Transcription
Today I'm ranking every air fryer tool, gadget, gizmo, accessory, whatever you want to call it, from things I can't live without to things you just got to say no to. My name is Kathy, and here on my channel, I empower air fryer owners to actually use their air fryer.
When I got my air fryer about 5 years ago, I slowly started purchasing different things. Let me tell you, I have a tote full of items that are dusty, that I've only used once. And then I also have an array of items that I use every single day, multiple times a day. I'm sharing all of this with you to save you some money and let you know what you're missing out on. I have links to everything that I think that you need. So, everything in the top three categories is listed down in the description box below. You'll also find my most important favorites at pine and pepper. And in some cases, I will link to them on screen. You already see them. Let's go to rank all of these products. We are going to put them in different levels or tiers, not tear, but tier.
The bottom tier, the lowest of the lows, is what I'm calling "Just Say No." Do not buy these items. They are a waste of your time and your money. Keep on scrolling, keep on walking, don't buy them.
Just above that, I've got what I call "Shelf Sitters." These are tools that I've used less than a handful of times. These are tools you just don't need. There is something else that will help you reach the desired result.
Above that, "Not Essential But Fun." Here, I'm placing all of those nice-to-have tools. These are tools that are typically more, more specific to the air fryer. I like them a lot. You don't have to have them, but they are fun to have.
Next, we've got the tools that are "Worth the Space." These are your great-to-have tools. I use these tools all the time. I'm glad I have them, and I believe they are excellent additions to your kitchen.
The top of the tier, the most important level, we're calling this our "Five-Star Must-Haves." These are your can't-live-without kitchen tools. These tools have literally changed my life, and I believe they will change yours too. I use them all of the time.
Now, as I go through this list, keep track of which ones you have. What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? Tell me all about it in the comments below. We will talk about it. So, I'll just start. I've got all this stuff here. There's my dusty tote. Let's start right here. Nope, nope, nope. We'll start here and here. See, they're very similar. This is called a metal holder. Some people use it as a trivet, as a potholder. I do use this occasionally when I want to keep tortillas from flying up or if I want to keep parchment paper down. It's typically sold in an air fryer accessory kit that is full of things you don't need. We will talk about that later. I'm going to put this in the "Not Essential But Fun" category.
But this one, very similar to it, is called, it's like a skewer rack. Somewhere I got skewers. There's one. I've used this once for a video, and after filming that video, I decided rather than taking the time to skewer chicken and veggies and make a kebab, it would make a lot more sense to just lay the chicken and veggies out right on my air fryer tray and cook it up that way. So I've never used this again. I might have used this to try and do some layered cooking, but I think I did it one time with a hamburger here and then fries underneath, but the nasty hamburger grease just like dripped on the fries. So instead, I cook food side by side rather than trying to do racks and layers. This one goes in the "Just No" category. Don't buy it.
Let me know if you disagree. It's a meat pounder. I'm going to put this one in the "Not Essential But Fun" category. This is for pounding down meat, which helps you cook things more evenly, but you could always use a rolling pin or your fist if you're angry. Also "Not Essential But Fun." These cookie cutters. I love using these for making donuts. "Not Essential But Fun."
Something else for my dusty bucket, my dusty busket, for my dusty bucket. This comes in their for accessory kit. A toast holder. Doesn't cook toast well. It just burns the tops. It doesn't toast the toast. I've also put like frozen hash browns in here. Wasn't really that, didn't save space. No, it did save space, but it didn't really cook the frozen hash brown. So this is a "Just No." Do not buy.
Also for these homemade taco shell holders. I've used it, but it became a shelf sitter. It worked fairly decently. There's another part to it somewhere in here, but I've only used it once. So definitely a shelf sitter.
Now, these baggie holders. They come in a set of three or six, which I don't usually need all of them unless I'm doing freezer meals. But this is super great for when you're making marinades and you need it to hold your bag. This is a great tool to have and is in my "Worth the Space" category. Plus, it folds down. It's very compact. It doesn't take that much space.
Silicone tools. Bring on all of the silicone tools right here. These are "Worth the Space." In fact, silicone tongs. These are must-haves. You want to use these to move food around in your air fryer without burning your fingers. So, yeah, we got to have this. We also don't want to use metal because that's going to scratch the coating of our basket. So these are "Five-Star Must-Have." And I really like the smaller set too. You probably have a little pastry brush sitting around. I use this occasionally. You probably use it for other things in your kitchen. "Not Essential But Fun."
These silicone tools, a flipper, a spatula, spatula, spatula, same thing. I use them both, and they are definitely "Worth the Space."
All right, let's dig something else out of my basket here. I've got a lot of egg bite molds. Oh, it's the very bottom. I've used these maybe once or twice. What I found is when air frying, whatever is in the center does not get fully cooked. But I've used it for like meatloaf, egg bites, what else? Donut, pancake, donuts. I think that's all. But these have become shelf sitters.
