[SNAP]
All right, I think it's time to put all these ingredients
in the oven.
[PHONE RINGING]
Building manager?
Hello, it's Jack.
Hi.
Wait, you're turning off the gas?
Today?
Hold on a second, I have friends coming over for dinner tonight!
Hey, Jack.
Oh hey, Sara.
Thanks a lot for coming over to help me prep.
I've got some terrible news.
What is it?
The building manager called and said
he was turning off the gas.
How am I going to cook all of this food without an oven?
You know what?
I'm going to order Chinese.
Jack, you don't have to do that.
I see you have a toaster oven.
A lot of the food that you want to cook in your oven
you can also make in the toaster oven.
Really?
And I bet you have some other countertop
appliances laying around.
Well, you know, there's a couple of things
I have not used, like this thing I got for Christmas.
All right, that's an air fryer.
Anything else?
Yeah, there's something in the cabinet.
This thing looks like a robot.
That is a multi cooker.
Oh.
So between your multi cooker, your air fryer,
and your toaster oven, look, we can
make everything you want to cook for dinner tonight.
I put that right there.
OK, Sarah.
So where do I even begin?
So your multi cooker, first of all,
this is really like an all in one appliance.
You can make a lot of dishes in here from start to finish,
and it doesn't always take as much time.
Multi cookers are just one of the many countertop appliances
that we test at Consumer Reports.
We test their ability to saute, steam, slow cook and pressure
cook, and how well they make rice.
So your deviled egg appetizer, since we can't boil water
on the stove, we're going to pressure cook your eggs in
here in about a cup of water for 10 minutes.
They'll be ready to go to make deviled eggs.
I had no idea that that could do that.
That's right.
All right, now let's move on to the toaster oven.
OK.
This is where we'll bake the cobbler for dessert.
Hey, hold on a second.
Are you sure?
Because this is my mama's favorite blueberry mango
cobbler.
Absolutely.
The toaster oven can handle it.
Trust me.
We're also going to make the kale chips
that you want to put together for an appetizer in the toaster
oven.
Oh, nice.
OK.
Toaster ovens are handy, because they heat up faster
than traditional ovens and they're
great for baking smaller items.
To test them, we make toast, cookies, muffins,
and even reheat lasagna.
So Jack, now let's move on to the air fryer.
I thought this just cooked French fries and chicken wings.
No, you can actually use an air fryer.
We're going to use it to roast your salmon
and cook all the vegetables for dinner.
This is sort of like a countertop convection oven.
So it uses hot air inside with fans circulating the hot air,
to really crisp up all this food.
That's pretty cool.
We find that there's a difference
in the size of the basket, so thankfully you
have one that will hold a lot of food.
Sara, I had no idea that these three appliances
could replace my stove.
Let's get to work.
You save the day, Sara.
So how does a machine like this generate enough heat
to cook all this food?
Jack, that's a great question.
And I have just the person to answer it.
Don't tell me.
James Dickerson, chief scientific officer.
Take it away, James!
Hi, Jack.
I'm glad you asked.
There are three ways that heat is
transferred, through convection, and conduction, and radiation.
Convection is the transfer of heat
through the motion of fluids, like liquids and gases.
Think of air flowing out of a hairdryer.
A traditional oven generally emanates heat
from an element in the base of the oven.
You might have to wait a while for the oven to heat up.
A convection oven has a fan that circulates the hot air
around the cavity, which causes food
to more evenly and quickly.
Ditto for that air fryer that you have there.
It's simply a convection cooker that sits on the countertop.
Conduction is the transfer of heat
typically through solid to solid contact.
A good example is a frying pan set on a stove top.
Heat conducts from the bottom of the pan
to the food within the bowl.
A multi cooker has a small heating element
on the bottom that conducts heat and transfers it
to the metal liner of the cooker to cook the food.
Finally, heat can be transferred through radiation.
Radiation involves the transfer of heat
through the emission of infrared light
that emanates from a hot object.
Think of placing your hand near an incandescent light bulb
or over a hot stove top.
Now, conventional toaster ovens have built in coils
in the top and the bottom that heat up,
radiating heat throughout it so that it can broil, bake,
or even toast your food.
Carry on.
Thanks for the information.
All right, Jack, our eggs look awesome.
I'm going to start tracking them.
And these corn on the cob look nice and brown.
They're here!
What a lovely spread definitely.
You guys must have worked all day over a hot stove.
Actually, we had a little help from some cool appliances.
Bon appetit, everybody.
Enjoy
Nice, Jack.
Thank you, Jack.
You're welcome.
Cheers.
[SNAP]