Courgette sticks in an air fryer

What usually goes wrong

Wet collapse. Courgette is over ninety per cent water with nothing structural holding it together once the cell walls fail, and in a crowded basket it boils. Salting and draining for twenty minutes first is the only reliable improvement and no chart mentions it.

Running the appliance safely

These apply to every food and every air fryer, so they are here once rather than repeated under each state above. They come from Electrical Safety First, from UK product-safety notices and from the manufacturers’ own manuals.

• Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead.
• An unusual smell, an unusual noise, or scorch marks on the plug mean stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
• Do not overfill. Food touching the heating element is a fire risk, not a cooking problem.
• White smoke from fatty food is usually normal. Black smoke means unplug it immediately.
• Do not leave an air fryer running unattended.
• Leave clear space above and around the appliance, and never cover the air intake or the outlet.

• Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter on starchy foods such as chips and roast potatoes, rather than a darker brown.
• Buy from a reputable retailer rather than a third-party marketplace seller.
• Clean the drawer, the plate and the element after use. Accumulated grease is what smokes, and then what burns.
• Register the appliance with its manufacturer. It is how a recall reaches you.
• Do not rely on the appliance's own thermal protection. A UK recall was issued because it did not operate.

Each links to its own page, with what it means in practice, what to do if it has already happened, and the source it comes from. Every safety rule AirfryerHQ holds.

Why courgette behaves this way

Courgette is over ninety per cent water in a soft, thin-walled structure with no starch and almost no sugar. There is nothing to crisp and very little to brown, and as soon as the cell walls fail the whole piece releases its water. Cutting thicker helps more than cooking hotter: a thick baton can lose its surface water and brown slightly before the centre collapses, where a thin slice cannot. It is also the food most improved by not crowding the basket, because the released steam has to go somewhere.

More on courgette

Where to go from here

The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.

• Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. This measures yours — and it is the single change that fixes most dry courgette sticks.
• How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
• Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
• Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.

If it went wrong

The ways courgette sticks specifically tends to fail, each with the fastest thing to check first.

• Food is not crisping — Almost always moisture that cannot get out, and almost always because there is too much in the basket. One manufacturer says so directly.
• Steam pouring out of the air fryer — Water leaving food, which is what the appliance is for. It only matters because steam and smoke look similar and mean very different things.

Easily confused with

• Aubergine cubes — A different cooking problem with a different answer.
• Pepper chunks — A different cooking problem with a different answer.