Showerthought: I was dead wrong about preheating the air fryer

I always skipped the preheat step because it felt like a waste of time and electricity. Last week my wife bet me $20 that preheating for 3 minutes would make my frozen fries come out better, so I tried it. Same bag of fries, same 400 degrees, 12 minutes, but the preheated batch came out crispy all the way through while the cold-start batch had soggy middles. I ran the test twice more that same night and got the same result every time. The preheat lets the outside crisp fast before the inside dries out, which I never would have guessed. Now I preheat every single time and the $20 is gone. Has anyone tested preheat times longer than 3 minutes to see if it makes any more of a difference?

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martinez.kim16d ago

I spent two years swearing preheating was a scam and then my husband caught me standing in front of the air fryer waiting for it to beep. The fries thing is real though, I noticed the same with frozen chicken nuggets. Cold start gives you that sad breading that slides right off. Three minutes seems to do the trick, I tried five once and nothing changed except my electric bill having a bad day.

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