Air Fryer vs Dehydrator: Choosing the Best Appliance for Healthy Cooking

Advanced appliances are essential for cooking healthy and scrumptious food. The most certainly used kitchen appliances are air fryer and dehydrator. Both of these are best on their own with some noticeable differences. Well, you need to know those discernible differences in order to choose one for yourself.

The main difference between an air fryer and a dehydrator is that the air fryer uses hot air for deep frying and a dehydrator is usually used for cooking food by heat evaporation. Whether you want to cook something healthy or you want to prepare diet food, then one among these appliances is best to use. Follow the article to know the detailed difference and uses of air fryer and dehydrator and choose one according to your preference.

Air Fryer Vs Dehydrator which is best?

Some people are on a diet and usually cook food that contains less oil while some are foody and prefer eating deep-fried foods. Both of these appliances are great to use as they provide the best quality and flexibility in cooking food. Well, here is the guidance on air fryer vs dehydrator, which will make it quite clear for you to choose one according to your requirements. To know the obvious difference here is a separate discussion. You can also check out some best air fryers that come with dehydrators.

Air Fryer

An air fryer is a device that cooks food at a high temperature by using hot air without submerging oil in the food. It has a metal plate inside the appliance, which blows heat that cooks the food without using the oil. The most suitable foods like meat, vegetables, and chicken can be cooked easily in the air fryer.

Also, it is used for baking bread, cake, and cookies. It is a versatile product that allows you to cook more things other than just frying. The best thing is that it prevents burning and overcooking and provides satisfactory cooking results.

What Things You Can Cook In Air Fryer

Well, now you can cook food without splattering grease all over your house by using the air fryer for quick frying of several foods. The air fryer allows you to cook the food immediately without using oil for frying purposes. This cooking device heats up quickly and cooks food like fish sticks, chicken, chicken wings, onion rings, french fries, and vegetables.

The good thing is that there is no need to stand by its side as you do for the stove. You just have to put the timer and the food cooks according to the timings that are set. This timing function prevents burning and cooks food perfectly without causing any accidents. Frozen foods are also easy to cook inside the air fryer. Other than that you can make healthy and salubrious food just like apple slices in the air fryer as well.

To buy anything it is important to know how it functions. An air fryer requires a heating mechanism as it consists of the heating fan inside its base plate. The air fryer consists of the basket in which you place the food. The food is being cooked when the hot air circulates all over the food basket without using the oil. Following are the steps, which will show how to use an air fryer;

How Air Fryer Works

Following are the points to describe how an air fryer actually works and its advantages.

1. Place The Food Inside The Basket

The first step is quite obvious as you have to put the food inside the basket. The quantity of food depends upon the size of the fryer, mostly the basket holds the space of about 2 to 10 quarts. To make your food more crispy and crunchy you can grease the base with 1 or two teaspoons of oil.

2. Set Temperature And Time

Well, the second and most sensitive step is to set the temperature and time. You have to do it precisely in order to prevent burning. The time and temperature of the air fryer usually range from 5 to 25 minutes at a temperature of about 350 to 400 degrees. It basically depends on what you are actually cooking.

3. Let The Food Cook

After setting the temperature and time you have to flip the food during cooking so that it cooks evenly from both sides. Once after cooking, you have to clean your fryer from the inside because maintenance is necessary. The final results will be quite amazing and the cooked food will be crispy and crusty.

Advantages of Air Fryer

Air fryers are best to cook healthy food as they provide an oil-free cooking experience. Using an air fryer is beneficial to health as it cooks food in a healthy manner rather than cooking deep-fried foods. It is best for making a large quantity of food at a time because of its rapid heating and hot air circulation, which cooks food in less time. The air fryer consists of many benefits, which are as follow;

• Air fryers promote weight loss because of cooking oil-free food. Oily foods lead to obesity and other risks of health damage. Air-fried foods are healthier than deep-fried oily foods as deep-fried foods consist of more fats and calories.
• The air fryer is safer than the deep-fries because it prevents the burning of food and the splashing and spilling of oil.
• Well, the air fryer reduces the risk of forming acrylamide, which is basically caused by deep-frying. Acrylamide is dangerous to health as it causes cancer.
• The food cooks in it quickly and deliciously.

Time Consumption by Air Fryer

Well, the time consumed by an air fryer also depends upon the item that you are cooking. Some require more time to cook while some require less time. But, usually, the air fryer takes less than half the time to cook food than any other cooking device like an oven.

Use Of Air Fryer

Well, if you want to know about air fryer use then it is quite easy to use. For perfect and proper results you just have to turn the food after some time in order to get satisfactory results. The food sometimes remains uncooked because you don’t flip the side of the food. For crispy and properly cooked food, you need to provide heat to both sides of the food.

Dehydrator

A dehydrator is a device that dries out food like vegetables and fruits. It works by evaporating heat from the food and the food cooks from that evaporated heat, which leaves behind the dry fruits and vegetables. This process of cooking healthy and delicious food mostly takes 30 minutes.

The dehydrator dries foods by circulating air at a low temperature so that the food cooks slowly and evenly without leaving any part uncooked. The dehydrator dried fruits and vegetables, which add extra flavor to your cooking recipes. It dries the fruits and makes them sweeter.

What Things You Can Cook In Dehydrator

The most obvious thing that you can cook in a dehydrator would be dried fruits and vegetables. You can cook crackers, granola bars, beef jerky, chips, bread, pizza crust, banana snacks, and dehydrated snacks. Also, you can cook apple slices and dried mango that is sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

The lack of moisture intensifies the flavor and makes food sweeter. The dehydrated snacks are really healthier than the ones which are available in the market. The flavor remains in the food for a longer period of time. Also, in a dehydrator, there is no need of adding any oil or preservatives.

