Julie Bower - Air Fryer Cookbook: The Best 75 Quick and Easy Recipes for Everyday Cooking

The air fryer is an oven/deep fryer combination that prepares meals using circulated hot air rather than oil. Theres a heater located just above the cooking chamber that radiates heat energy from a close range, directly onto the food. A large fan, situated just above this heater, circulates this energy, ensuring that it gets pushed down and onto the food. Although this may sound just like an oven, the design of the air fryer is what separates it.

Below the food chamber is an empty base that houses a starfish like air guide. As the air flows down through the food, it enters this open chamber, spreading out and distributing the heat energy evenly around the base of the food. The fan, constantly in motion, then pulls this heat back up and over the food. In doing this, it ensures that the air is constantly flowing through and around the food heating and cooking the food evenly.

The combination of heat coming from the heater at the top, flowing through the bottom and then being pulled back up again creates a heat transfer rate that is much higher than a typical oven. This means that you can cook food faster and more efficiently then you ever could in an oven.

An air fryer utilizes the convection mechanism in cooking food. It circulates hot air through the use of a mechanical fan to cook the ingredients inside the fryer. The process eliminates the use of too much oil in the traditional way of frying.

The air fryer requires only a thin layer of oil for the ingredients to cook. It circulates hot air up to 392 degrees Fahrenheit. It's an innovative way of eliminating up to 80 percent of the oil that is traditionally used to fry different foods and prepare pastries.

You can find a dose of friendly features in air fryers depending on the brand you're using. Most brands include a timer adjustment and temperature control setting to make cooking easier and precise. An air fryer comes with a cooking basket where you'll place the food. The basket is placed on top of a drip tray. Depending on the model you're using, you will either be prompted to shake the basket to distribute oil evenly or it automatically does the job via a food agitator.

This is perfect for home use but if you're cooking for many people and you want to apply the same cooking technique, you can put your food items in specialized air crisper trays and cook them using a convection oven. An air fryer and convection oven apply the same technique in cooking but an air fryer has a smaller built and produces less heat.