with my Philips Hue lights.
Not going to happen with google, alexa or siri and the Philips Hue system doesn't need to manufacturer's server and is unlikely to be turned off anyway. Same with Bosch which does have some of their appliances voice controllable.
Mine doesn't. Presumably because the basket covers everything except the top.
My glass convection ovens do get filthy on the glass lid but the main bowl goes in the dishwaher periodically.
No splashes of hot oil with an air fryer because they use hot air, not hot oil. Even with the peeled potatoes dipped in olive oil to give a nice crisp outer, the suplus oil falls thru the perferations in the inner basket and ends up in the bottom of the removable basket which goes in the dishwasher with the inner basket.
The inner basket unclips from the outer of the basket.
I still have mine but don't use it anymore, I use air fryers instead.
I use the glass convection oven for the roast leg of lamb, just because it won't fit in my air fryer.
The Echo Dot is still available and is still being enhanced model wise and doesn't cost that when on the periodic specials like boxing day sales.
This topic is very interesting, I've looked at Lakeland's site and noticed
I have a 6 year old (but at the time top range) Philips air fryer. Never needed to clean the upper part. The drawer in the bottom collects oil/fat which runs out, but I just wash that out. Come to think of it, I don't tend use it to cook things that spit, which may help - oven chips, breaded chicken or fish or scampi or squid, onion rings, etc. Products intended for oven frying tend to have a very thin covering of oil, not really capable of causing spitting. Never used it for cooking a large piece of meat.
The main issue with them is they need a lower temperature than a fan oven, and usually shorter cooking time too, but food products almost never have air fryer cooking instructions, so you need to work this out for yourself.
Andrew
My mother has a microwave sold via the RNIB
Each push of the first button adds a minute with a talking confirmation The second button adds seconds The third button selects the power The rotary knob selects the spoken volume and is the start/stop/reset button.
It works quite well for those with no or limited sight but in some respects could have been designed better. Pressing a button multiple times very fast doesn't necessarily result in the final setting being spoken immediately. Press the minute button 10 times fast and the spoken confirmation will first say one minute, then followed by 10 minutes. The other problem is that it is a relatively a light weight box with just a fixed handle to open the door. The stiffness of the door interlock can result in the whole microwave moving forward before the door opens. It would have been better with a door opening push button as used on some other microwaves.
Robert Dyas do a Salter mini air fryer for £39. It has just two rotary controls, one to set the temperature and the other to set the time, i.e. the classic turn clockwise to NN minutes and it buzzes back to zero. Ideal for you if you need to heat up a meat pie or similar.
Andrew
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