(upbeat music) - [Mike] We are Sorted. A group of mates who have your back when it comes to all things food. From cooking battles to gadget reviews.
- Ben, it's not worth it! - And cookbook challenges to a midweek meal-packed app. Crack your eggs, bake. We uncover the tools that'll help us all cook and eat smarter. Join our community where everything we do starts with you. Hello, everyone. I'm Mike, this is Ben. Welcome to FridgeCam. - In this video, we test out a weird and wonderful kitchen gadget to see if it's actually any good. - Today, our chefs Ben and James test out a Halogen Air Fryer. And it's safe to say they go on a journey of discovery. - These are the most fun days, because James and I get to play around with something and test it on your behalf, and today it is a Halogen Air Fryer. Now, the theory behind this it it's a plug in electrical item that is self-contained and it acts as a oven in place of a convection oven, but it also has air circulation which means it kinda half fries as well. They claim you can bake and roast and fry all sorts of things in it and that's it's easy, that your house doesn't
smell like a chip shop at the end of it and we shall put that to the test with a number of things. - I don't think it's gonna be as good at anything as anything. - Caveat upfront, this is #notad. We have bought this with our very own YouTube pennies, which is why we're not necessarily referencing the brand. We're just referencing what it can do. But we're gonna put it to the test and we're gonna be honest. Number one, chips and sweet potato wedges. So they claim that you can get the effect of deep frying without all the oil, by spraying the food lightly with oil, using the dispenser provided. Now, because we're also gonna season, we will do that in a bowl rather than in the device. For the chips, for the combination of
the frying and roasting, only use the high basket. If we want the fry, we need it to be close to the bulb. That does make sense. I think that goes in first. (clanking) Then that one. - Yes. (upbeat music) - Up to temperature. It recommends 200. It says 25 minutes. - [James] No it doesn't, come on. Don't be silly. - At the moment, that is
doing exactly the same as baking chips in an oven. - I'm struggling with this one, guys. I'm struggling with it. - Learnings, read instructions properly. What we should've done is preheat it on max while we were chopping our potatoes. There was no need for our extension, 'cause we're only cooking some chips and therefore in the high rack it's closer to the bulb. Now it's cooking quicker. In the meantime, what we cut up, we're now gonna move on. I'm gonna put that in a conventional oven. The good thing about this is you can see right into it, so you can tell when they're done. (upbeat music) - That is the best bit so far. - I chose to start with chips, 'cause I thought it was
probably the easiest, most basic thing we all
associate with frying. I think they taste like chips. They haven't got the golden, crispy crunch of a chip. - I can confirm that they are chips. - They're not an even colour, but it's on par with an oven-baked chip. - I can imagine the complaints might be the fact that
people usually cut them a bit thicker like wedgie-type things. And they probably don't cook as well, as evenly. - In conclusion, I think
that's a pretty decent homemade oven-baked chip. Is it three times faster? - No.
- Maths says no. Is it less oil? Yes, than deep fried for sure, but not necessarily any less than oven chips. But they do work. Let's prep the next one. I reckon steak on the top, on the high basket, three minutes on each side
is what they're claiming. - If that steak browns, I am gonna be impressed. I'm not gonna like it as a product, but I will be impressed. (upbeat music) - Preheated for a few
minutes, then it went in. We gave it about three
and a half, four minutes on the first side. We've flipped it and are
doing about the same. Unlike the chips, which were a comparison, I guess, to oven baking, this is a comparison to grilling. It's under a hot lamp. The air circulation is
causing the fat on the steak to sizzle and crisp up. - Yeah, the fat looks good and rendered, but what you're looking for on a steak is that contact with the pan. - Let's go for it. It's definitely sizzling, and it smells steak-y. It hasn't got any of those lines, or colour on the main surface.
