Emer McLysaght: I might remove my cooker and replace it with an air fryer shrine

I found myself confidently telling an acquaintance recently that “they’re building air fryers into kitchens now”. As it left my mouth, I was hit with the thought that I hadn’t heard this “fact” from an actual source, but had instead dreamed it up during a particularly mundane bout of REM sleep. I was also conscious that it wasn’t even the first time I had repeated the dubious titbit during conversation. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “Woah Nelly, sounds like you’ve been having some riveting Saturday nights.” And I’ll have you know that I actually have been spicing up my evenings lately, because I did finally succumb and buy an air fryer.

The “they’re building air fryers into kitchens now” line has an urban legend vibe to it, mostly because I’m pretty sure that a built-in air fryer is just an oven. Maybe I’ve muddled the details and what I’ve actually heard is that kitchens are being designed around air fryers. That would make more sense given that at least 75 per cent of air fryer chat is around their size and how much counter space they take up.

I’m already quite evangelical on this point, telling a friend who claims she simply doesn’t have the square footage to accommodate another kitchen gadget that my beast of a machine “is actually hardly noticeable”. This is a barefaced lie, and my dual-basket baby is one of the largest things in my home and that’s including the washing machine and the impulsively purchased and alarmingly sized hammock and hammock stand that I’ve used twice.

I’ve quickly become an air fryer convert, partly because of its imposing presence and partly because of its not-insignificant price tag. Honestly, though, it’s just so very handy. You open a drawer, put uncooked food in, press a few buttons and then come back to a perfectly baked burger or crisped Quorn nugget (or charred and inedible broccoli, if you fail to appreciate and respect the power of the drawer). I can put my hand on my heart and say I haven’t used my hob, oven or grill since the air fryer came into my life.

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Now, my hob, oven and grill are ancient and have been through the hands of countless tenants, so my relationship with them was strained at best. I’ve been only delighted to turn my back on them and the joy of frisbee-ing a burger into the drawer and opening it again 11 minutes later to reveal a browned and juicy morsel has changed things completely.

For quite some time I regarded air fryers with suspicion, thinking them to be the new false idols of diet culture. The idea that air was somehow doing the work of a pan of hot oil seemed too good to be true, yet these gadgets were being held up as weight-loss saviours.

Yes, I have even ‘boiled’ an egg in it. Presumably you can also ‘boil’ an egg in a regular oven, but this lacks the novelty of the drawer and would likely involve preheating my ancient beast for three days

Air fryers existed on social media adjacent to the exceedingly grim Slimming World accounts that gained huge popularity, particularly on Instagram, full of cheats and workarounds to shave off the calories, and usually the joy. Reducing the amounts of oil and fat used in cooking is not a wholesale bad idea, but often denying the body what it truly craves leads to a disordered relationship with food and is rarely sustainable.

Air fryers don’t actually fry anything, they work as small and powerful convection ovens capable of producing a crisp exterior on food you want to be crispy, as well as reducing cooking time and adding convenience. It’s not surprising that people seeking to change their diet and cooking habits were early adopters.

[ Air fryers: Worth the hype, or a load of hot air? ]

[ Looking for tasty air fryer recipes? Bored of Lunch creator Nathan Anthony has you covered ]

I try to avoid pillars of diet culture but am one hundred per cent here for my air fryer’s rapid and convenient traits. My 40-minute baked potato feels like a miracle of science and yes, I have even “boiled” an egg in it. Presumably you can also “boil” an egg in a regular oven, but this lacks the novelty of the drawer and would likely involve preheating my ancient beast for three days. My air-fried “fried” egg was less successful, but I think that was down to user error rather than a fault of the Ninja Dual. The internet is awash with methods for a perfectly “fried” egg, so I will persevere.

God forbid I might return to a frying pan, like an animal. I might just get the cooker removed altogether and build an air fryer shrine in its place.