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7 Best Air Fryers of 2022 For All the Fun Without all the Fat

Posted on08/04/202307/12/2022Author

Basketball styles: Probably the original style of air fryers, basket-style refers to the basket that pulls in and out of the unit like a drawer. They’ve been improved over the years to have a larger capacity and great usefulness outside of cooking only one serving. They’re also more compact and portable than other styles of air fryers.

Dual-basket style: Take a basket-style air fryer and add a second basket, and you’ll have your dual-basket air fryer. They double the utility of any model, and you can simultaneously cook food at different temperatures and for different lengths of time without disturbing the other. They are larger in size but that extra usefulness can make or break which model you purchase.

Air fryer toaster ovens: These are essentially shrunken-down ovens for use on your kitchen counter. They are infinitely transportable and can do everything from bake, roast, dehydrate and broil.

A Note on the “Healthiness” of Air Fryers

Just because a brownie is cooked in an air fryer, it doesn’t make it healthier. Same goes for those frozen French fries. The real benefit of air frying is the ability to control the total fat that is absorbed by any food compared to pan frying or deep frying. If those items were previously fried and then heated up again, their fat content hasn’t changed. Fat is necessary for a healthy diet. Air fryers are way less intimidating than a vat of bubbling hot oil but what you put into them has as much to do with what you get out of them.

What to Consider Before Buying an Air Fryer

While there are a ton of options when it comes to air fryers, there are also some great ways to narrow down your choices. Do you have small counters and want something that is easy to operate? That’s a check mark towards a basket style air fryer. Is your top priority making larger portions of food with lots of fun accessories? Then try out the toaster oven model. Prices vary significantly but you can always choose a model and wait for it to go on sale. Or borrow one from a friend to see which functions are the most helpful.

How We Tested

There were three components to this process. One, how well does the air fryer work? Two, how easy is the model to operate. And three, how easy is it to clean? The whole point of an air fryer is that it evenly cooks, browns and crisps food. If your fries don’t have that crunchy outer crust then what’s the point? We looked at how each of the air fryers did with frozen, store-bought French fries, homemade taquitos and bone-in chicken wings. We tested a whole and portioned chicken for the rotisserie model. The best air fryers consistently cook food quickly and evenly, and have powerful heating elements that mimic a traditional oven.

Now that air fryers have improved functions, it’s pretty standard for them to come with a vast selection of preset temperature settings and an automatic pause function for when the basket is opened when the fryer is in use. Cleaning is very important and being able to disassemble and reassemble them easily is very important. Just like with other cooking devices, cleaning them while freshly used is much easier than waiting a few hours. How noisy the model is matters as well and was a helpful category to examine.

The Best Overall Air Fryer: Philips Premium Air Fryer XXL

Phillips Premium XXL digital airfryer

Capacity: 4.1 quarts
Dimensions: 13.95 x 13.8 x 12 inches
wash: Air fryer basket and tray are dishwasher safe. Clean models with a damp cloth.

Detroit’s 2022 Eater Awards Winners: Best Restaurants, Chefs, and Bars

Posted on01/01/202307/12/2022Author

If there’s one characteristic that sums up Detroiters, it’s persistence. Working with grace under fire has always been a prerequisite for surviving and thriving in this city, whether it was during a pandemic, the struggles with gentrification, a historic bankruptcy, or decades of disinvestment. Somehow, we know how to overcome whatever challenges we’re faced. That’s no different for the restaurants and bars and in 2022, a number of establishments have found ways to innovate in the kitchen, build community one cocktail at a time, and design spaces in neighborhoods that feel welcome to all Detroiters.

This year, we saw an underutilized ground-level storefront near downtown transformed into an intimate neighborhood destination that’s perfected the art of Coney-style steak and frites, a long-vacant historic firehouse reimagined as a casual-yet-elegant wine bar, a trio of Black bartenders whose pop-up beverage program encapsulates Black excellence, and a pair of neighborhood restaurants that are redefining Detroiters’ notions of fine dining in their own communities.

And with that, Eater Detroit is proud to celebrate the winners of the 2022 Eater Awards.

The interior of Bar Pigalle in Detroit, Michigan with white top tables, dark colored chairs, green accents.

A dish of food on a plate from Bar Pigalle in Detroit, Michigan.

A cheeseburger in the foreground on a plate a bowl of fries to the left in the background and a brown bottle of beer to the right in the background from Bar Pigalle in Detroit, Michigan.

Best New Restaurant

Bar Pigalle

Years ago, sommelier Joseph Allerton and bartender Travis Fourmont got to know each other at the new-at-the-time Michael Symon’s Roast in the swanky Westin Book Cadillac. Allerton stayed at Roast, while Fourmont parted ways with the spot. The two crossed paths over the years after that and somehow always knew that they would get the chance to work again someday. That someday came this June when the pair opened Bar Pigalle on the ground level of the historic Carlton Lofts.