How Dehydrator Works

The dehydrator works at a low temperature but cooks food perfectly. You have to keep the food in a single layer without flipping and turning it in order to cook evenly. Also, different temperature recommendations are available, which allows you to set the temperature according to the water availability in the food you are cooking. The following steps show how the dehydrator works.

1. Food Placement

Firstly, you have to keep the food inside the dehydrator bucket, which is an electrical machine. It consists of trays, with proper air circulation. The heating component raises the temperature inside the bucket in order to evaporate the moisture out of the food.

2. Set Temperature

Secondly, the main step is to set the right temperature in order to prevent burning. The dehydrators produce many ranges of temperatures, which depend upon the content of water in different foods. Also, there is a timetable, which provides a range of temperatures to cook specific foods.

3. Let The Food Cook

Thirdly, the moisture from the food will evaporate and will add more flavor to the food that is being cooked. The food will take a long time to cook but the final cooking results will be satisfactory. The food will reabsorb the moisture, which will cook the food by increasing its flavor.

Advantages Of Dehydrator

There are many advantages of a dehydrator as it cooks healthy and delicious snacks. It is the best and easy method of preserving food. Previously, people used to dry the fruits in sunlight, which used to take a lot of time. But, the dehydrator dries the food quickly also by enhancing its flavor. Following are the advantages of dehydrator;

• A dehydrator is a reliable device and is best for preserving food for a longer period of time. It dries the fruit without affecting the value of its nutrition.
• Once the food is dried at the right temperature then it will remain safe for a longer time. The dried food can easily be powered, sliced, or cleaned for cooking purposes.
• The best thing about a dehydrator is that the flavor of the fruit or vegetable remains the same even after drying.
• You can put it out easily on your tabletop where you can easily cook it.

Time Consumption Of Cooking Food In Dehydrator

Well, the dehydrator takes a longer time to cook food but the end results of cooking are just perfect. It takes a longer time to dry out the fruits and vegetables by enhancing the flavor. For some foods, it takes more time, usually hours to cook the food like beef jerky.

Use Of Dehydrator

The dehydrators are easy and simple to use. It allows you to dry the food without losing its nutrition and proteins. Once you put the food inside it then there is no need to stand by its side or to check the food from time to time. It will prepare the food all by itself. The end results are fresh and healthy, which are much healthier than other snacks.

Is Air Fryer Same As Dehydrator

Both cook food but the air fryer cooks food evenly and quickly rather than the dehydrator, which needs several hours to cook the food deeply. In an air fryer, the air circulates within the whole bucket, which cooks food uniformly and leaves no part uncooked. While the dehydrator fan rotates at a slow speed, which requires more hours of cooking.

Difference Between Air Fryer And Dehydrator

The air fryer and dehydrator are small and amazing kitchen appliances. These devices work perfectly and provide an amazing cooking experience. Both devices dry food without using oil. Instead, they use the hot air that circulates around the food bucket for cooking. Well, the main differences between air fryer and dehydrator are;

1. Cooking Temperature

The cooking temperature for the air fryer is 325 – 450 degrees while that of the dehydrator is 90 – 145 degrees. Most of the dehydrator recipes cook at a temperature of 90 to 145 degrees. The dehydrator provides a proper range of temperature to use for each food accordingly.

On the other hand, an air fryer cooks food at a high temperature in the range of 325 – 450 degrees. It cooks food faster and provides a crunchy and crispy texture to it. So the first main difference between the air fryer and dehydrator is the different temperature ranges at which they cook food.

2. Heating Factor

Secondly, the difference between an air fryer and a dehydrator lies in the heating element. Both of the devices heat quickly and efficiently. The heating element in an air fryer is present at the top of the fan, which circulates the hot air throughout the basket and quickly cooks the food.

While the heating element of the dehydrator is present at its backside with the fan, which rotates air within the food basket. It allows the heat to flow through the basket at a low temperature and dries the food efficiently by adding more flavor to the food.

3. Functioning

Another noticeable difference seen between the air dryer and the dehydrator is in their functioning. The air dryer functions in a way that it regulates the hot air, which cooks the food. While the dehydrator removes the moisture from the food and dries it without affecting its flavor.

Air frying makes your food more crispy without using oil and the dehydrator lowers the water content of the food by extracting the moisture from the food. Instead of making food crispy like an air fryer, the dehydrator dries the fruits and vegetables.

4. Cooking Results

There are several things that you need to keep in mind while you are cooking food in an air fryer and dehydrator to get the best possible cooking results. For dehydrating food you must keep in mind that the fruit must be cut into thin slices so that it dries evenly.

A thin layer of food will allow the air to properly circulate around the food piece. It will allow the proper dehydrating of food. With an air fryer, you should not overcrowd your basket to get the appropriate and good results. By doing this, each piece of food will cook quickly and scrumptiously.

Conclusion

Investing in an air fryer or dehydrator will open doors for trying out new recipes and tastes of food. I hope that your confusion between the air fryer and dehydrator has been solved now. In this article, I clearly and separately discuss the air fryer and dehydrator, their uses, advantages, disadvantages, and its working.

Now, you can eat healthy food and try new recipes in air fryers and dehydrators by following the guiding steps mentioned in this article. There should be no compromise on your health when it comes to choosing and eating healthy food. Pick up a high-quality model for yourself in order to switch your diet into a healthy one. Good Luck!