Latest news with #airfryer
CNET
an hour ago
- General
- CNET
The Underrated Method of Making Grilled Cheese That Changed Everything
The air fryer is the perfect appliance to cook up delicious side dishes and game-day snacks but there's one more comfort food it makes perfectly: Grilled cheese that's crispier, cleaner and somehow even better than the frying pan version. I used to swear by cooking grilled cheese in a skillet but once I tried making the classic dish in the air fryer, there was no going back. It delivers that golden, crunchy exterior without drowning your bread in butter and it keeps your kitchen cooler-perfect for those hot summer days when firing up the stove sounds like a bad idea. If you haven't made this switch yet, here's why your next grilled cheese should start in the air fryer. If you're a purist, I salute you, too. The old school method for making grilled cheese is just fine but it's not without flaws. Pan-fried grilled cheeses also tend to fall apart or stick to the pan if they're not cooked and flipped properly and if you don't have the heat up high enough, you'll never get that coveted crunch. If you don't own an air fryer, I recommend Ninja's new glass-bowl model. It's the best we've tested and makes a mean grilled cheese. Below you'll find tips for making the best air fryer grilled cheese of your life. Why the air fryer is a perfect appliance to make grilled cheese As you can plainly see, the air fryer grilled cheese leaves little mess to contend with after preparing. Pamela Vachon/CNET An air fryer is basically a small convection oven with nonstick surfaces, circulating hot air around whatever you put in its basket. Unlike your saute pan or skillet, it cooks from all directions at once and typically in less time. Unlike your oven, it is compact and efficient, heats up quickly and may not even require preheating. Your toaster oven could never do this. While toasted cheese is a possibility (and reheated toaster oven pizza is a revelation), grilled cheese is not. Your toaster oven is not designed to support fat on the underside of whatever you're cooking and you'll end up with a mess too complicated to clean. For your grilled cheese, the air fryer is working on both of the bread surfaces and the cheese all at once, resulting in a quicker melt, which adheres the cheese to the bread slices together making for a much easier flip. (Flipping is still recommended but with far less drama.) The air circulation provides deep crunchiness, not only to the surfaces that received the butter or mayo treatment but to the entire crust. Any inclusions beyond cheese in the interior of the sandwich are also transforming because of the ambient heat. Simply placing a lid on your saute pan or skillet can't achieve the same results, as the components will become steamed and potentially soggy. Here's how I make air fryer grilled cheese Humble ingredients are transformed into something great inside an air fryer. Pamela Vachon/CNET Assemble a grilled cheese as you would otherwise Sliced bread Sliced or shredded cheese (I like American cheese for a basic grilled cheese and a combo of gruyere and cheddar for an upgrade.) Butter or mayonnaise for the outside of the bread slices (dealer's choice) For a basic grilled cheese, you can assemble the sandwich in the basket of your air fryer: bread with buttered side down, followed by sliced or shredded cheese, then topped with the final slice with buttered side up. Be it a simple sandwich or a fancier combination of cheese, bread and fixings, the air fryer makes a crispy, gooey grilled cheese in minutes. Pamela Vachon/CNET Set the heat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 3 to 6 minutes on each side, flipping halfway through. The already melted cheese will keep your sandwich nicely together during the flip. You can get a lightly golden grilled cheese in less time but I recommend hanging on for 5 to 6 minutes for a deeply crunchy sandwich. Another perk of the air fryer is that you can more easily peek to see where you are without adversely affecting the outcome. The air fryer is best for making fancy grilled cheese Add a fruit element and cured meats for a fancier air fryer sammy. Pamela Vachon/CNET This is where the air fryer really shines in the grilled cheese realm. Every element of an upgraded grilled cheese adds a degree of difficulty when trying to cook in a skillet, much of which is mitigated in the safe confines of an air fryer. Thicker bread. Thicker cheese, like hunks of camembert or brie. And think of all the great grilled cheese ingredients that can be slippery: apple slices, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, pickles, etc. Any grilled cheese with more than two components can be challenging to flip gracefully in a skillet, even for trained