My neighbor laughed at me for preheating the air fryer every time

I always preheat my air fryer for 3-5 minutes before putting food in. It's just what I do. Last week my neighbor Bob saw me do it and said 'why are you wasting electricity? Just toss it in cold.' I got defensive at first but then I actually tried his way with some frozen chicken tenders. Honestly? They came out almost the same. Now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time and power for like a year. Anyone else skip the preheat or am I the weird one?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joseph17d ago

That's funny because it fits right into one of those things we all do without really questioning it. Seems like half the instructions we follow are just copied from old habits or cooking methods that don't apply anymore.

logan_young293d ago

You know, I used to be one of those people who just followed instructions without thinking twice about them. But @the_joseph, your point really made me stop and reconsider. I've been doing a lot of home cooking lately and realized half the steps in old recipes are just leftover from when ovens were less reliable or ingredients were different quality. It's kind of embarrassing how long I went without questioning things like "always rinse rice until the water runs clear" or "let meat rest for exactly ten minutes." Once I started experimenting and skipping some of those old routines, my food actually turned out better. It's a good reminder that we should all question the habits we picked up somewhere along the way.

robinf513d ago

So wait @logan_young29 are you saying we're all just blindly following some grandma's old rules that don't even matter? Because that actually makes a ton of sense here. Most recipes and cooking tips get passed down without anyone stopping to test if they're actually necessary. I never thought about it that way, but you're right - half the stuff we do is just habit or tradition, not science. Preheating the air fryer probably came from the early models that were crap and needed it, but now the technology is better and nobody updated the manual. I bet if more people actually experimented like you've been doing, we'd find a whole bunch of kitchen routines that are just a waste of time.