In the spirit of the holidays, Hanukkah and Christmas too, we decided to test an air fryer against a cast iron pan last night—
Air fry vs pan fry? What do you think? 80-20 right, with the pan fry method with better odds? It certainly is tried and true.
I have to admit, I’m skeptical of new kitchen appliances, especially those that take up a lot of counter space. I need clean surfaces to think and work, especially with all of the funky projects I get into on a regular basis.
So, when the air fryer arrived——as a Hanukkah present for Levi—I wasn’t exactly excited.
But, now, after last night, I might have to find it a home and a place for it’s use in our weekly meal preparation.
So, as you might guess we love steaks—just as many of you do. Our first preference is always to cook them on the wood fire. I love the flavor of wood fired cooking. Slow roasting gives it an insane, earthy, light and smokey flavor with light browning and crisping on the outside and juicy center. But let’s face it, for a busy week night, tending a fire for an hour before cooking just isn’t in the cards.
Weeknights, we fry our steaks in a cast iron pan. Which for my cooking, for an average SWF sirloin means 4-5 min on each side over medium/high heat with a 10 minute rest after cooking. Results in a delicious steak with a crisp outside and a super tender, rare inside. This is hard to beat, so I never even dreamed of cooking a weeknight steak another way! Until last night.
Our procedure:To be fair, we used a SWF Sirloin Steak cut in half. I patted it dry, salt and peppered it and cooked them both for 10 minutes. Flipping the steaks at 5 minutes. Then rested them for 5 minutes before slicing—we couldn’t wait my usual 10 minute rest period.
Here is what we thought of the Air fryer vs the Pan in these categories
1. Visual Appeal: Pan, looks like a steak should, charred. Air Fry, light brown, not your usual steak color
2. Texture: Pan, crisp and tough on the outside, soft on the inside vs Air Fry which produced an even texture inside and out
3. Flavor: Equal. If blindfolded you might not guess which was which
4. Convenience: Air Fryer, just set the time and walk away, come back when it beeps
5. Clean up: Air Fryer, virtually no clean up, little to no odor in the air, no need to run a fan or hood after cooking. During cooking it is quite loud.
What is the verdict? Air Fry or Pan Fry? So, it was 2 category wins for pan, 2 category wins for air fry and one that was equal. So, the truth is, it was a tie! Very surprising to me. I was afraid I would be making stew out of the air fried steak! Not so much, it was an amazing air fried steak.
Based on it’s ability to cook our sirloin steak I would recommend the air fryer for sure. I can’t speak for it’s other uses yet! Just in case you are looking for another last minute gift, you probably can’t go wrong with either a cast iron pan or an air fryer, just depends on palate and cooking style.
Have a wonderful holiday season, rest, recharge and have some fun. Thanks for being here. Enjoy the snow and some comfort food! Amy