- Oh, but it might have more colour
than I expected it to. - In the meantime, should
we stick some sausages and steamed veg in? - Absolutely. (upbeat drums) - So, I've gone with courgette, sugar snap peas, garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper into a tinfoil tent sealed on three sides, a glug of white wine, seal it up, hope it doesn't leak, and that should steam and cook in all the wonderful juices on our bottom shelf. - In theory, this should do really well because the sausages are full of fat. So, the fat's gonna brown, kind of like a grill, 'cause it's basically a grill. (relaxed beat) Yeah, it looks all right. - It hasn't dried out, that's for sure. - It's cooked very evenly. Look, I found a nice thing to say. - And it's rendered the fat on the side, which I always find difficult if you're doing it in a pan, 'cause you've gotta hold it on its side. - It is a little bit gray. - It hasn't got the
colouring that you might get from a searingly hot cast
iron or foaming butter. - And the colour gives a
bit of texture, crispness, and it gives a lot of flavour. - Like the chips, that tastes
like a well-seasoned steak, it tastes like what it should do without that charring. - Like, it's a disappointing steak. - Why? Is that because you cook steak in butter, which is always better? - You don't get any of the flavour. You don't get any of the texture. - You need to take your
perception out of this. If you haven't got a hob and
you're not cooking outside, is that pretty good for that? - You're asking me, does this thing cook food, and yes, of course it cooks food. (laughs) But, I'm trying to say it's definitely not as
good as anything else. And if you only have that option, yes, it'll cook a steak, but it's not a very good steak. - I though we were testing an air fryer. What we're testing, it turns out, despite what it's called, is a desktop cooking device that roasts, grills, air circulates so frying is also possible, and we'll see if steaming
is also possible. It does it, kind of, all in one, if you haven't got that thing there. - On the first side, these
weren't looking great, I wasn't convinced, and now they've had enough time, they're looking pretty decent. (singing) (ringing) - Oh, he got it. He got it. (relaxed beat) I've never seen sausages
presented so beautifully. - Like you can steam items in an oven while you roast other things, I think that's worked. As has the sausage. Six or seven minutes on either side for the sausages and the steamed veg, the whole time without turning. Good to know that you
can do that on the bottom whilst you'll have something
with the more direct heat like a steak or some sausage on the top. So, you have got the two different levels, it's treating it much more
like an oven underneath, rather than a grill on top. (upbeat music) - They're two things that you would cook in an oven though, in that way, so you'd expect those two to work. - In the over or under the grill. So, we've done the potatoes,
much like roasting in an oven, with grilled sausages and steak, we've steamed veg. I asked a normal what
else we might wanna do, he said fried fish. And, valid, not with batter, that's obviously not gonna work, but we've breaded some cod, we've spritzed it with oil and we're gonna put it on the top shelf, right under the bulb at 250. I feel like this is now on par, with like, fish fingers that I would
put on a baking tray and put in the oven or under a grill. It's not the same as fried fish. No idea on time, 'cause
we're going off menu now. Visually, it's an odd concept because it's cooking from a bulb. You associate it with
light, rather than heat, despite the fact it gives
off more heat than light, but I don't associate it with high temperatures and cooking. Back when we were playing more to the fryer part of the air fryer, we also thought doughnuts! They need to be fried. So, we've got a doughnut
dough, it's proved, we'll roll them, spray them and see how they perform under a bulb. Obviously, the beauty of a doughnut dough, is it's light and it's airy. They float and then you
have to flip them over halfway through, which is where you get that kind of ring around the center. Or, we can flatten them out a bit more and put holes in the middle
and cook them more evenly so the oil covers them. It's not gonna do either of that in here. It's gonna be more like
sweet, baked dough. (rock music) Interesting with this
one, I'm not even sure the turning's gonna make much difference. I think they've kind of toasted the crispy breadcrumb ovenness evenly, rather than direct from above. I'm not sure Mr. Birds Eye
would be praising these, they haven't got the golden
brown colour he loves. (rock music) Good, flaky fish. A coating that has protected it completely and therefore kept it,