cooks. Bag a loaf of good bread and stuff your sandwich with upmarket cheese. Pamela Vachon/CNET To prove a point, I assembled a fancy grilled cheese with camembert, prosciutto and apple slices. (Plus mayonnaise on the exterior, because I was being fancy, and mayo gives your sandwich a little extra tang.) Because of its height, I assembled it fully outside of the air fryer and then carefully placed it in the drawer. Et voila! Pamela Vachon/CNET After 6 minutes of air fryer cooking, the flip was seamless and the sophisticated outcome belies the fact that you spent all of one minute assembling the masterpiece. The exterior of the ham even got a little bonus crisping. So the air fryer invites you to go to town with whatever you can dream up for your grilled cheese: cured or cooked ground meats, grilled veggies, various sauces and relishes -- you name it. An epic grilled cheese variation is limited only by the confines of your imagination. Do I need to preheat an air fryer for grilled cheese? A grilled cheese is a quick-cooking sandwich no matter how you do it so you don't want to add on minutes of additional time for something that only takes minutes to accomplish. That said, while preheating your air fryer may be a waste of time for certain preparations, I think putting it on for just a minute to heat up the nonstick surface that the sandwich sits on is worthwhile to get that golden crust working right away. Are there drawbacks to making air fryer grilled cheese? Depending on your model and size of air fryer, and the shape of bread you choose, it can be tricky to make more than two sandwiches at once, so it might not be the most family-friendly method for making grilled cheese. But for a solo meal or date night, your air fryer is the grilled cheese hack you didn't know you needed.
The Sun
19 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Lidl is selling a Ninja air fryer dupe in its Middle Aisle that is £80 cheaper
LIDL is selling a Ninja air fryer dupe in its middle aisle that is a whopping £80 cheaper this summer. Shoppers will be racing to the bargain supermarket for this kitchen essential as it hits the shelves next week. The Silvercrest Kitchen Air Fryer which comes with a grill and smoker can be yours for just £99.99 from July 6. That's a whopping £80 cheaper than the Ninja version making it a bargain if you're on the look out for an air fryer on a budget. The Lidl version works as a normal air fryer with the lid closed and has a 3.8 litre capacity which can fit in 1kg of chips. What's better is that it can fry your chips without the use of any additional oil or fat. You can activate the smoker separately when the lid is closed too but when opened you can operate the grill function. And if that sounds complicated to navigate, the device comes with a touch-screen display for simple operation. The air fryer comes with seven different programs for smoking, grilling, air-frying, roasting, baking, dehydrating and reheating. It's easy to clean up too as the grill plate, frying basket, plancha and drip tray are all suitable for the dishwasher. With a high-quality non-stick coating, the fryer also is highly scratch proof and has excellent abrasion and stain resistance. You can whack the temperature up to a blazing 240 degrees as well and it works from 40 degrees upwards. And if you're planning to cook something throughout the day, the timer can be set from one minute up to 12 hours. The bargain buy comes with an instruction manual and 10 recipes included and has a three-year warranty. While the Ninja Foodi Mini 6-in-1 Multi Cooker is £80 more, it only has six cooking settings and doesn't include a smoker or a grill. But the appliance does come with a bigger capacity of 4.7 litres and has seen good reviews online. One customer gave the product a five-star rating and said: "Excellent multi cooker, easy to use, cooks great in all settings. "Really pleased with it." But at £179.99 it may prove too much of an expense for some so the Lidl version provides a great alternative. The bargain retailer are selling a range of other appliances in July too. Available on the same day is the Grillmeister BBQ Pizza Oven for just £29.99. It's great for crispy pizzas or even fresh baguettes and could be the perfect addition for a garden bash this summer. And if you want to go one step further, Lidl will be selling their Grillmeister 6 Burner Gas Barbecue for £129. How to compare prices to get the best deal JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn't mean it's always a good deal. There are plenty of comparison websites out there that'll check prices for you - so don't be left paying more than you have to. Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers. Here are some that we recommend: Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results. Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock. Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one. CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
