1. Are you using the right preset program?
If your air fryer has more than one preset program, please check if you have selected the ‘right’ cooking time and temperature for your food. For example, it will take less time to cook a piece of chicken on a lower temperature setting rather than a higher temperature setting. Only use what you need! Cooking at a higher temperature will cook food more quickly but also cause some juice to escape through steam, while cooking on a lower heat will produce slower cooked results with greater moisture retention inside your food.
If in doubt about which settings are best for different foods then check out our recommended presets below or read this blog post for all suggested presets . Or simply try out different temp/time settings and see what works best for you! We use a Breville Air fryer. The default cooking presets are as follows:
– Fugde (chicken) program = 210°C / 20 minutes
– Fries program = 175°C / 18 minutes
2. Are your food items being overcooked?
If your food is being slightly overcooked namely because you have been using the same temperature setting over and over, then simply change between different temperature settings or try one of our recommended presets. It’s important to remember that after all, every particular air fryer will not heat up to exactly the same temp so this means your preset could be slightly off too.
However, if you have been changing things up but notice it still takes a long time to cook your food, the problem could lie with the quality of your food. If you are using frozen pre-prepared foods then this could be taking a longer processing time than fresh items that haven’t been previously frozen. It is really important to remember if you are cooking for a special occasion or need your food quickly then it’s best not to use frozen pre-prepared stuff!
3. Can I halve my cooking times by half?
This would depend on what program/temp you have been using so will probably be different for everyone but in general halving cooking times is possible depending on the type of food and settings used. For example, if doubling your cooking time doesn’t help at all when trying to cook chips (fries) then you could halve your oven time by using higher heat. Or if halving cooking times is still taking too long, be sure to check whether or not there are any frozen food items being used.
4. Is your air fryer overloaded?
If your appliance keeps switching itself off after a certain period of time this means it has detected an overload and will need to cool down before starting again. For example, our Breville XL Airfryer model switches off after 25 minutes if overloaded so just wait for it to cool down/reset before trying again it should work perfectly! We all know that frozen pre-prepared foods can take up more room in the fry basket than fresh ingredients but remember too much food inside your air fryer can cause the machine to switch off after a certain time! It is best not to overload your product with food.
5. What type of food are you cooking?
There are also different settings for different types of foods, so it’s important to make sure that you know what preset/cooking time/temperature would be ideal for what you are trying to cook. For example, if cooking meat then the highest setting should generally be used – but this varies depending on whether it’s chicken, beef or lamb, etc.
For fish perhaps a lower temperature could work better while potatoes might need crisping up at a slightly higher temp! Check out our recommended presets below or read this blog post for all suggested presets. Or simply try out different temp/time settings and see what works best for you!
6. Is the machine only heating up on one side?
If your food is not being cooked evenly then it could be that your air fryer isn’t heating up properly in certain areas. This often occurs when the food is not spread/distributed evenly throughout the fry basket so try turning over larger items of food or even using a lower temperature if need be to produce more consistent results across all of your food.
We have found however that with mincemeat, for example, it can sometimes help to press the meat down into an even layer before cooking starts which usually means more even distribution during air frying. Also don’t forget, if you are trying to cook smaller items then simply cook them in small batches to ensure more even cooking!
7. Is the machine only heating up on one side?
If your food is not being cooked evenly then it could be that your air fryer isn’t heating up properly in certain areas. This often occurs when the food is not spread/distributed evenly throughout the fry basket so try turning over larger items of food or even using a lower temprature if need be to produce more consistent results across all of your food.
We have found however that with mincemeat, for example, it can sometimes help to press meat down into an even layer before cooking starts which usually means more even distribution during air frying. Also don’t forget, if are trying to cook smaller items then simply cook them in small batches to ensure more even cooking!
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