Sometimes the ideas for these tests come straight from the viewers: This is one of those moments. In a previous You Can Do This episode about how to make the crispiest french fries, many commenters argued that using an air fryer would achieve the better fry. Some viewers recommended using coconut oil — which I will never get behind purely for flavor reasons — but using an air fryer is worth a try: So for all of you who wrote in, here it is, the air fryer versus a standard fry.
Using the same cut, weight, and type of potato, we’ll conduct a head-to-head test: one fry to get it right. The results of the traditional deep fry are pretty predictable, so that will act the control group. With the air fryer, one variable to consider is how it could mimic a fry in a convection oven, where hot air flow doesn’t provide a controlled, even heat source like oil, thus leaving the fry patchy in the browning of the cook.
Some would think that a slight bias may exist within this test, and that I’m leaning toward the traditional method of frying. But my true hope is that the air fryer wins, because that would mean being able to eat more french fries — a result always worth taking the time to test.
Click here for more episodes of You Can Do This | Like Eater on Facebook to never miss a video
