How to lift things out of air fryer

[Dahlia444]

Had our air fryer about a month and getting on pretty well with it. Where I’m coming unstuck is how to safely/easily lift things out of it.
Things we have in the house and have tried:
long handled tongs- fine for things like sausages
mini tongs - similarly some use but more prone to touching fingers on hot sides
silicon oven gloves - too chunky and a pain to lift dishes/silicon moulds out
oven cloth- what I use for the normal oven - no space for this.

I have googled and seen suggestions of:
making a foil strip to put under dishes to lift out - I’ve been trying for years to reduce waste and it’d be a shame to reintroduce this. Is there any sort of reusable strap I could get??
mini silicone gloves - may be worth a try, look a bit less chunky
trivets to go in basket to lift the cooking food a bit higher up for easier access

We have a Lakeland air fryer which has a large drawer with a divider, which means I can’t really just tip the basket to get something out, particularly if using both sides. But on the plus side I can remove the divider which gives a bit of extra wriggle room for my hands, depending on what is cooking.

Sorry for the long ramble - would love to hear your solutions. Thanks.

The greaseproof paper-type air fryer liners tend to curl up a bit at the sides during cooking and make ideal points of contact for lifting food out. Otherwise, a 9inch / 23cm tong is just the right size - I'd link the Amazon ones I have but they're out of stock.

Yeah, I find getting things in dishes out quite tricky too. It's definitely a design flaw.

Agree it seems a design flaw. Initially it really put me off when I first had it.

Just looked up about liners and I’ll try some greaseproof type to see how I get on. Also I might try a different shape silicon basket with handles - I’ve got a square one as my baskets are square but the handles are in the middle and the edges flop and spill stuff. The round ones might hold a bit better.

The foil strip is a good idea - if you make a sturdy one with several layers of foil it should last a long while. Or you could fold up a foil baking tray and make a strip out of that. Using foil which can be reused many times then recycled should be better for the environment than buying a piece of silicone plastic.

I have been wondering what other people do too.

my friend has just given me some silicon liners which she didn't get on with.

ive found them useful, they have the handles in each side, I wasn't expecting them to get quite so hot!! I find removing the drawer from the AF critical, regardless of what's in them.

fir the silicon liners I use a fork/spoon through each handle and carefully lift it out onto a hand towel/chopping board/whatever.

Without the liner I use a variety of existing utensils depending what the food is/what utensils are in hand.

it's not ideal, but I get there in the end!

I use foil or baking paper underneath. Also the long tongs or fish slice for certain foods.

I just use my fingers but I suspect mine are actually made with asbestos as I don't use oven gloves for the gas oven either 😂 very one else seems to use small tongs or for the silicon trays they use industrial clamp things - like large pegs from b and q

I don't think I've ever had an issue like this- what sort of things are you cooking that you can't get out with tongs?

A sturdy fish slice should handle everything?

This is the main reason that I don't love my air fryer as much as others do. In a normal oven, things don't need turning. In my air fryer, they're just damp and uncooked on the base if they're not turned. But turning them is a massive pain, and I keep burning myself.

I was cooking some thick fish cakes the other day. When it came to turning them, of course a fish slice was too big, and when I tried to turn them with tongs, they fell apart. In my normal oven I'd be able to put them on a baking tray, put the timer on and forget them until they were cooked.

Air fryers have their uses, but they're faffy.

A small casserole dish for example.

Good point @Bradfordsnotthatbad re making a robust strip of foil that can be reused. I’m not keen to buy more silicone as I’m not sure I’ll use it enough. And I’ll take a look at peg type things too. I agree @saraclara that it makes me not love it as much as I expected to.

It depends on the model of air fryer. I have the dual drawer ninja 300, and there's no way a fish slice can be used. The drawers are small but deep.

Oven gloves or tongs ??