Ninja air fryer uses hot air to remove moisture from pre-cooked or raw food and turns it into an edible, attractive final meal with no additional fat for the consumers.
Foil in a Ninja air fryer can be used ‘YES’ unlike in a microwave, where it is prohibited to use aluminum foil due to the radiation mode of heat transfer in all available microwaves.
However, there are a set of instructions that you must follow in order to ensure the air frying (utilizing foil) is adequate, lesser time-consuming, and safe.
The paragraphs below will outline the usage & critical info regarding the placement of aluminum foil in air fryers;
- The importance of using foil
- Methods of foil usage
- Precautions of foil usage in Ninja air fryers
- Factors affecting air frying (with the utilization of foils)
- Anything else that can be used in lieu of a foil
Foil for cooking in a Ninja Air Fryer – Really needed?
It depends on the type of meal that you are processing in the Ninja air fryer and the outcome that you desire from the final processed food.
– As wise people say ‘Begin with the end in mind’
The purpose is to know what your meal will look like in texture and most importantly in taste when you open up the foil to get the first bit from the air fryed meal processed in an aliminum foil.
Types of food where you must use the foil
As Air fryer experts we have discovered in experimentation in our lab at howmachines.com that if the end-user is keen to use foil he should be utilizing it for the following set of dishes or similar ones;
- Veggies
- Finger fish
- Shrimps
- Beacon
- Corn
- Pre-cooked meals (Re-heating)
Importance of using foil in a Ninja Air Fryer
A good quality, renowned foil manufacturer shall be selected to use in a Ninja Air fryer in order to ensure no loose material sticks to the meal with hygiene maintained till the food is consumed.
Usage of foil in an air fryer is recommended when the end user wants the meal to cook over a uniform temperature distribution during the course of air frying.
This allows the meal to cook with the liquid content still residing in the food even after processing, which is loved by the consumers.
Morsels of exquisite flavor with a juicy and mouthwatering taste allow the end user to properly enjoy the food without loss of the Real taste!
Methods of Using the Foil in a Ninja Air Fryer
It is of extreme importance to recognize the method and further implement the same with the usage of foil in a Ninja Air Fryer.
Following a set of guidelines will help you achieve promising results with the usage of foil.
STEP: 01 (Place the Food)
When you have selected the best aluminum foil, it is time to wrap the food that you plan to air fry in an adequate and machine-friendly way.
By the term machine-friendly way, it is meant that the food needs to be wrapped such that the heat energy can be utilized at max without affecting the performance of the machine.
It is sometimes expected that the foil, being loose may come in contact with the fan creating trouble.
STEP: 02 (Wrap)
Food ingredients can either be placed in a single foil or various small packs of the food can be made and placed apart in the basket
STEP: 03 (Allow air to circulate)
Since an air fryer uses air to circulate around the food in an air fryer, it is important to ensure the food has path holes inside the aluminum foil enabling the air to get in touch with the food.
This is an important step in situations where entire food is wrapped in single foil and placed at the center of the basket
STEP 04: (Ensure vent)
There must be an exit to the air that has already interacted with the raw food and that must escape from the aluminum foil, allowing more hot air to come in contact with the food
STEP 05: (Set the conditions)
With the use of aluminum foil, it is advised to let the air frying take place at temperatures 15 to 20 °C, lower compared to the normal operating temperature of an air fryer (without foil)
STEP 06: (Process & Wait)
Once all conditions are set, start processing the food. This time it may require an additional few minutes for the Ninja air fryer to process the food.
You need to bear with the process and the meal must be ready in a while!
Precautions of Using foil in a Ninja Air Fryer
Since air fryers are electro-mechanical products, powered by electricity therefore the following set of precautions are necessary while using the Ninja air fryer;
- Never use a poor-quality foil
- Allow air to interact with the food
- Ensure that the foil is not damaged
- Make sure the foil is a single fold
- Ensure that the foil doesn’t block the vent
- Make sure the foil is properly folded around the food
- Make sure the foil is clean from the external surface
- Make sure not to use aluminum with acidic foods/vinegar
Factors air frying – utilizing foil
- Temperature
- Time setting
- Presence of air holes (perforation)
- Quality of foil
- Uniform distribution of food
- Folding method
- Air fryer selection
Factors affecting air frying with the coil in a Ninja Air Fryer are important to comprehend and further considered while processing the food utilizing this procedure of air frying.
The temperature settings of the device without and with foil will be totally different. You may not want to heat up the food very quickly since air circulation inside the food will be limited when the foil is used.
The external surface in contact with the foil will heat up early, however, it is important to allow heat transfer to the rest of the ingredients located away from the surface.
Timer setting again will be tricky in case of utilizing foil. You may need to process the Ninja for a comparatively extended time period when using the foil in a Ninja air fryer
other factors affecting are the presence of perforated holes in the foil, quality of the foil, placement and wrapping of food in the foil, and folding of individual components or all at once.
Ninja air fryers are tried and tested with the use of aluminum foils & seen results better than other air fryers due to the robust heater and fan design with the state-of-the-art electronic control system (HMI)
Do we have other options apart from using foil?
Yes, we do have other options to utilize if the end-user plans not to use the normally available foil for food processing in a Ninja Air Fryer.
The use of parchment paper is top of the list
Use of perforated aluminum foil (food grade)
Utilization of perforated metal plates (food grade)
Use of special high-temperature Metal pots
Use of metal sticks for raw meat
Use of pumpkin skull to air fry
CONCLUSION/SUMMARY
Ninja air fryers can be used to air fry utilizing foil around the food however there are certain precautions linked to this method.
The quality of food processing in this method depends on multiple factors that should be taken care of to achieve welcoming results.
There are other techniques that can be used to process food in the air fryer, with each delivering different results in terms of taste & texture
