IF conversations of recent weeks are anything to go by, consumers are increasingly reaching for the air fryer to get a good steak on the plate with minimal effort and time.

The idea was first put on Beef Central’s radar earlier this year by Ilfracombe producer and North Australia Beef Research committee member Rob Pearce, who gave it a glowing recommendation.

“I will actually cook a rib fillet in the air fryer and it is absolutely beautiful. Just don’t leave it sit for too long, you have to eat it straight away,” he said.

A couple of months later, The Week in Beef podcast caught up with respected meat scientist Dr Mark Miller from Texas Tech University – who said the air fryer steak was a hit in the United States.

“There are so many people air frying steaks, they are perfecting it and we are seeing a large growth, mainly because it is convenient.

“You can produce a really high quality eating experience. It’s not the best, right? But it’s still really good.”

Dr Miller said a lot of people in the US are working towards a goal of having a certain number of grams of protein/day relative to their body weight – which is also a trend in Australia. He said that has brought forward a number of products like beef jerky, meat sticks and even beef chips are being developed.

“You get to the end of the day and you still need 23 grams of protein, what are you going to eat? You can either eat 14 snack sticks or have a really nice beef steak, you pop it right into the air fryer and it is on your plate in 10-15 minutes at most.”

Dr Miller said there is work to create a product specifically for the air fryer, however, it needs work on the packaging as a lot of steaks are packaged with a PVC overwrap which does not freeze very well.

How do you cook it?

On the recommendation of Dr Miller and Mr Pearce, Beef Central asked several butchers and University of New England professor Peter McGilchrist how they would cook a steak in the air fryer.

There were two main methods of cooking the steak in the air fryer:

• Slice the steak thin (about 1cm) and cook for eight minutes from frozen. Do not flip, do not rest it – eat straight out of the air fryer.
• Get a regular thick cut piece of rib fillet or sirloin and cook for eight minutes on both sides. Again, eat this straight from the air fryer with no rest.

How did it go?

Thin cut from frozen

If we were to cook a steak in the air fryer again, this method is most likely the one we would use. However, it is hard to get it right and you may have to settle for something that is not exactly your preferred degree of doneness.

Our first attempt at this method, cooking on one side for eight minutes cooked the steak well on the sides, but it was raw in the middle. My local butcher said this could be fixed by flipping it and cooking for another two-three minutes.

In a second attempt at this method, we cut the steak into smaller strips which cooked the steak more evenly.

Thick cut, flipped on both sides

This method was definitely satisfactory and left some crust on the outside. It cooked the steak well, but it was not exactly an even cook right the way through. Cooking it from room temperature made the steak shrivel up.

The other question we had about this method was whether or not it was worth it. If you put it in for eight minutes/side, you use up 16 minutes and you are not much further ahead than you would be cooking that piece of meat on a barbecue or pan.

Our verdict was that an air fryer passes as a method of cooking steak, but does not beat the good old barbecue.