The bake and air fry functions worked as expected, and we (really) enjoyed baking a brownie in the garden. The Smart Cook System will then monitor the internal temperature of the meat via the thermometer, and detect when the meat is finished cooking per your settings. Our salmon, air-fried for 8 minutes at 180C – could have also done with an extra five minutes to crisp up the skin underneath, but otherwise had good flakiness and flavour. Unlike any of the air fryers we’ve tested previously, the LED and touch control panel is located on the glossy top of this kitchen gadget creating a streamlined look. Another container for the likes of meat or fragile fish fillets can then be added over the central stalk, to double up cooking space.

Most modern air fryers consist of a pull-out drawer with a crisper tray inside, similar to the perforated trays found in a fryer or oven. Depending on the model, we’ll also test additional features including reheating pizza and drying out herbs.

Rotisserie air-fryers: these are designed to produce evenly browned but moist cooked chickens, roasted much quicker than in the oven. With a large capacity you get a large footprint, and there's no denying that a large amount of counter space is needed to accommodate this air-fryer. Its clever self-igniting woodfire smoke box uses convenient wood pellets to create smoky flavors just like cooking over a wood or charcoal fire. Some of the best air fryers also have more than one compartment, which means you can cook multiple foods at the same time. We looked at how evenly they ‘fried’ and whether they were brown and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Similarly, large joints of meat, such as a whole chicken, will fill the air frying drawer and mean the hot air can't circulate, so it also won't be evenly crisped and browned. That’s handy for starting ingredients off before slow cooking, or for finishing meals: I cooked rice, and then added some pre-cooked beef strips, onions and peppers, sautéing the food to get it piping hot. Despite its large footprint and some initial difficulty with the match and sync functions, which allow you to finish cooking different foods at the same time, we were able to master the controls fairly quickly. The transparent ones tend to be a feature on more expensive machines, so you need to decide how important this is to you. We always list power cable length in our reviews because it can determine how close you'll need to place yourBuilt with eight presets (steak, chicken wings, seafood, fish, pizza, chips, bake, vegetables), its sync function adds convenience and was effective when cooking different dishes at the same time – we tried this with salmon (10 mins at 180C) and chicken breast (20 mins at 180C). The T31 beeps noisily as you flit between its 12 presets, which include favourites like chips, chicken and vegetables.

Deep-frying might be the best way to cook conventional fried foods, but mucking about with oil isn't all that convenient. This is a proper air fryer, too, although topping out at 210°C it can’t quite get the crispiest of results that air fryers with a higher temperature can reach. However, it struggled to evenly brown foods, so we found ourselves tweaking cooking times, and it wasn't effective when cooking frozen foods either.If you have the space on your countertop for another boxy appliance, Breville’s latest air-fryer is a statement multifunctional gadget that, when on, will draw attention from across the room.