Making canned food from a variety of fruits and vegetables for the winter on your own is becoming increasingly popular. And the reason is not only that you get the opportunity to prepare dishes according to proven and very tasty recipes, but also that you can be absolutely sure of the safety of its ingredients, especially if they were carefully grown with your own hands.
But for both an experienced housewife and a beginner, the process of sterilizing jars or ready-made dishes, which is necessary when canning, sometimes appears to be a nightmare. Just imagine that in the heat you will have to fill the kitchen with hot water steam - and you no longer want to do anything. But, fortunately, in recent years, many devices have appeared to make cooking easier. And one of them seems to have been deliberately invented in order to make the sterilization process easy and enjoyable. But, really, sterilization of jars in an air fryer is so simple and unburdensome that having seen or tried to carry out this process once, you are unlikely to use any other sterilization method in the future.
What is an air fryer
The real name of this device is a convection oven and it was invented not at all for sterilization, but for preparing a variety of dishes using hot air streams.But this kitchen appliance turned out to be very versatile in its purpose, since it produces excellent baked fish, chicken or shish kebab with a crispy crust. You can also cook soups and compotes in it, stew, bake, and also make various preparations for the winter. It is precisely its last function that we need to dwell on in more detail.
After all, an air fryer makes it possible not only to sterilize empty canning jars, which in itself is not bad, but also to make preparations directly in the jars, while simultaneously subjecting the products to sterilization. Moreover, the quality of sterilization is even higher than using conventional methods. This is achieved by increasing the heating temperature: it can be varied from 150°C to 260°C. This article is devoted to how to sterilize jars and various ready-made dishes in an air fryer.
Sterilization of empty jars
If you have recently purchased an air fryer and are not yet mentally ready to completely trust it in preparing preparations for the winter, then you can start with the simplest process - sterilizing empty jars for further canning.
This process with the help of an air fryer happens very quickly and easily. First, as usual, prepare the jars: select undamaged ones, wash them and rinse them well.
The lowest rack is placed in the bowl of the air fryer, and as many cans as can fit are placed on it, so that there is a small space between them.
The temperature on the convection oven is set from +120°C to +180°C.In the Hotter convection oven, where you can also set the fan rotation speed, it is set to medium. For cans with a volume of no more than 0.75 liters, the timer is set for 8-10 minutes. Larger jars are sterilized within 15 minutes. However, sterilization time directly depends on temperature. If you need to carry out the process faster, then set the temperature from +200°C to +240°C and sterilize any jars in no more than 10 minutes. True, in this case it is desirable that sterilization at high temperatures be combined with steam sterilization. To do this, just pour a little water into each jar (about 1-2 cm layer) before placing the jars in the convection oven.
After the timer sounds, you can remove the sterile jars from the bowl and use them for their intended purpose. You just need to do everything with great care, since the jars will be very hot.
But at higher temperatures, the rubber seals in the lids may deteriorate. In this case, they can either be removed and sterilized separately, or the lids themselves can be sterilized separately in any convenient way.
Preparations in the air fryer
So now you know how to sterilize jars in an air fryer. But the most interesting feature of this device is the sterilization of ready-made products. No housewife likes this process, since it is quite labor-intensive and even dangerous, since it involves manipulating glass jars filled with hot liquid in boiling water. Interestingly, an air fryer can work miracles.It can make the process of sterilizing workpieces in it completely safe and uncomplicated even for novice cooks.
If you want to sterilize ready-made dishes, then simply place the jars with them in the air fryer bowl, close them with lids without rubber bands and turn on the timer for the required time at the desired temperature.
But most often, in order to save energy, they do the following. Turn on the air fryer initially at the highest temperature, and after 10 minutes reduce it to +120°C +150°C. In general, sterilization time takes 15-20 minutes in this case, even for large jars.
When sterilizing workpieces, you can observe the progress of the process through transparent glass. If everything goes correctly, you should notice boiling bubbles in the jars.
After the device beeps, the jars are carefully removed and immediately screwed on with sterile lids.
But the most interesting thing is that in an air fryer you can make sterilized preparations practically from scratch, that is, without using additional bowls, pans and other kitchen utensils and heating elements in the form of a stove or oven.
To do this, put chopped foods (vegetables, fruits or berries) into prepared jars and place them in the air fryer bowl. Then the jars are filled with the necessary liquid (marinade, brine or sweet syrup) and covered with lids.
Next, the required temperatures and cooking times are set. You just need to keep in mind that if you use recipes for a regular stove, then for an air fryer the cooking time can be reduced by 30%.
After the convection oven has finished working, your products are ready and sterilized; all that remains is to take them out and roll them up. It is just important not to forget to insert sealing rubber bands, sterilized elsewhere, into the lids.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated in working with an air fryer, but this device can make the process of sterilizing food for the winter several times easier.
