Comment on Air fryers are simpler than you think, but still pretty neat [19:38]
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 5 weeks agoI was like you once and believed a convention oven and air fryer are the same thing and produce the same results. But I was wrong!
There’s actually a subtle but crucial difference between an air fryer and a convection oven. A convection oven only circulates air around inside the oven, keeping the steam trapped with the food, while an air fryer actually removes all of the steam away from the food, allowing it to get much crispier much faster than is possible with a convection oven.
Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 5 weeks ago
so an air fryer is more like a small convection oven?
if you want the steam to escape, you can just open the oven door for a few seconds and there it goes.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
also the air circulation is more intense in an air fryer, and it’s a smaller enclosed space which is easier to keep at a high temperature. both of these also help food cook more evenly.
grue@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I wonder if I could DIY an air fryer with a heat gun, a metal box, and a PID controller.
barsoap@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Hmm. Diluting the air will be the hardest thing: A run off the mill heat gun will do 600C at 2000W in a concentrated stream, if you regulate it down to air frying temperature you’ll get very little total power so you’ll want to cool it down by pulling in additional ambient air instead. But with that out of the way… add a metal box and a timer? The heat gun already regulates the temperature.
…and all that made me wonder and apparently there’s no culinary heat guns which would be a smart choice because they’d pay attention for all materials to be food-safe. But there are hobbyists reporting great results using standard heat guns instead of the usual torch. Not, to be honest, that you’d expect standard lighter gas to be food-grade, of course.
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
That would help, but I doubt it would be as effective as a real air fryer that is actively blowing air while heating it, instead of just circulating it. An air fryer gets really loud because it is moving so much more air.