What do all air fryer owners have in common?
They won’t stop talking about their air fryers.
With more than half of UK households now having one, ownership has increased by a whopping 70 percent from 2022, reports leatherhead food research.
And there’s no doubt that users will definitely be taking advantage of theirs this Christmas. From air fryer roast potatoes to crispy brussel sprouts, there’s all sorts of Xmas classics you can try. You can even do an air fryer turkey breast by wacking it in for 25-30 minutes, flipping it halfway.
But according to the BBC’s Good Food section, there’s one food you should avoid air frying – pigs in blankets.
Those savoury little sausages wrapped in crispy bacon perfectly compliments your roast dinner, and Yorkshire puds (controversial, but essential).
However, putting bacon in an air fryer can be a big issue.
As dietitian Brenda Peralta explains, the fat content in bacon – though being the reason it tastes so good – can actually be a bit of a disaster for air fryer cooks.
“It is a fatty food, and when it is cooked in an air fryer, the fat can drip down and cause smoke or splatter,” she told the Huffington Post.
“This can make the bacon difficult to cook evenly, and it can also produce a lot of smoke and odours.”
The uneven distribution of fat content in the bacon can make it difficult to cook the meat evenly. By putting pigs in blankets in the air fryer, you’re at risk of not cooking it all the way through.
No one wants food poisoning from uncooked meat, especially at Christmas time.
As Brenda mentioned, the fat content will also make your air fryer smoke the place up like Winston Churchill. Not only that, but if the fat splatters out of the pot, you could accidentally burn yourself.
When it comes to pure bacon strips, there’s also the issue of trying to scrape them out of your air fryer once they’re cooked. If you don’t use a baking sheet, they can quite easily stick to the bottom, which isn’t ideal.
Brenda added: “A bacon strip is a small and delicate food, and it can be difficult to flip or remove from the air fryer basket without breaking it. The air fryer basket may not be large enough to accommodate a large quantity of bacon.
“This can make it difficult to cook a lot of bacon at once, which can be inconvenient if you are cooking for a group.”
