Croquettes, breaded fillets, churros, French fries, vegetable tempura, dumplings… even some Nuggets of the worst meat in the world with the appearance of platypus vomit are an irresistible temptation for our senses. It’s frying, friends: the miracle that makes it possible for us to eat basically anything, as long as it has been suitably bathed in hot oil.
But what exalts our senses and leads us to ecstasy tends to get worse with our health, at least in an environment where there are many occasions to eat foods that give us a lot of pleasure. Before the food industry broke in with its thousands of unhealthy foods, it was desirable that the most energetic foods attracted us, so our preferences guaranteed survival, because who knows when we had another occasion to eat.
We are now locked in a body that has not evolved at the same pace as the food environment, and being seduced by palatability increases our risk of non-communicable diseases. But the human being does not resign himself so easily to being left without this type of pleasure, and as long as we have technology at our service we will continue trying to give ourselves a pig for a hare (battered).
The messiah of fried food lovers has arrived
Removing the oil from frying without taking away your will to live: that is the promise of the air fryers that have been invading homes and businesses for some time. Do they comply? They don’t have it easy, because oil is the basis for frying to be a delight, so perhaps what we should do is change our expectations: it won’t taste like fried food, but it can be delicious.
Its operation will be familiar to you, because it is basically a convection oven (but smaller). The air is heated and a fan makes it circulate inside the chamber where the food is, to which a small amount of oil is usually added, which raises the temperature and forms a dispersion of droplets suspended in the air.
The combination of air and drops of hot oil manage to dehydrate the surface evenly and generate a crust similar to that of fried foods, with its characteristic toasted color. In fact, the texture achieved with the air fryer is quite good, crunchy, with the characteristic crispy sensation when biting, comparable to that of traditional frying; provided that sufficiently high air temperatures are used (between 180-200ºC).
On the other hand, the aroma is weaker since only one-fifth to one-half of the volatile compounds are formed we had in frying, probably because the two basic reactions -lipid oxidation and the Maillard reaction- develop much less. Don’t expect the result to awaken all your senses, but it will be much more suggestive than a boiled potato.
Furthermore, even though there are some differences in sensory aspects, some consumers find its color, oiliness, hardness, crunch and appearance to be more appetizing than normal frying. matter of taste
Is it nutritionally worth it?
This version of “frying” reduces up to 90% the amount of oil of the final product, something very relevant since in conventional frying the absorbed oil represents between 30-50% of the weight of the cooked food. So, speaking in purely energy terms, food cooked in the air fryer can only provide a third of the kilocalories that we find in the same fried food. To facilitate the distribution of the fat -and that it remains in a fine and well-distributed layer- you can use a oil sprayer.
Our colleague Juan Revenga already told you that counting calories is not the way to go, but we also know that their origin matters. It is not the same to enjoy the flavor and texture provided by quality raw fats such as virgin olive oil, avocado or nuts, than to take the same calories from heated oils in which substances have begun to disappear. interesting bioactive and degradation compounds appear.
This is another factor to take into account if we are thinking of switching to this system: during conventional frying, the fats deteriorate due to the effect of heat and substances appear that negatively affect our health, such as polar compounds due to the presence of oxygen, acrylamide by the Maillard reaction or acrolein by the breakdown of fats in the presence of food water. Again there is good news: in air fryers they form fewer polar compounds and much less acrylamide (up to 90% less) and acrolein.
But the heat not only degrades the cooking fat, it also acts on the food itself, producing chemical reactions that produce toxins such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): the air fryer also wins, since both the first What the seconds are produced in smaller quantities.
So good, for your health it seems like a good idea. But remember that more important than how you cook it is what you cook -bacon made in an air fryer is still a processed meat- and what you accompany it with (the asparagus is very good, but do not bathe it in barbecue sauce).
Croquettes and other frustrated fried foods
This moment had to come, because it was impossible for something so good not to have its counterparts: not all foods that you fry with oil are going to be good in an air fryer. Here is a list of products that you will have to continue frying in the conventional way:
- Loose doughs: do not try to make a healthy fritter because the dough will end up entering places in the fryer unknown even to the manufacturer.
- Croquettes you can, but you will have to choose: either you make a bechamel that looks like reinforced concrete to prevent the fluid mass from escaping from the batter, or you line it with a couple of layers of breadcrumbs.
