New me, new stove

pony4us

So I'm doing well in maintenance, sort of jealous of people who kept dropping weight, but I had slowed things to a snails pace for the last few months so am nicely settled. I got curious about steps, back in the dark ages before fitness trackers or smart phones I had a fancy Polar HRM with chest strap. I know that phones count steps, but I hate cell phones and don't carry it, its heavy and bulky, I tried to get a strap and then waist thing, but said..nope not for me. I don't wear a watch so on Prime Day I sprung for a basic pedometer. What a wakeup call.I thought with my videos and sometimes walks I was ok active for a lady in the mid70s. NOT!!! I used to smile at the ways to improve NEAT, but now find myself pacing around the house to get steps in.
So I decided that my 1997 stove should be replaced. Since this would be the last stove we buy I wanted something nice. I am a fancy cook and really had dreamed of induction, but looking at my collection of expensive cookware decided to go old school electric ( we have no gas option).
Here I need advice. The oven is fancy. It has convection and regular bake but it also is an air frier and has frozen food settings. Does anyone have an oven that is also an air frier? If so what foods do you use it for? I cook from scratch and don't see me using the frozen food setting, but if you have this do you use it.
I posted on the recipe site, but no answers. I know I know...first world problems. Thanks.

cmriverside

There are literally thousands of sites that will make air fryer suggestions...it may be your best bet to look at some of those. I think you can use it for almost anything, and you'll need to experiment a bit. Congrats on the new stove, sounds like a fun adventure for someone who likes to cook.

pony4us

Yep, I have researched but they are all for on the counter air friers, just thought someone may have an oven that is an air frier. thanks.

neanderthin

A rose by any other name is still a rose. It's still just a convection oven, with a new hat. Cheers

pony4us

Maybe sorta- kinda but different. On the air frier setting the oven runs hotter because the fan setting runs faster, hence the difference from basic convection. Do you find that true on your oven? Looks like I'm just going to play around to finally get good sweet potato fires on my own, was hoping someone actually had an oven like this, guess not. Thanks anyway.

neanderthin

pony4us wrote: »

Maybe sorta- kinda but different. On the air frier setting the oven runs hotter because the fan setting runs faster, hence the difference from basic convection. Do you find that true on your oven? Looks like I'm just going to play around to finally get good sweet potato fires on my own, was hoping someone actually had an oven like this, guess not. Thanks anyway.

If a person is concerned with nutrition and put's "healthy" as a crucial indicator to determine whether something is good or bad then generally, it's believed what they are doing is "healthier" and they will again, generally accept a less than desirable outcome. Confirmation bias basically.

Does an air fryer result in as good a result as compared to something deep fried, and lets be specific here, as an example, fish and chips. No, there really is no comparison. Crisping something up is all well and good and better than a conventional oven and you can even call it an air fryer but it's still just a convection oven. Marketing 101. And for the culinary geeks, deep frying is a dry cooking method. Cheers

pony4us

I'm not concerned with healthy, only want to know if anyone has one. Apparently not, its better than the 1997 stove it replaced.

kshama2001

At my last place, we bought a new gas stove with an air fryer setting which did not produce results the way I understand stand-alone air fryers do. I stopped using it after about a month of experimentation.

Did you look at reviews for the particular model you want? Check several sites - some sites have more robust reviews than other.

I always look at one star reviews before I buy something. I look for trends. For example, if there are no trends, and lots of 5 star reviews, I chalk the one star problems up as a fluke. I've been looking at cat water fountains recently. Across multiple brands and plastic and stainless steel, there are trends about hard to clean, mold growth, and leaks. So, I've given up on this and will continue to provide water in a people glass and let him drink from the sink occasionally.

lynn_glenmont

pony4us wrote: »

Maybe sorta- kinda but different. On the air frier setting the oven runs hotter because the fan setting runs faster, hence the difference from basic convection. Do you find that true on your oven? Looks like I'm just going to play around to finally get good sweet potato fires on my own, was hoping someone actually had an oven like this, guess not. Thanks anyway.

What would be the difference between the air frier setting and just using the convection setting at a higher temperature?

kshama2001

kshama2001 wrote: »

At my last place, we bought a new gas stove with an air fryer setting which did not produce results the way I understand stand-alone air fryers do. I stopped using it after about a month of experimentation.

