Breakfast links in the air fryer

[BJK]

My Banquet brand links don't have casings and are approx' 1/2" D x 3" long . I thought them different enough from hot dogs to be worthy of a separate thread.

I cooked them in the Cuisinart toaster/broiler/air fryer for 8 minutes @ 400°F. This was also a test of the silicone cooking mat that I lined the bottom of the basket with to make cleanup easier. So the links didn't have full air circulation. The first batch I flipped after 5 minutes and cooked for another 3 minutes. The second batch I didn't flip. I don't think it's worth flipping them and I won't flip them anymore. I'd fry sausage this way again in a heartbeat. They came out nicely browned. Of course you'll need to adjust for your air fryer. Now that I know and trust it to do it's thing I can be off elsewhere in the kitchen doing something else.

The silicone mat? It definitely kept the basket clean and the clean up of it was easy. But it's too early to state if I like it more than throw away parchment paper. It expanded under the heat and that was a PITA. But it isn't "fly away" as the paper has been in the past under the fan. I once had the paper go up against the heat bars and start to burn (no flames, not that type of burning).

When I become impulsive enough I'll try a sausage with a casing. But they can burst and do burst in a frying pan and that potential mess has kept me from trying them.

The air fryer experiment has been interesting and while I don't think they're good for everything (as some folks appear to think they are) they definitely work fine for some things. So far I'm glad I replaced our old T/B with one with AF capability.

I have a friend who says that their "new to them" home had what he thinks is a Cuisinart T/B/AF that's almost brand new. I suspect it's either the one we have or the one with push buttons. I mentioned that I was going to use our old one for as long as I could and he told me his wife doesn't want the thing since they have 3 others and she doesn't want them either. I think it'll be fine for coating bullets. I just need to get with him to get it passed to me.

[Walks]

Sounds Good.
I slice cased sausages perpendicular to their length regardless of how I cook them. Polish are My favorites.
Cutting small slashes in the skin will keep them from "bursting" and let out the grease. If you eat them on a bun it also makes it easier to bite into them.

[BJK]

You have no idea how much I dislike the idea of slicing them, and for that reason it never occurred to me. But it beats the heck out of not trying them in the AFer. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

[dale2242]

I heat the "brown N serve" type of frozen sausage patties and links in the air fryer all the time.
They turn out nice and brown.
4 minutes to the side seems about right to me.