- Foods that can be melted, such as butter or cheese.
- Foods that weigh little, with a lot of surface and little volume: haven’t we said that the fryer is “air fryer”? Well, the spinach and the spices are going to fly inside.
- Very bulky foods: although its basic operation is like that of an oven, its capacity is not. Don’t try to roast a chicken inside: the outer layers will char and the insides will still be disgustingly raw. Exceptions: when it is a fryer with an oven function and capacity (there must be, there are).
- Tempura-type batters (or any fluid batter or batter that doesn’t stick like a breadcrumb).
- Fried eggs.
Don’t be surprised that foods that contain starch, such as potatoes, have a harder texture than when you fry them: the surface of the product reaches a very high temperature, a very intense superficial evaporation takes place and the gelatinization of the starch -which gives the typical consistency- is minor.
It is also an oven for the good
We return to the less dark side: the air fryer also has some advantages that the oil does not (and more nutritional and palatal advantages). My fellow foodie Mònica Escudero says that “since most offer a range of temperatures between 80 and 200 degrees, you can play with the double temperature to cook some wings -lower first for a long time to get a tender interior and melt the leftover fat, with a blast of heat at the end for a crispy skin – or use just the low heat for a tender, juicy chicken breast or salmon.”
Although you cannot make them fried, it is ideal for cooking eggs at a low temperature – at 80 degrees for 13 or 14 minutes they are perfect – or for dehydrating fruits or vegetables. “It also goes very well to prepare aubergine chips, zucchini and this type of vegetable that until now could only become crispy under a good layer of batter and its corresponding oil, or roast chopped vegetables that you can later use as a garnish for rice or pasta. , in tortillas or in a vegetable cream with an extra flavor”.
Is it worth it to switch to the air fryer?
I leave you some more information that can help you decide if it is worth having one more appliance in the kitchen:
- Time: It takes longer. Do not expect to have the food ready in five minutes because any cycle usually takes about 20-30.
- Capacity: you will not be able to cook large amounts of food like in an oven, or chain fry steaks. Keep this in mind when choosing the model, because there are different sizes.
- Space: congratulations if you have a kitchen with an island and views of the Malibu beaches, you can skip this step. If you are like the common mortals and you have to move the fruit bowl to open the folding table, it is an appliance that takes up a lot of space.
- Smells: point to the air fryer, much less scandalous than conventional frying. You can fry sardines without the whole building knowing about it.
- Cleaning: and another point more! You don’t have to clean the counter, half wall, and range hood every time you make dumplings.
- Home economics: you will save oil, that’s for sure. And look, more sustainable, that you have less used oil to recycle (tell me that you recycle it as Ecoembes mandates and that you don’t throw it down the sink, please). Energy expenditure seems to also compensate and that it is lower than that of conventional frying, oven or microwave.
It may seem like the air fryer wins hands down; but something you have to think about before running out to buy one is: how many fried foods do you eat? Because if you fry without stopping, of course it is better that you switch to this system now, but perhaps what you have to give a spin to is not how you fry, but why you fry so much and what impact it has on your diet in general. If you are neglecting other culinary techniques and displacing the consumption of raw fats or fresh vegetables, that is the first thing to solve.
Some notes on frying
By submerging the food in a fat at high temperature, its surface water begins to evaporate and the proteins form an outer crust along with other compounds that the water has dragged. That crust is not only delicious, but also protects the interior of the product, so that the internal temperature does not become so high that all the liquid evaporates, the interior remains juicy and the texture could not be more spectacular. But, as if this were not enough, multiple chemical reactions take place, mainly lipid oxidation and the Maillard reaction, which release more than 200 irresistible volatile compounds that no other culinary treatment can match. That’s why boiled potatoes make you feel sorry and fried potatoes arouse your gastronomic lust.
Frying is not the nutritional antichrist. But right now it is one more factor that surrounds us and that does not help us to have good health. Some rigorous studies link it to an increased risk of obesity (one, two), Some types of cancer, hypertension or cardiovascular diseasesone, two, 3, 4). There is factors that of course can improve or worsen the nutritional quality of fried foods, starting with the type of food (nuggets versus a chicken breast), the quality of the oil (virgin olive or peanut butter) or the frying conditions (temperature, the number of times the oil has been reused, time), and may affect study results. But for now, the recommendation to moderate the consumption of fried seems to be justified.
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