Instead, I prefer silicone cupcake liners. This is versatile. You'll use it in your oven for cupcakes or your air fryer for cupcakes, and then you can also do muffins, egg bites, meatloaf, lava cake. I've made lasagna cups. There's lots of uses for these. These are "Worth the Space."
Speaking of silicone, I bought this little silicone pot and used it in a few different videos, and then I've never used it again. It worked good for containing the food, but I feel like it kind of blocked airflow a little bit, and these handles were really hot when I was lifting it out of the air fryer. So at this point, I put this in the "Just No, Don't Waste Your Money" category.
Instead, I love to use air fryer parchment paper liners. In fact, I love these so much, I started selling my own. You can snag it at pine and pepper. where you will also find my most favorite air fryer tools. Now, I have a whole video where I talk about when I use these and when I don't use these. I will link to it at the end of this video and also in the description box. Now, let me just tell you though, it comes in this little container, just makes it really handy to stick right in your shelf or your pantry and just keeps everything well contained. These are unbleached parchment paper liners. It's also FDA approved, food-grade paper, and there are no PFAS in it. This makes cleanup a breeze, and I also use it to contain food in the air fryer basket.
Now, even though I sell these, I'm putting these in the "Worth the Space" category because you can survive without them. I would argue that these have changed your life. Okay, that's true. They have changed my life because I am a lazy cook and I don't like to clean. So, okay, debatable, debatable. Let me know what you think below.
Now, speaking of parchment paper, I do need to pay respects to the original parchment paper I used to use. But this has become a shelf sitter because it still makes my air fryer basket messy. And while we're talking about liners, I use these silicone liners. I have a whole video about it. These work okay, but again, basket still gets messy. And now this is also messy, and these are not fun to clean. So these also became shelf sitters, maybe even "Just No."
And last little bit about parchment paper. The only problem with these is that sometimes it can blow over food and prevent browning. Somebody pretty smart invented these silicone magnet buckles, but they're always out of stock. Probably 'cause I make people want to go buy them. And they do not work with every air fryer. They have little magnets inside of the silicone, and with the air fryers that I currently have, I think it works in like two of them. You could try buying magnets, or remember this rack that I talked about earlier? You could set it down on top of the food and the parchment paper to help hold the parchment paper down because you don't want the parchment paper blowing up into the fan, right? It's lightweight, very lightweight. By the way, my team and I are coming up with something that's going to solve this problem. Don't tell anyone. If you want me to tell you when I'm about to launch these, sign up right here: pine and pepper. c/preview. By the way, these go in the "Not Essential But Fun to Have" if you can snag them category.
In the "Worth the Space" category, nitrile, nitrile, I don't know, non-latex gloves. I grab a big old box from Costco. You can also find them online. But if you have a problem with raw meat, if you don't like to touch weird things, these gloves are a lifesaver. I also like to use them for cleaning and a whole lot of other uses. I mean, almost, I would say these are can't live without because one time I cleaned out a super dirty fridge like forever ago, and I wore gloves, and it made everything okay. That's all I'm saying. I, I kind of feel like, I feel like that's a must-have.
A mandolin. Make yourself some chips, make yourself some slices of apple. Just be safe with it. "Not Essential But Fun to Have."
This new kind of oil sprayer. Do you have it? I bought one. Not impressed with it. Really cheap, really lightweight. It supposedly, um, I keep, I'm not used to this trigger. I'm getting oil all over my house. Somewhere you can open the top right there and pour oil out. Well, I'm rarely pouring oil out, so I don't really need that. And as you maybe saw, this shoots out in a straight line now. So just say no, no, don't buy it. It's cheap, and it's cheap.
But this one, I do happen to love. Now, you have to use my link to get the one that I specify because there are a ton on Amazon that look like this, but they do not perform like this. We use this instead of this. This has chemicals, propellant, things we don't want in our body or on our air fryer basket. This, I can control exactly what I put into it, which is pure avocado oil, and this sprays a lot nicer than this scary little thing. While this was a "Just No," this one is "Worth the Space," maybe even a "Five-Star Must-Have."
Now, you could just like put food in a bowl, pour in a little oil, and stir it around to coat food. You could use a paper towel and wipe oil on your air fryer basket or tray. You could use the pastry brush you already have to brush oil onto food, or you could just buy yourself one of these. It's in the long term pretty economical too, and this one has lasted me going on 3 years now. Which also means this original oil sprayer that I used in my first air fryer videos, not good, not good, way overpriced. This is the second oil sprayer that I used in my videos, lasted I think 2 months before it just started streaming all the time, not good. And here is one of those knockoffs that I told you about, but just stick with this one. Those all go down there in the "No" pile.
Right here, my favorite velvety washcloths. These are borderline "Five-Star Must-Haves" to "Worth the Space." They make cleaning grime off your air fryer so easy. I know many of you have these. Drop a comment and let me know how much you love them. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Dawn Power Wash. Watch my "How to Clean an Air Fryer" video, and you can see why this one is totally "Worth the Space."
