Sous Vide vs. Air Frying: What’s The Difference?
Sous vide and air frying are two of the most popular cooking methods, especially for those who want to be able to prepare delicious meals easily at home. But what are the main differences between these techniques, and what are some of the benefits and drawbacks of each? We’ve got you covered with some information below that you can use to figure out if you’d prefer cooking the sous vide way or if you’d like to stick with air frying instead.
How Does Air Frying Work?
Air frying is a convenient cooking method to use when you want to get the crispy texture and flavor that comes with fried foods, without having to use any unhealthy, fatty oil to get the job done. This electric appliance will sit on your countertop and act like a convection oven. All you have to do is place your ingredients in a perforated basket, set it in the air fryer, and then let it do the rest.
How does an air fryer work, exactly? Put simply, it will generate heat, and then a fan will circulate the hot air throughout the chamber to cook your food efficiently. Because the hot air is moved around the food in a circular manner, and because the air moves around the ingredients so quickly, it’s capable of hitting every surface, allowing for a crispy exterior to form.
Air frying is a lot like oven frying. But it won’t heat up your house like an oven would, so it’s great for those months of the year when it’s too hot to turn the oven on. And these appliances can also help you save time, especially if they don’t need to preheat.
And What About Sous Vide?
Sous vide and air frying are similar in the sense that they both circulate heat to cook your food. But, while air frying uses air to ensure your ingredients are heated perfectly, sous vide uses water instead.
Sous vide is a French term that translates to “under vacuum,” and it’s quite different from air frying. Rather than putting your ingredients in a little convection oven, you cook your ingredients in a vacuum-sealed bag that is placed underwater in a pot. All you have to do is set a sous vide immersion circulator into a pot of water, set the timer and temperature based on the recipe you’re preparing, and let the device do the rest.
The nice thing about this cooking process is that you can set an exact temperature that you want your food to cook at. Your food comes out full of flavor, and the results are consistent every time. When done right, you can prepare restaurant quality meals right at home with this surprisingly easy cooking technique. And it’s hard to mimic the results that you get from sous vide with other methods, including air frying.
What Types of Meals Can You Prepare by Using These Methods?
With both air frying and sous vide, you can prepare a wide range of recipes, but sous vide is typically associated with creating tender and juicy restaurant quality meals. On the other hand, air frying is often used for ingredients that you would typically deep fry, such as French fries, as well as ingredients that you would put in the oven to bake.
Other Similarities and Differences to Consider
- The great thing about air frying and sous vide is that you can buy the appliances you need and then prepare meals right on your countertop. They don’t take up a lot of space, and there are products on the market to suit all budgets.
- With sous vide, the size of the pot that you’re using determines how many ingredients you can prepare at once. This gives you more freedom to prepare larger meals than an air fryer, which limits you to the size of the basket that it comes with.
- An air fryer can cook a meal more quickly than a sous vide immersion circulator, which slowly heats up the water, and which uses lower temperatures than those used in air frying.
Which One Will You Try?
Either of these cooking methods is convenient and easy to learn, and each one can prepare its own set of delicious recipes. So, which one will you try first?