Air fryers are one of this year's most popular purchases whether you're buying it to make cooking easier for you or to cut down on electricity bills.
However whilst some people are fine to part with an excess of one hundred pounds for the latest air fryer, others are not. And if you're one of these people, there's good news as there's a new product you may want to try, as one Birmingham Live reporter did, that costs far less than the kitchen gadget.
Not only do they cost a fair bit, but they also take up space on the kitchen counter which not everyone has.
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So if you don't want to splash the cash, an alternative, sold by John Lewis, could be your next best purchase and it costs just £10 which is said to "turn your oven into an airfryer!'".
But what is it and how is it an air fryer alternative? Here's what one reporter found out...
What is it?
The NoStick reusable 'Oven Crisper Basket' carries a Teflon label and claims to shorten cooking time, offer 'healthy cooking' and will see 'foods crisp fast and easy' thanks to 'optimum hot air circulation'.
Depending on your view of what's a 'healthy' food, it says the basket is 'ideal for the preparation of oven chips, nuggets, pizzas, onion rings etc without having to use butter or cooking fat'.
The rear label adds: 'The grill openings allow optimum hot air circulation and thanks to the perfect non-stick coating, the food will never stick to the crisper basket'.
What are the advantages?
Amongst the listed 'advantages' of using a crisper basket...
- Perfect non-stick cooking surface
- No more tossing
- Easy to clean in warm soapy water - dishwasher safe - reusable.
Instructions
Use wooden or plastic utensils to avoid exposing the basket to sharp edges. And make sure you avoid contact with any flames if you have a gas cooker.
The product is said to be heat resistant up to 260C (500F). But you are advised to remove the basket from the oven if it has a self-clean cycle about to begin.
Taste test
The Nostik Oven Crisper basket was used to cook oven chips and coated chicken. And yes, it seemed to make everything crispier, quicker than expected.
Onion rings, pizzas and 'nuggets' never come my way, but especially so at home. So, more than a week later, McCain triple-cooked oven chips went into the basket and I tried again. Once more, the chips were done on time and were crisper than they've been before. They were cooked at 200C for 25 minutes and were not turned.
And that's despite McCain's online instructions saying 'Preheat the oven to 230°C/220°C Fan/Gas Mark 8. For best results use a DEEP edged baking tray WITHOUT HOLES and preheat the tray for 5 minutes. Spread a single layer of chips onto a baking tray and pop it into the top of the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, turning them every now and again, until they’re lovely, crisp and light golden'.
Opening an over door, of course, lets the heat out...
So if that makes the basket an air fryer that isn't an air fryer, then good luck to nostik.com - especially as the basket would have been the first non-chocolate product I've ever knowingly bought that had Made in Belgium on the label.
Fuel if you think it's over
The ultimate test will be if it's still undamaged and in use in a year - always assuming of course that we can afford to put our conventional oven on in the first place.
Research by Utilita in August 2022 revealed that air fryers on average were found to run at £55.91 per year, versus gas cookers at £121.06 per year and electric cookers at £335.57 per year.
The usual problem of trying to cook oven chips at 220C is that you can overheat the other foods (typically 180C) you were also trying to cook together in a bid to save you money that way. But another good reason for still using a conventional oven is that it's the perfect place to warm plates up to keep your meal hot once served.
So if the basket works as it appears to do, then it should pay for itself eventually - perhaps if we eat chips more than once a fortnight - without having the bigger outlay of buying a fully-fledged air fryer we might soon get fed up with....rather like that seemed-like-a-good-idea toastie maker etc at the back of the cupboard.
You can buy the Nostik Oven Crisper basket via the John Lewis website.
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