Grab yourself a cutting board. You probably already have one, but I always love to have one on hand. And then rather than putting my hot air fryer basket right on my counter, I just set it on the cutting board. Plus, it's a cutting board. You can use it for a charcuterie and other things like cutting food. This one's a "Five-Star Must-Have." You already have it, I know.
Ceramic ramekins are fantastic. Another alternative to the silicone muffin liners. These are "Not Essential But Fun." I do use them all the time. I am going to tuck this one up in my "Worth the Space" section 'cause I do use them all the time. They're great also for like mason spice mixes. They're also great for a scoop of ice cream if you're working on portion control.
A kitchen scale. It's in my "Five-Star Must-Have" section. There's so many uses for it. It's way beyond air frying, right? But I love to use the kitchen scale for measuring out ingredients by weight instead of by volume. Perfect for sticky foods like honey, peanut butter, sour cream. I know it's not sticky, but it's messy.
Another way to contain your food is using anything that is oven safe. If you can put it in the oven, not the microwave, but in the oven, then it's going to be okay to put in your air fryer. Sometimes it might be a little challenging finding a dish that fits inside your air fryer. Honestly, I use these more than I use this one. And actually, I just found myself using my parchment paper liners or just the air fryer basket itself.
These things that come in air fryer accessory kits are okay. I don't think I've used these pizza pans more than twice. So these have become shelf sitters, as have these cake barrels. I think you can find something you already own that will work in your air fryer. Plus, it's kind of gross. It's like, uh, got a scratch on it and it's rusting. So another cake pan. Oh, here's the rest of the taco things. Oh, there's literally dust flowing out of here. Wow. These I don't think I've ever used on my air fryer. These are some silicone doughnut liners. They're meant for the oven, and I just cut them down to fit inside my air fryer basket. I used these in a few different videos. The funnest one was making pancake donuts. But honestly, I probably haven't touched these in the last 2 years. These have become shelf sitters, but they're also not essential, but they're still fun. And if you want to make like a cake-like donut or air fryer pancake donuts, I don't really know of any other way to do it. So yes, I'm going to put these in the "Not Essential But Fun" category.
These grill grates. I featured in some videos in the past. These are really heavy-duty aluminum. They are a little bit sharp on the edges, but if you want grill marks on your food, you just put these in your air fryer and preheat it, and then throw some steak or chicken down, and it's a lot of fun, and it cooks up really nicely. I'm going to put these in the "Not Essential But Fun" category.
I pretty much got everything out of my box, but we have three more things. I got to talk about. How many of these do you have? How many of these do you agree with me on? Let's talk about my cookbook. I created this cookbook just over 3 years ago because my viewers, you asked me to. I had no idea how to publish a cookbook, but now I do. This cookbook has more than 160 recipes. There's a ton of pictures, and these are real food recipes that contain ingredients that you probably have in your pantry most of the time. Now, can your life go on without this cookbook? Yes, it can. However, if you are a person that is stuck making like three different things in your air fryer, you might enjoy this tried-and-true cookbook. You can get it at pine and pepper. or yummy airfryer recipes.com. This one goes in my "Worth the Space" category. However, yes, you can live without it, but I do want to thank the thousands of you that have already purchased it. I sure appreciate it.
This, however, this goes in my "Five-Star Must-Haves" category. Can't live without it. This is my air fryer cheat sheet. It lists about 80 different foods. This one's just all frozen foods. We have the vegetable section, we have your beef, your seafood, your poultry, we even got some baked goods. And the other section, this lists out the recommended cook temperature, the cook time range, and the recommended internal temperature to cook your food to. This works great if you have recipes you already love, but you want to cook them up in the air fryer. This is going to be your guide. This one is also at pine and pepper. and this just takes all of the guesswork out of air frying. And one more super cool thing is this is user-generated content, meaning what, 2, 3 years ago, my viewers voted on the foods that they wanted to see in the cheat sheet. You asked, and I delivered. Here it is. It's a must-have.
So here we are. We've hit the end. So I've gone through all of these things, but there's one more thing I've got to talk about, and it's this: an instant-read food thermometer. This is the "Five-Star Must-Have." This is the one thing you cannot live without. This is the Bible when it comes to air frying. You will know if your food is done when this tells you it's done. Use it with my guide. You'll see the internal temperatures right here. You could find that online, or you could just get a magnet that sits on your fridge, or you can hang it inside your cabinet and use it with this instant-read thermometer. The cool thing about this is you're not only going to use this with your air fryer, you're going to use this with baking things in the oven. You can use this for food that you cook on the stovetop. You can use this for food that you're grilling. You can use this all the time. And when you abide by this, your food will not dry out. It'll always be cooked perfectly every single time. Do you agree with me, or do you agree with me? Let me know in the comments.
You can find my online shop right here. This is a video where I show you what I do and do not use with the parchment paper liners. And right here, I'm featuring your fan-favorite air fryer recipes. Thanks for watching. I'll see you on the next one.