all the juice inside. That's not quite the golden
colour we want though, is it? - [James] Would that be better in an oven? A normal oven. Yeah. - What they definitely are
is a healthier version, and we've done that before
where we've done, like, baked chicken nuggets and things where you're covering it in bread and you never quite get
that golden colour you want, but it is definitely a healthier version. - Definitely healthier
than deep frying, for sure. - It's not giving you that satisfaction you want of a breadcrumb coating. - Crispy outside-- - Even with a little spritz of the oil. (rock music) - This is unusual, spraying bread. How long for? - No idea. We're gonna have to use
our chef-y instincts. - They have not served us well so far. (laughing) (rock music) - Whilst we wait on our bread, one other function that it has is the thaw function, so before you even get to
the temperature control, you can actually just put it on thaw and you could put a joint of meat or anything that's frozen in there and the air will
circulate without the heat and in theory, defrost it quicker, so that is another
function the machine has. Clutching at straws a little bit, but what I do like about it is the fact that it's all glass, so you can actually sit
and watch things cook and you can see how golden brown they are and you know when they're done. - You're so nice. Maybe you don't need a desk lamp if you have it on your desk next to you because it's a halogen
lamp, as well as a cooker. - Some of the comments,
people say they actually don't like the light it gives off and it annoys them. - Even I'm not annoyed by the light, and I'm annoyed by everything. (relaxing music) - So, here's interesting, James. Same time in that at 250. - That's about five minutes. - Versus same time in an over at 250. - They're not quite
getting the hollow bottom sound on the air fried ones. - I mean, that's not... - They're not great. They weren't supposed to ever be buns, but we did realize that
trying to fry a doughnut in that oven is probably not gonna work. We've been on a journey, Ben. - Whilst we sum up our journey. - Yeah. - Why don't we let the
machine clean itself. - What? - With a couple of
centimeters of soapy water in the bottom, set it to wash function and give it 10 minutes. The heater and turbo fan will operate to warm the water and stir
it, cleaning the bowl. At the end of the cycle,
remove the plug from the socket and place the lid on the lid stand, empty, rinse and drain the bowl. So, I feel like it's on par with when you put a cup of soapy water into a microwave and
it heats it and kind of steams and gets rid of some grease, but you're absolutely
still gonna have to wipe it and rinse it. - It is stirring it though. - There is--
- It's going round and round. - The fan is doing its thing. I came into this under the illusion that a Halogen Air Fryer was more fryer than anything else, and therefore a lot of
the things that I prepped to put into it were more for a fryer. It does definitely claim, you can get the effect of deep
frying without all the oil. You cannot. However, as a convection oven and top-down grill, and you definitely can steam things in like an oven, those all worked and if you don't have one of these, then that is easier and desktop and more compact, and for small portion, does work. It might have a fan but
it's not an air fryer. - If, for any reason, you can't bend down to use an oven, this is quite useful,
because you can literally stand at your countertop, you can prep food next to your oven, which is great. - There are more expensive
ones on the market. Maybe there's other
things you can cook in it that we haven't tried. Maybe there are better versions of this. You know what we think. Comment down below. So, it turns out the Halogen Air Fryer doesn't necessarily fry your food. - If you love seeing our chefs test these types of things, then comment below the next gadget you'd
like to see them try out, and we shall do that. (upbeat music) - Neither of us are fathers, but I'm gonna tell a joke anyway. I saw a broken oven in a second hand store the other day, it had the temperature dial set to max, and stuck there. It was only a tenner, and I thought, well, I can't turn that down. (laughing) - [Mike] That's good! - [Narrator] We've also
built The Sorted Club, where you can get tons of foodie inspo using the Packs midweek meal app, discover and share
restaurant recommendations using their Eat app, listen and contribute to
our Feast Your Ears podcast and send us ideas for new
cookbooks you'll receive throughout the year. Check it all out by heading to sorted.club. (relaxed beat) And now, a blooper. (beep) (clanking) (laughing) - Wow, Ben. (mumbling) This is great.