The Daewoo smart AI air fryer is on sale for less than £100 – and it's our top-rated model
If you're yet to invest in an air fryer, or if your appliance is due for an upgrade, now could be the perfect time. This deal on our top-rated air fryer from Daewoo brings it to less than £100. The AI smart fryer has an 8l capacity, 12 cooking presets, a single drawer and a feature that you won't find on other models. This air fryer has a camera inside the cooking tray that takes the guesswork out of what setting to use. Unlike a lot of the 'AI' tech we've tried, this model actually works. We named it our best air fryer after putting it to the test against the likes of Ninja, Panasonic, Cuisinart and other popular brands. You can find out more about how our reviewer rated it below. We're constantly on the lookout for offers on our tried and tested air fryers, and you can find these in our round-up of the best air fryer deals of the month. As Amazon's Prime Day sale fast approaches, we'll also be bringing you the best air fryer deals for Prime Day 2025 as well as the top reductions on Ninja, a brand that's well-known for its cooking appliances. We're usually wary of kitchen appliances with smart features, as they bring a big price tag and little benefit. Luckily, this wasn't the case with our best buy air fryer, which has a built-in camera that can detect 12 types of food, including chips, sausages, fish fingers and chicken thighs. It then adjusts the temperature and cooking time based on the amount and type of food, so you don't have to spend time with the manual working out the correct setting to use. Our reviewer, Rachael, found that it 'consistently provided good results during testing, especially with chips and chicken'. Plus, if you're cooking for a family, she found that the 8L capacity is 'incredibly generous'. It's a great time to buy our top-rated air fryer as Daewoo has slashed the price by 33 per cent, bringing it to £80. If you want to snap up the offer, you'll need to be quick, as it's part of Daewoo's clearance sale. This means that stock is limited, so it won't be around for long. However, if you miss out, we've also spotted it on sale for £75 at Frasers, and £79 at George at Asda.
CNET
3 days ago
- Business
- CNET
Amazon Deals of the Day: One of Our Favorite Air Fryers Is Now $20 Off
Amazon sells a vast array of products, with new ones arriving daily across many categories, including home essentials, tech gear and wellness. As much as the retail giant loves adding new products, Amazon also loves cutting prices. But you don't have to wait for its Prime Day event to find great deals. Deciding which offers are worth grabbing (and which aren't) is a full-time job -- our job, specifically. That's why we scope out the top deals for you. Today, we spotted our favorite air fryer, the 4-in-1 Ninja Crispi for a nice $20 off. We also found the Redtiger dash cam back down to its record-low price, along with the Dyson PC1 purifier, also down to its all-time low price. We consider the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 portable glass air fryer to be one of the best air fryers that money can buy, winning the CNET Editors' Choice award and landing at the top of the best air fryers of 2025 list. We love it because it is able to cook, serve and store food, all in one. It's also super easy to clean as just about everything is dishwasher-safe. There's also no concern about PFAS. Since it's made of glass, you can see cooking in progress. And you can even buy additional glass vessels for maximum food prep It is a small, portable size with a small storage footprint with nesting capabilities. The only thing our editors didn't like was the price, noting "I may look for it on sale during Prime Days or the like, but even without a discount, its utility and the reputation of the Ninja brand merits its price tag." And now, it is on sale. It's down to $160 from it's usual $180 price tag. It's only a $20 discount but this air fryer doesn't come on sale often so take advantage while you can. We keep our home protected while we're away with things like video doorbells and security systems, but what about protecting yourself and your car on the road? A dash cam can help make sure they you stay protected on the road and have video evidence in case of an unfortunate emergency. And they don't have to be too pricey, either. This Redtiger dash cam kit is a relatively affordable front-and-back combo if you want 4K resolution. Besides the 4K day camera, it has 2K night vision, is GPS-enabled and has Wi-Fi to connect through your phone. The bundle