Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@itsnicolejaques
Topics: Food and Drink, TikTok, Hacks
Callum Jones
Air fryers are certainly a handy kitchen appliance, allowing you to cook a variety of different items in rapid amount of time.
Compared to the bog-standard oven, you could be munching on your favourite tea in less than half the time if you were to use an air fryer.
Nowadays, fryers can be rather inexpensive, too - with you being able to pick one up for as little as under £40 with some retailers.
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Because of that, a lot more people have them in their homes and they can be pretty versatile.
But while air fryers are good for cooking a lot of things, there are certainly some food items you should not be putting in them.
Self-confessed kitchen hack provider, Nicole Jaques, uploaded a video to her TikTok account last month (@itsnicolejaques), where she revealed three items you really shouldn't be putting in the air fryer.
Firstly, it's best to avoid recipes that are gonna have a lot of cheese on top.
She explained: "The cheese is going to melt before your item is cooked, creating a huge gooey mess."
Nicole added that you can still add cheese to the recipe though, but you'll want to do so two minutes before the item is finished cooking.
And the second item you should not be putting in your air fryer is rice, according to Nicole.
To be honest, I've never thought of doing this, as there is another kitchen appliance made for this - but for those who do, Nicole has provided an explanation as to why you should avoid it.
She explained: "Even with the special insert, it never cooks evenly. Just use a rice cooker instead."
And the third and final food item you should not be putting in an air fryer are cake donuts.
"The sour cream in their dense batter of sugar and flour just becomes a flop in the air fryer. Don't try it," she explained.
The advice actually comes after the Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis recently issued a warning for those on the air fryer hype train.
He warned that, in some instances, the cost of running air fryers can actually be rather expensive.
Essentially, if you're cooking a large amount of food, using the oven or the hob is likely to be cheaper than chucking it all in an air fryer.
Which? research also recently concluded that while air fryers do tend to be cheaper for a lot of things, this isn't always the case.
The consumer choice website wrote: "Often the air fryer used less than half the energy to cook the same food items, and the results were just as tasty.
"However the savings soon drop off if you have to double up on batches, as air fryers don't have as much space as a typical oven or hob.
"So if you're cooking a large amount of food, the oven or hob may still be the best bet."