Do air fryers really need no oil?

Do air fryers really need no oil?

Air fryers really do not need oil, or only a little oil. In most cases, no oil is used. The principle of air frying pan is that hot air circulates to heat food, which can force out the oil inside the food. For meat rich in oil, air frying pan does not need to put oil. For roasted vegetables, spray a small amount of oil.

Principle of air fryer

The air frying pan, which replaces one of our common cooking methods – frying. Essentially, it is an oven that blows heat onto food through an electric fan.

The physical principles of heating food we involve in daily life are mainly: thermal radiation, thermal convection and heat conduction. Air fryers mainly rely on heat convection and heat conduction.

Thermal convection refers to the heat transfer process caused by the relative displacement of substances in the fluid, which can only occur in the fluid. Oil, of course, belongs to the fluid, so its heating of the food surface mainly depends on thermal convection.

Thermal radiation principle: it mainly uses visible light and infrared ray with long wavelength to transmit heat, such as carbon fire barbecue, oven heating tube baking, etc. Generally, air fryers do not use heating tubes, nor do they design frying.

First of all, the air is heated rapidly by the electric heating device in the air frying pan. Then, use a high-power fan to blow the hot air to the grill, and the hot air forms a circulating heat flow in the food basket. Finally, there will be an aerodynamic design on the inside of the food basket, which will allow the hot air to form a vortex heat flow and quickly take away the water vapor generated by heating, so as to achieve the fried taste.