It may not be the healthiest food in the world, but when it comes to satisfying your craving for crunchy, flavorful dishes, there’s nothing like fried food. Fried chicken, nuggets, wings, ribs, fried tacos, plantains, and donuts are just a few examples of irresistible dishes that can be prepared with the type of cooking known as frying.
To obtain the perfect frying, we can use different utensils, such as pots and pans, but some appliances can make life easier when it comes to frying, such as the conventional fryer and the air fryer. Both devices can be great allies when cooking, so at kiwilimón, we tell you about their uses, differences, and advantages so that you can choose the one that suits you best when preparing your food.
How do conventional fryers work?
Also known as oil fryers, conventional fryers are handy appliances for frying food and leaving it perfectly crisp, allowing you to handle oil more safely than pots and pans.
As Kitchen Cuddle points out, most traditional deep fryers are made of steel or stainless steel and have a container that the oil sits. In addition, they have a basket in which the food to be fried is placed and which has a handle to put it in and take it out of the oil container as needed. Modern oil fryers for home use also have features like temperature controls, timers, or alarms and are powered by electricity.
Using a conventional deep fryer is quite simple. The first thing is to put the necessary oil in the container and turn on the device. Once the oil reaches the proper temperature – between 162 °C and 204 °C – the basket with the food to be fried is placed inside the oil container. With this extreme temperature shock, you get the crisp outer layer that everyone loves, but the inside is still raw during this process. Subsequently, the hot oil evaporates all the water inside the food, and bubbles can appear on the surface of each one. The bubbles begin to disappear as the water inside the food runs out, which signifies that it is well-cooked. That’s the right time to take the food out of the fryer, or it will absorb too much oil for lack of shielding bubbles.
How do air fryers work?
Air fryers or air fryers are household appliances that have been all the rage recently for being versatile and easy to use. They fry a wide variety of food, leaving it irresistibly crisp using less oil, working similarly to convection ovens.
Air fryers have a heater in the upper part of the cavity where the tray with food is placed, as indicated by the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO). The heater is responsible for heating the air that passes through it and then circulates inside the fryer, heating and frying the food if it contains a little oil.
Differences Between Air Fryers and Oil Fryers
While both appliances help prepare tasty and crunchy food, each one does it completely differently and has advantages that you should consider when choosing which option is best for you.
To begin with, it is necessary to consider that the frying processes are different. In the oil fryer, food is immersed in boiling oil that cooks the surface of the food quickly, leaving it crisp and sealing in moisture for later cooking. As Maytag points out, air fryers cook food by circulating hot air fast. Air fryers use very little or no oil – sometimes up to 80% less than conventional fryers. This is a crucial point to consider if you are concerned about how much fat you cook with and prefer to keep your recipes on the healthier side of the scale.
Another critical difference between traditional fryers and air fryers is the cooking time. While oil fryers can have food ready in 3-5 minutes after the oil is heated, air fryers can take 10-20 minutes. However, while conventional fryers may take less time to fry food, recipes often require more preparation due to battering and other steps that air fryer recipes do not.
But when it comes to flavor, most experts agree that there is nothing like the conventional fryer. While air fryers can give food a crispy texture, air fryers win when it comes to flavor in traditional fried food recipes. Also, according to Airfry Anytime, when using the air fryer, there is a risk of food drying out from the constant flow of hot air and a chance of burning faster. The advantage of conventional fryers in terms of food taste is enanthate uses a considerable amount of oil to fry the food.
On the other hand, the versatility of air fryers does not extend to battered food. Air fryers can’t fry food coated in some liquid consistency mixture because the circulating air only spreads the batter instead of frying it. In contrast, frying food like banderillas or donuts to perfection will never be a problem with an oil fryer. However, do not forget that air fryers have many other functions, such as baking, roasting, or roasting, thus allowing you to cook a greater variety of dishes, according to Airfryer Masterchef.
In terms of safety, air fryers have an advantage over traditional ones. Although oil fryers are safer than pots and pans, they still give off smoke, and hot oil may splatter and splatter, causing burns or fires. Since air fryers use little to no oil, the above are almost non-existent risks.
Now that you know the differences, pros, and cons of oil and air fryers, you can decide which is best for you according to your intended use. Remember that in kiwilimón, you can find the best tips to get the most out of your kitchen and prepare exquisite recipes to pamper your loved ones.