To be sure, the duo never abandoned their ties to the beverage world. Bar Pigalle’s cocktail, beer, and wine lists are impressive but now with their own space, they get to pair libations with a food menu. Chef Nyle Flynn plays with Detroit’s French history with dishes like bison tartare, guanciale-wrapped frog legs, and a Coney-style steak and frites. In keeping with its Parisian theme, the establishment is named after the Quartier Pigalle — home of the famous Moulin Rouge.

Best New Bar

Ladder 4 Wine Bar

Part of the charm of Detroit living is its abundance of historic architecture — including its old-school firehouses. Sadly, many of the city’s structures are in need of significant TLC, waiting for someone to recognize the beauty that lies within them. On an otherwise quiet corner at Vinewood and West Grand Boulevard one such firehouse, known as Ladder 4. Built in 1910 and designed by the same architects behind the Belle Isle Boat House, the hidden gem lay dormant since the station closed in 2000. Enter James Cadariu, who along with his brother, purchased the building in 2015 and got down to business restoring the space so that it could realize a new future. Earlier this year, Cadariu’s elbow grease finally paid off when he reintroduced Ladder Four as a bar and retail wine shop featuring more than 200 varieties of wines that span the globe.

On a balmy summer afternoon, guests can grab a seat at three patio spaces and sip on vino by the glass or bottle. The first floor boasts comfy U-shaped upholstered booths, several stone high tops, and a period-appropriate subway tiling. From the start, Cadariu insisted that Ladder 4 is a wine bar, not a restaurant, although more recently, that’s begun to change, thanks to the innovative menu designed by John Yelinek who also helms the popular Park Ranger pop-up. Sure, you could settle for a bowl of olives or a tin of mussels. But the move is certainly to go big with a 32-ounce dry-aged rib-eye for two. Suddenly, you’re transported from what was once an abandoned building into an elegant neighborhood destination.

Lisa Posey, one third of the Black on Both Sides bartending pop-up venture.

John Neely of Black on Both Sides in Detroit, Michigan.

Best New Collaborative Hospitality Experience

Black on Both Sides

In February 2022, a trio of Black bartenders decided to band together with the mission to enhance the hospitality experiences of people of color. Andre Sykes, who was just coming off the high of leading the Shelby speakeasy to the James Beard Awards’ long list for Best Bar in America, along with co-conspirators John Neely of Highlands and Lisa Posey who helped open an Evening Bar downtown in 2019 followed by a stint at The Spare Room in Los Angeles, launched Black on Both Sides. That investment in itself has been paid off so far. Among the trio’s highlights came mid-summer when they collaborated on an ambitious effort to invite Detroiters of all walks to immerse themselves in the city’s burgeoning, though sometimes a not-so-welcoming dining scene with the Hospitality Included Fest outside of the Chroma building in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood. Among the dozens of food and beverage vendors in attendance — ranging from emerging

Best Eggnog French Toast Recipe

Posted on06/11/202230/11/2022Author

It seems like there’s always a little more eggnog in the carton than we know what to do with, so we set out to create the perfect recipe to use it up. Enter: eggnog French toast! It turns out that eggnog makes the ideal French toast custard base in place of traditional milk, half-and-half, or cream. Enriched with eggs and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and rum extract, this eggnog French toast recipe has all the flavors you love in an eggnog cocktail, but in a family-friendly breakfast format.

The trick to custardy (but not soggy) French toast is to use dried-out bread; compared to fresh bread, it absorbs more of the custard and keeps its shape rather than falling apart as it soaks. We give our bread a 10-minute toast in a 275º oven to get the job done. (Dried bread makes for a better texture than stale, which retains a lot of moisture. If you do happen to have a stale loaf, still go ahead and dry the slices in the oven.) Just make sure you give the bread at least 30 minutes to soak before cooking—while it may increase your prep time, it really does make a difference in achieving that custardy center.

To create a textural contrast, we sprinkle the bread with a little sugar before cooking. The result is a crispy, glazey, caramelized crust that complements the toast’s rich, eggy interior. It’s just sweet enough to stand on its own, but we love it drizzled with maple syrup and garnished with some whipped cream and berries.

Want to get ahead of the game? Prep the French toast the night before, soaking overnight in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap) for an extra custardy interior. Just be sure to let it warm up slightly on the counter before cooking, and potentially give it a few extra minutes in the pan to ensure it’s cooked all the way through. PS Use a 13″-by-9″ baking dish if you don’t have a large rimmed baking sheet.

Made this holiday breakfast? Let us know how it went in the comments below!