Did you look at reviews for the particular model you want? Check several sites - some sites have more robust reviews than other.

I always look at one star reviews before I buy something. I look for trends. For example, if there are no trends, and lots of 5 star reviews, I chalk the one star problems up as a fluke. I've been looking at cat water fountains recently. Across multiple brands and plastic and stainless steel, there are trends about hard to clean, mold growth, and leaks. So, I've given up on this and will continue to provide water in a people glass and let him drink from the sink occasionally.

Too late to edit and I think I misunderstood you - you've already bought the new stove, yes? In that case, maybe the manufacturer has resources?

pony4us

Thank you for your input, I don't have a countertop air frier so was just wondering. Whilrpool has some videos, less than a minute and not very helpful. I did extensive research on both induction and electric and had only a couple of requirements. First had to come in white (so happy I didn't settle for stainless) second had to have a 12 inch burner (this has a 12, a 10, two 6s and a warm) and last but most silly it had to have a flat "shelf" so I could put my salts and peppers on the stove. This ticked all the boxes...getting white was actually the hardest.
BTW..no matter what we do our cats will find the foulest puddle when they run outside. I did the same extensive search for whisker friendly food dishes.

PAV8888

My current stove doesn't have convection and I do have a separate air fryer, but before it was sold with the it was living in, the parental stove had convection which I used extensively.

Most stand-alone air fryers have a lower maximum temperature than what can be reached by an oven (and a lower effective minimum one in my case which is great for making dehydrated fish fillet dog treats--and that my friend is definitely a first world problem even if it is vet ordered).

But they also have less volume and I am going to assume the air circulates faster than in a larger oven.

I do use the air fryer in the in between state of I'm deluxe cooking frozen crap that cannot be reheated equally well in a microwave. Or if I don't want to heat up the kitchen as much. Or for something small and quick.

It takes more good science than I can easily come up with to manufacture non fried fried foods that are almost good enough. I do like the veggie fries which are basically slightly coated vegetables in fry shape. Fries they are not. Tasty and filling they are!

I would suspect that if you coat something with oil spray and "fry" it at a high temp setting it will produce acceptable results with less calories and less waste than running a deep frier at home.

Personally I do head out for fish and chips and/or normal chips/fries more often than I should so I tend to not cook the same or substitutes at home as much.

All in all: I almost never used the parental oven in NON convection settings. And the air frier is running 75-25 in favour of dog treats vs human use... Dehydrator takes 12+ hours and makes a less crispy product at even lower temp. Air frier is done in 6 to 8 and produces a much crunchier but also more brittle product---cheapest of frozen "white" fish fillets excluding sole that is too thin--sodium already included in freezing solution, so possibly acceptable for cat's???

pony4us

Thank you. Most people I talk to have convection but have never used it. Looking at the technology excpt for baking cakes, souffles and things done in a water bath convection seems to have many advantages. The delivery guy said the air frier option was good because on the counter air friers don't hold that much. I do want to get nice sweet potato fries and now (pre new oven) when I make eggplant parm I do bake the eggplant instead of frying it so I may try airfry for that too. The company says that airfry is faster and hotter than just convection because the fan itself runs faster and they claim no need to preheat. We'll see.
Our cats are weird, they won't eat any people food. In all our years of multiple cats we have never had any act this way, but these were rescues from being extremely abused both physically and mentally...so yes, kind of "special"
Thank you for your input...and congrats to those of us past a certain age but still young!

pony4us

oops sorry PAV8888 got you mixed up with someone else, I think you may not be in your 70s.

ikalujny

pony4us wrote: »

Does anyone have an oven that is also an air frier?

I used to own air fryer. You can make a hell of a lot of different and tasty jerky meats in it. Also dried fuit. Check this out https://lovefoodnotcooking.com/recipes/air-fryer-beef-jerky/

PAV8888

Mid+ 50's not 70's I admit I've always found convection to just produce more even cooking faster so why NOT use it for most of the stuff that gets done in the oven. The air fry thing I'm still trying to figure out a bit. So far mainly good for dog treats and re-heats where the microwave would not be good enough and the oven too much (possibly too slow) to turn on.