Salter XL Digital Steamer & Air Fryer Review: Dual purpose cooking

Verdict

As an idea, Salter’s XL Digital Steamer & Air Fryer is sensible, providing two wholesome methods of cooking that complement one another. However, the execution leaves one thing to be desired: it’s an enormous equipment that requires extra upkeep than your common air fryer, requires clear house overhead when steaming, and has a number of flaws. There’s little steerage as to the right way to get the very best from it, which is disappointing. Work previous these quirks, and the reward is great: tasty, nutritious meals cooked simply and effectively.

Introduction

Steaming meals locks in nutritional vitamins and minerals however can’t brown it; air frying meals requires little to no oil, however extended excessive temperatures can cut back vitamin.

The Salter XL Digital Steamer & Air Fryer unites the very best of each wholesome cooking strategies in a single useful equipment, permitting you to steam meals gently earlier than including flavour and color with a crisp end.

This means you’ll be able to steam then grill veggies and fish, roast hen quicker, or swap from making steamed dumplings to completely cooked ribs with one machine. And, if you have already got a steamer and an air fryer, its 2-in-1 talents might unlock some worktop house.

Design and options

• 1-litre water tank
• Busy management panel
• Family sized capability

The Salter XL Digital Steamer & Air Fryer calls for a good chunk of house in your kitchen: not solely is it 39.2cm tall, however the width is nearly the identical at 40.5cm and the depth 32.4cm. The required house round it, when in use, is simply as substantial: it’ll want at the least 20cm behind, house in entrance to tug out the drawer and, when steaming, it might’t be used under cabinets or cabinets.

It is, nonetheless, enticing to take a look at: completed in shiny black, its 6.5-litre capability drawer contains a matte silver deal with that matches the trim, and the water tank is unobtrusively positioned on high. When not in use, all that reveals on the show is a discreet energy button.

This modifications when the digital contact show is turned on. The management panel is a multitude of icons and buttons, that includes six preset programmes, together with pizza, fish and greens, a button every for steaming, air frying and steam and air fry mixed manually, one to alert when water is low, one for steam cleansing itself, and one known as Set, which is just for whenever you’re utilizing the mixed programmes.

This implies that though the air fryer is definitely easy to make use of, it’s not particularly intuitive – an issue that’s compounded by a show that switches itself off should you pause to test a time or temperature of a recipe.

It’s not clear if the drawer and its non-stick tray inside are dishwasher secure: solely hand washing is really useful within the directions. Cleaning it by hand was easy sufficient, nevertheless it’s value noting that the steam perform provides to the upkeep: working a cleansing programme after every use, emptying the drip tray, and common descaling.

Performance

• Programmes could be toggled whereas cooking
• Minimal steerage for steaming
• Can be tough to programme

One of the very best features of the Salter XL Digital Steamer & Air Fryer is its capacity to steam in addition to air fry. However, it’s additionally essentially the most ignored facet within the directions and provided recipes. None of the recipes embody steaming, whereas the time and temperatures are provided for the mixed programmes however neglect to recommend the amount of meals for every one.

For instance, the hen programme is about for 10 minutes of steaming, adopted by 25 minutes of air frying, however doesn’t state if that is for an entire chicken and a instructed weight, or if it’s extra appropriate for items of poultry. The similar is true for the meat, fish and vegetable programmes, that means there could also be some trial and error when understanding how greatest to prepare dinner totally different meals.

It’s necessary to notice that the programmes steam first after which air fry; the 2 duties aren’t run on the similar time. With Ninja’s steam succesful merchandise, such because the Ninja Speedi, they use steam throughout air frying, to present crispy and succulent leads to solely the identical time that it usually takes to air fry.

In testing, the mixed programmes introduced one other downside: the right way to alter them. While there are buttons to toggle the time and temperature for the steaming, the show doesn’t present the air fry setting. Instead, there’s a Set button to regulate the air fry time and temperature – confusingly, that is its solely perform, and also you gained’t want it to set any of the only technique programmes. And, as beforehand talked about, should you’re not quick sufficient when setting, the show will flip itself off. This occurred a number of occasions throughout testing and was irritating. Another difficulty I skilled was that the drawer usually didn’t shut easily, and wanted a agency shove to shut correctly.

Once I began cooking with the air fryer, I discovered there was rather a lot to love. I particularly appreciated that the time and temperature could possibly be altered at any level, even throughout the mixed programmes, as this gave better flexibility. There’s additionally no want for preheating and the mixed programmes swap from steam to air frying mechanically. The steaming temperature is mounted at 100°C, however you’ll be able to air fry between 80°C-200°C and it’ll run for as much as 60 minutes general. While the air fryer has 1700W of energy (with the steamer 900W), smaller-capacity air fryers may are available in at this wattage, so I factored this in when understanding cooking occasions.

I began by air frying hash browns utilizing the guide air frying setting: the directions instructed quarter-hour at 200°C, which I believed was too brief. After the cooking time had elapsed, the hash browns had been scorching, however not crispy.

Five extra minutes on the similar warmth crisped them up effectively although whereas leaving the within tender.

Next, I cooked a steak utilizing the mixed steam and air fry meat programme. This was set at 10 minutes of steam adopted by half-hour of 190°C air frying. I felt that this may be extra appropriate for a joint of meat, so altered it to five minutes of air frying.

On stability, much less steaming would have been ample: whereas the steak emerged effectively browned, the meat was somewhat powerful, on the facet of effectively accomplished, and fewer juicy than if it had simply been grilled or air fried.

There’s equally minimal steerage for the chips programme, which doesn’t embody steam and is about at 200°C for quarter-hour. It’s not clear whether it is extra suited to creating chips from recent potatoes, or is geared toward oven chips from frozen.

A desk within the recipe booklet instructed that 20 minutes or extra can be extra appropriate for chips from scratch, so I used this period for cooking recent chips tossed in a small quantity of oil. This proved to be a very good possibility: they emerged golden general, crisp on the ends and persistently fried.  

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