We are continuing with food again today. I know that I am late to the game with the kitchen gadget ‘Air Fryers’ but we recently got one. I have messed around with it a little bit and so I am going to provide some insight to all of you holdouts out there. Is it a necessity or is it a gimmick?

About a month ago, my son called my wife and asked for help making a debit card purchase. Their is a large, box store out there that does not take Apple Pay. When I woke up the next morning there was a Ninja brand Air fryer on the counter. My son said that was his belated Christmas gift to us.

I have been an air fryer skeptic from the beginning. Not that I have used one nor have I eaten anything that has been made with one. My opinion is based on the people that I know who love them and rave about them are people that I would consider subsistence cooks. They cook because they have to, not because they enjoy it (or are particularly good at it either). They also tend to be very small cooks, generally for one or two people.

I am not trying to put anyone down, but I suspect that part of the motivation for my son was that he eats a lot of what I would call garbage. There is a lot of frozen dumplings, ‘chicken’ nuggets and things like that. What I have heard about air fryers are that they are faster than an oven and easier on the dishes. It is the perfect appliance for bridging between the microwave and a full blown range of someone that want’s to spend minimal time in the kitchen.

I have used it a couple of times and I have seen it used quite a bit more than that in the last month. I made pulled pork sandwiches a couple of weeks ago and the family wanted french fries to go with the meal. So, I tried out the air fryer. And my verdict – they are marginally better than baking in the oven. But, the volume of the basket led me to have to make two batches causing a lot of up and down from the table.

I find the air fryer, french fries to be overly dry. This is a slightly better texture than the greasy and limp oven baked fries. But, compared to the fry daddy, french fries I made at the beginning of the year there is no comparison. Those would be worthy of paying for from a drive through window, not a compromise of cleaning and mess.

I can only speak from personal experience. Ours seems to be a supercharged convection oven. So, it does a reasonably good job of browning all the way around what is put into the basket. Just like the french fries, I find other things to be overly cooked and dry and not just evenly browned. I am following the package directions, so maybe I just need to subtract a few minutes for model variation.

I do plan on doing more than just french fries. Maybe a frozen burrito would be a good test? That is not something I normally eat, but I remember the oven directions being something like 45 minutes. That is too much effort for a $1 junk food. I know people that cook roast beef, so I would be willing to give it a try for the sake of experimenting.

I will admit that the last time I was in Williams and Sonoma (months before air fryer) that I was looking at the Breville models they had. My interest was to have a second oven that is also an air fryer. I have no idea if the price was worth the performance, but again I was thinking of the extra utility. It is possible that I find this experiment worthy of upgrading at some point.

Let us bottom line it. Is the air fryer a gimmick? No, it does actually work. That being said, I see my kids using it way more than I do for things that I really don’t eat. I don’t find the performance or utility worth the counter space. But, since we have it, I will make an small effort to find what it is best at.

End Your Programming Routine: With family of five eaters, I do not find the capacity of our air fryer adequate. Maybe when there is two of us, I might change my tune if I can find things that it does well. I really don’t mind spending time in the kitchen and doings things traditionally. The speed that the air fryer offers, I don’t consider an attractive enough benefit. My vote would be a no for the air fryer, but to each his own.