It’s taken me a few years to give in, but I am thrilled to announce that, finally, I have my own air fryer, and now I can take part in all the conversations about what my friends are cooking in their air fryers. It’s truly fascinating. The Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer was sent to me free of charge for this review, which contains affiliate links. More information here. GET 20% OFF AIR FRYERS AND SITEWIDE (excluding refrigeration) AT SWAN BRAND WITH THE DISCOUNT CODE Whinge20!
I reckon you’re never more than 3 metres away from someone talking about an air fryer.
They are undoubtedly the must-have kitchen implement of the last few years, taking the slow cooker’s top spot. Very basically, they cook food by circulating hot air around food. They are more or less little mini ovens, which use little to no oil. Additionally, oil and fat from the food drips down through the basket and away from the food, meaning that you can save up to 80% of the fat of cooking using a deep fat fryer for things like chips and fried chicken.
With the cost of living crisis meaning people’s bills are spiralling, they’ve been touted as a much cheaper alternative to using the oven with no preheating required and a much quicker cooking time. With the health benefits and cost savings combined, it’s easy to see why air fryers continue to rise in popularity.
The particular model I was sent for review is the Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer
The model retails at £89.99 and comes in a variety of colours which you can see here (although I’m afraid I opted for a very boring black, sorry) and it looks pretty swish on the countertop, particularly if you happen to have other matching Swan Retro appliances and cookware in your kitchen, like my retro table top fridge.
The Swan retro manual air fryer is quite compact measuring 40 cm wide, 29.4cm long and 34.6cm tall and fits neatly onto the countertop underneath cupboards, although it’s light enough that you can put it away after use if you don’t want it on display. It’s a good looking air fryer though, and one thing I’ve repeatedly heard about air fryers from everybody is that once you use them you will never go back so you probably won’t want to put away often. It has a capacity of 6 litres, which it claims is is around 3 kg of food. That’s enough for an average family meal, for example four chicken breasts, or a packet of sausages.
On the top is a timer, which you twist to set up to 1-hour. On the front, you can adjust the thermostat to cook from 65 up to 200 degrees centigrade.
It comes with a pan/base tray and a basket with handle which slots inside; both are dishwasher safe and fit in the bottom of the dishwasher to make life so much more simple.
***GET 20% OFF AIR FRYERS AND SITEWIDE (excluding refrigeration) AT SWAN BRAND WITH THE DISCOUNT CODE Whinge20!***
How to use the Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer
Basically, it’s very easy. You plug the air fryer in, you pull the drawer out of the air fryer and take the basket out of the drawer. Then you put your food in the basket (being careful not to overload it, or it won’t cook properly) and pop it back in. Set the temperature and the timer and go about your business until you hear it ping.
With regards to the timer, there is a rough guide in the instructions showing you how long various things will take to cook and what temperature to set them at, however there’s a certain amount of trial and error as with every appliance. You can easily pop the basket out and check on progress while it’s cooking.
I found that chicken breasts were fully cooked within 15 minutes, which is amazing as it usually takes half an hour or more to cook fully in the oven. I am very easily amazed, it seems.
What is an Air Fryer good for?
I found that the Swan Retro Air Fryer is particularly good for cooking meat, such as sausages or even a roast chicken, which took around half the time to cook as it would have in the fan oven.
I was also very pleasantly surprised with how well and how quickly it reheated pizza. No more day-old, soggy microwave pizza for me!
It’s really good for finishing off microwaved jacket potatoes too, saving the hassle of preheating the oven just for a couple of spuds. I daresay you could just cook them completely in the air fryer in a similar time.
Roast-style potatoes came out well even with very little oil involved, and chips are really quick and come out perfectly – even those frozen chips which say they take 15 minutes but never actually do.
If you’re a fan of boiled eggs but not such a fan of trying to time them properly in water, stick them in the air fryer for between 7 and 9 minutes on 200 and you’ll get perfect boiled eggs every time without boiling any water.
If you need to grab air fryer ingredients like fresh produce or proteins, consider using an aldi coupons code. Saving on groceries is always a win!
NB I definitely need to get more adventurous with my recipes. There are absolutely thousands of them out there, so I’ve got no excuse really!
In summary: Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer Review
I hadn’t previously looked into how much air fryers cost but the Swan Retro Air Fryer is a really good price at just under £90 full price for a 6 litre capacity, which is a good size.
Some big brand names cost around twice the price for a similar capacity; I can’t say whether they are worth the extra money as I haven’t tried them, but I can say that this one does me just fine. It looks nice on the counter top, and it’s really just very simple to use. I know you can get ones with several drawers, lights/windows, digital displays, Wi-Fi enabled nonsense on them and all manner of cooking functions, and I really don’t think it’s for me.
This one does the job and it’s so easy to use that even the kids could do it.
I have always been a ‘put it in the oven at 200 for 20 minutes’ woman so I can’t imagine using these features anyway. I’m extremely happy with my new toy and I can’t wait to bore you all to tears about it going forward.
Has owning an air fryer changed my life? It’s a possibility. I’ll see what my bills look like next month.
Where to buy the Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer featured in this review
You can buy the Swan Retro Manual Air Fryer featured in this review directly from their website. GET 20% OFF AIR FRYERS AND SITEWIDE (excluding refrigeration) AT SWAN BRAND WITH THE DISCOUNT CODE Whinge20! That makes it just £72, which is an absolute steal.
If you have a recipe I have to try, please do leave it in the comments!
If you CBA to cut chips (or find them in the freezer), open and drain a can of new potatoes, spritz with spray oil and airfry till they are crispy.
I myself just bought a swan my husband loves roast potatoes I didn’t want to cook in the oven he suggested the air fryer anyway ordered off amazon here next day!! I can’t get over it roast potatoes perfect veg last night sausage chips and beans 20 minutes fantastic which I had one before
They really are a game changer – so glad you like yours!