French Fry Diary 727: Copper Crisper

This As-Seen-on-TV product promises to transform your oven into an air fryer. There's no added oil or butter, it eliminates turning food, and allows heat to circulate around food. No sticking, no burning, sounds amazing, right?

Well, maybe. I am always skeptical of this infomercial stuff, especially when pitched by loud obnoxious after-midnight infomercial guys like this Copper Chef dude. That said, this copper color painted basket raised over a copper color painted bake pan does kinda do what it says it does.

Like a convection oven the hot air circulates around the food cooked all sides and eliminating the need to turn it. Five to ten minutes more is needed however to cook the food. That's just what I got from the two batches of steak fries I tried to cook this way. The slight crisp on the outside and fluffy potato on the inside works well for the thicker fries like steak fries, but I immediately wondered what shoestrings might be like in this thing, so the next time that opportunity came, I tried it.

Over the next few days, there was much experimentation. If nothing else, shoestrings worked better, and chicken nuggets and other breaded goodness worked as well, even refrigerated dough biscuits. Onion rings however, and anything you might want a bit of a crunch to - not so much. Five to ten minutes longer than directions tell you is the hard and fast rule though, sometimes longer.

The Copper Crisper is no air fryer, and neither is it a convection oven, but for an infomercial product, it is pretty darn good. I'm happy with it.