We can all agree that fried foods are very delicious. No matter if it’s fries, fish, onion rings or many other foods, all fried foods are tasty when you cook them properly. Now, when it comes to their nutritional value, we can all agree that they are not as healthy as they are tasty. They are fatty and lead to higher cholesterol levels and weight gain, but nonetheless we cannot seem to ignore them. Since we can all agree that fried foods can be an unhealthy, delicious habit many of us have, it’s time to see if it actually has to be as unhealthy as we described it to be, or if there’s an alternative.
We live in the 21st century, a time of a ton of machines, equipment, and technology everywhere around us. This basically means that you can find a lot of different types of equipment that you can use to fry foods, like many different types of air fryers and deep fryers as well. Both of these devices have their own purpose and can be used for frying foods, but what we’ll focus on in this article is determining the differences between them, and determining if air frying or traditional deep frying is better.
How Does Deep Frying Work?
As its name suggests, deep frying works by dissolving the food in edible oils and frying it for some time. After diving the food into oils, it gets cooked pretty quickly, so that you can enjoy your favorite fried foods in a matter of minutes.
In deep frying, a major factor is selecting the oil in which you’ll cook your food since the oil you select can contribute to the amount of unsaturated and saturated fats that you’ll be digesting.
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How Does Air Frying work?
Opposite to deep frying, hot air frying cooks your food using a minimal amount of oil or sometimes even without using oil. Whether it’s potatoes, fish or any other food you wish to fry, your food gets roasted and cooked with highly heated air.
Hot air frying is a lot simpler in comparison to deep frying when you are using the right appliances to cook the food. That’s why it’s important to get well informed before you make your decision.
Pros and cons of deep frying and hot air frying
Let’s find out the main differences of air frying vs. deep frying, and help you figure out which way is better, healthier and more efficient, so that you can make a well informed decision and buy the product that works best for you. Let’s begin!
How much oil will you need to use?
Hot air fryers require no more than a tablespoon of oil, and they can also cook your food without using any oil at all.
Deep frying, on the other hand, requires a lot of oil for the food to get cooked properly, which makes the foods greasy and at the end you’re left with a lot of oil and greasy, floating pieces you’ll need to dispose of.
Which one is healthier?
I think we can all agree that using hot air fryers to cook your food is a lot healthier that deep frying, as French fries, for example contain 70 to 80% less fat when cooked in an air fryer, than they do when they are deep fried.
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Is there a difference in taste?
Deep fried foods do have a crunchier outside, compared to air fried ones, simply because you can roll the food in wet batter before you deep fry it, and you cannot do the same with the air fryer. When you’re using an air fryer to cook your food, it still has a slight crisp, and it’s moist and tender on the inside, but it doesn’t have that crunchy bite, that deep fried foods have. Both air fried and deep fried are delicious when it comes to taste, the only difference is in the crunchiness.
Which one is more cost effective?
This is the only criteria by which air fryers lose to deep fryers. Deep fryers are very affordable, starting with ones that go for $50, and up to $200 for the expensive models.
Air fryers, on the other hand, usually start from $100, and go up to $300 for some of the more expensive brands. Although, when you consider the fact that air fryers can be used for multiple purposes, such as baking, grilling and roasting, the price difference isn’t so big after all.
In the end it’s up to you to decide, taking into consideration all the factors that we mentioned above, along with your priorities, your budget, the space you have in your kitchen, and how much free time you have on your hands, before you make your final decision of whether to go for a deep fryer or a hot air fryer for your home.
