Why You Shouldn't Make Toast In Your Air Fryer

The air fryer was invented by one Fred Van Der Weij in 2005, per The New York Times, and has since become popular for its ability to cook almost everything.

Necessity has been the driver behind many inventions and Van der Weij's brainchild is no exception. According to the New York Times, he felt that the conventional methods for cooking French fries were messy and often counterproductive. Since then, the air fryer has become a preferred method for preparing burger patties, roast chicken, pizza, fish, cheese sticks, French fries (of course), and more.

The concept at play with an air fryer is that of food being cooked by a continuous draught of hot air. To achieve this effect, the air fryer has a heating mechanism and a fan that works in tandem on whatever food is positioned in the fryer's basket. The result is a dry cook and crispy finish, per Taste of Home.

Why would we cook using an air fryer? Because it makes cooking simpler, per Taste of Home, and the result of cooking something that is usually deep-fried in this novel device is that it is healthier. The air fryer is recognized for its ability to reduce fat content in food by up to 70%, per Web MD. It also helps to keep the cooking process simple.

Although this new device seems magical, healthy, and universal in its cooking applications, some utensils and cooking methods can not be substituted. Thus, the air fryer should not be used for anything with wet batter (unless pre-fried), meats that you want cooked medium rare, most cheeses (because they will melt), and of course, bread, per Reader's Digest.

Bread, being light, is prone to become airborne in the air fryer, and blow around under the high-pressure hot draught, creating a mess of crumbs and essentially defeating the whole purpose of simplicity. For this reason, it is preferable to stick to the toaster.