also includes a free 32GB microSD card. There's even a parking monitor, so it can capture any incidents while your car is stationary. And with a wide angle lens, you're sure to capture the whole road. It's normally $200 but right now you can score over 50% off bringing it down to just $90, a record-low price. For a lot of us, temps are rapidly rising during the ongoing heat wave. This means bringing out the fans that help keep us cool, especially at night. If you need a reliable fan, Dyson's PC1 fan cools any room, and it's also an air purifier. This Dyson PC1 purifying fan has a fully sealed HEPA filtration system that captures over 99% of particles in the air. It can even grab the ones that are as small as 0.3 microns. By using its sensors, the fan analyzes the particles to determine air quality. It can also oscillate up to 350 degrees, providing full room coverage. With the MyDyson app, you can even control it from your phone, so you don't have to get up in the middle of the night to adjust the fan. This Dyson device keeps you cool while keeping your air clean. It's usually a whopping $500 but a nice $100 discount brings the price down to $400, a record low. With so many deals on Amazon, deciding which ones are worth your money can be difficult. But CNET's combed through what the world's largest online retailer has to offer and gathered the best deals for you to peruse.
The Sun
3 days ago
- General
- The Sun
The three simple tips to preserve your flowers with air fryer hack this summer
A FLORIST has revealed the handy kitchen gadget that can transform your flowers. More than half of households across the UK now own an air fryer, and they're continuing to rise in popularity. 1 And Shelley Davis, flower expert at Flying Flowers, has revealed the appliance can also be used beyond the kitchen by dehydrating and preserving fresh flowers. Dried flowers have had a resurgence in popularity in recent years - especially for weddings and confetti. With the summer wedding season upon us, Shelley's nifty air fryer trick can also allow newlyweds to preserve flowers from their special day. The best part? It takes just 30 minutes to do. Shelley put the trend to the test with three popular flowers - roses, peonies and delphiniums - and provided her expert tips on how to get the best result so you can enjoy your bouquets for longer. Pick and prep your petals When choosing which flowers out of the bouquet to preserve, Shelley suggests: 'It's best to pick the stems that have opened the most and that have kept their colour, as the drying process can shrink the petals and darken the flower. "Once chosen, cut the stem down to fit the air fryer basket but make sure not to trim it too short if you want to display your dried flowers in a vase - as they still need something to stand on! 'If drying just the petals, to use for confetti or potpourri, carefully peel back each petal from the bud. "The best ones to choose are usually a few layers in, so you may need to discard the outer few.' Timing is everything to perfect each bloom Timing is also key when it comes to preserving flowers using the air fryer. The 1% Club wipes out 10 players with tricky flowers question - but could you get the right answer in 30 seconds? Shelley recommends: 'Different flowers need different drying times due to their density and size. "Those with thicker petals, such as roses, peonies and lilies will need longer than delphiniums, poppies and orchids, which have slightly thinner petals." From her testing, she found the below times worked best for the few species chosen. Whole rose - 82C for 30 minutes. Whole peony - 82C for 30 minutes. Whole delphinium - 82C for 10 minutes. Individual rose petals - 82C for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Shelley adds: "Once the flower is in the air fryer, make sure to rotate it halfway through and keep a check on its overall progress as some flowers may need slightly longer or shorter - every bloom is different.' Design your flower display 'There are so many ways to present newly dried bouquets,' says Shelley. "From creating new displays, reusing them and even pressing them into frames. "Displaying them in a vase, just as you would when they are fresh, can keep a room looking bright and you can continue adding to it once you've acquired more flowers. "Additionally, individual stems can be used to create unique seasonal door wreaths that will last for years. 'Popular among newlyweds is preserving flowers to then press and present in frames, which is an ideal way to capture one element from the special day. "Also popular with current brides is to give their bouquets to friends and family members who are also getting married to be used for confetti - both sustainable and a special way to include loved ones in the day.'
