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AirfryerHQ

Fish cakes in an air fryer

Chilled — the short answer

200°C (392°F) for 10–12 min

For
580g in total, about 25mm at the thickest point, 4 pieces, From the fridge
In
Multicooker with air fry, single layer, pieces not touching
Preheat
Yes, before the food goes in
Check
The crumb is evenly golden
Safety
Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead. Full rule below.
Moderate confidenceWell supported, but from a narrower base of sources than we would like.

Ten to twelve minutes for four, and the middle is the part that lags.

Chilled

The quick answer

200°C (392°F) for 10–12 min

Fish cake thickness, for a published 580g of four.

Assuming
580g in total, about 25mm at the thickest point, 4 pieces, From the fridge
In
Multicooker with air fry
Loaded
Single layer, pieces not touching
Preheat
Yes, before the food goes in
Result
Heated through
Moderate confidenceWell supported, but from a narrower base of sources than we would like.

Preparation

Straight from the packet with nothing added. No oil is called for.

No oil needed.

How to load the basket

Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.

How to tell it is done

  • The crumb is evenly golden
  • Steam rises from the centre when one is broken open

Where these figures came from — chilled

Moderate confidenceWell supported, but from a narrower base of sources than we would like.
Applies to
Specific to this model
Why this rating
A published row with a stated quantity, a stated preparation and an oil quantity, from the manufacturer's own guide for this appliance. Quantity is what makes a chart row checkable against the food in front of a reader, and this chart states one for almost every row.
Last reviewed
2026-08-13

What this does not cover

  • Published by the manufacturer for this appliance. It is evidence about this machine and is not general advice.
  • This is a lidded cooking pot rather than a shallow drawer. Depth affects how much fits in one layer, and the quantity in the chart assumes the crisper basket.
  • The chart does not distinguish chilled from frozen fish cakes.
Sources (1)

Leftover (reheating)

Before anything else

From national food-safety authorities, not from us. These take precedence over any cooking time below.

Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)

Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, keep the fridge between 0 and 5°C, and eat leftovers within 48 hours.

How to tell, without a thermometer

  • There is no sensory test for this rule, and that is the point: food held too long at the wrong temperature does not necessarily look, smell or taste different

If it has not got there: Throw it away. This is the one rule in this catalogue where the remedy is not 'cook it longer', because cooking does not reverse it.

Important: Cooked rice is the sharpest case: Bacillus cereus toxins form at room temperature and survive reheating. Rice left out for more than an hour goes in the bin.

Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)

Reheat leftovers until steaming hot all the way through, and only reheat them once.

Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.

How to tell, without a thermometer

  • Steam rising from the centre, not just the edges
  • The middle is hot to the touch, tested after removing it from the appliance

If it has not got there: Keep going, and break dense food up or spread it out so the heat can reach the middle. If it will not heat through evenly, a microwave to get the centre hot followed by the air fryer to crisp the surface is a better tool for the job than the air fryer alone.

Important: Cooked rice and pasta left at room temperature can develop Bacillus cereus toxins that reheating does not destroy. If cooked rice has been out of the fridge for more than an hour, discard it rather than reheating it.

Published combinations delivering equivalent lethality. AirfryerHQ does not calculate values between these — only the pairs the authority published are shown.
TemperatureHeld forMeasured at
70°C2 minthe centre of the food
75°C30 secthe centre of the food

The quick answer

170°C (338°F) for 6–9 min

Thickness. A fish cake is thick for its footprint and the middle lags a long way behind the crumb.

Assuming
145g per piece, about 25mm at the thickest point, 2 pieces, From the fridge
In
Basket air fryer
Loaded
Single layer, pieces not touching
Preheat
Not needed
Result
Heated through
PreliminaryA starting point rather than a settled answer. Treat the numbers as a first attempt and check the food itself.

Preparation

Spaced apart in one layer, not turned until they are hot enough to hold together.

How to load the basket

Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.

How to tell it is done

  • The crumb is crisp again
  • Steaming right through the middle when one is broken open

Change the result

Each of these moves the outcome in a known direction, and most cost you something. The trade is stated so you can decide whether you want it.

To be sure it is safe rather than just warm
Go by the food and not the clock. It has to be steaming hot the whole way through, and the middle of a dense portion lags a long way behind its surface in an air fryer.

Where these figures came from — leftover (reheating)

PreliminaryA starting point rather than a settled answer. Treat the numbers as a first attempt and check the food itself.
Applies to
Specific to this type of appliance
Why this rating
Mid-band and towards the longer end on time, because mashed potato conducts heat badly. The time is AirfryerHQ's estimate.
Last reviewed
2026-08-13

What this does not cover

  • THE TIME ON THIS RECORD IS NOT SOURCED. Four manufacturers publish a reheating temperature and not one of them names a food, a quantity or a time for a named dish. The temperature here is theirs; the time is AirfryerHQ's estimate and has not been measured.
  • Reheating is governed by the food-safety rule above rather than by this figure. Steaming hot throughout is the requirement; the time is a guide to getting there.
Sources (4)

  • Tower T17023 2.2 Litre Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual (PDF)

    RKW Ltd (Tower Housewares) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: That this manufacturer's published reheating instruction is 150°C for up to ten minutes, with no food named.

    States this directly

    Passage read and verified

    Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk

    Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 745/2194.

  • Cookworks 5L Digital Air Fryer KDF-596D — Care & Instruction Manual (PDF)

    Argos Limited (Cookworks) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: That this manufacturer's published reheating instruction is 180°C for up to ten minutes, with no food named.

    States this directly

    Passage read and verified

    Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk

    Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 148/6623.

  • Cosori Dual Blaze 6.4L Smart Air Fryer CAF-P583S-KUK — User Manual (PDF)

    Arovast Corporation (Cosori) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: That this manufacturer's Reheat function defaults to 175°C for five minutes.

    States this directly

    Passage read and verified

    Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk

    Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 818/0159.

  • AirfryerHQ Sprint 4 analysis of published cooking guidance across fifteen manuals

    AirfryerHQ — Calculated or inferred by AirfryerHQ (United Kingdom)

    Relied on for: The reading that no manufacturer publishes a reheat time for a named food, and that the time on this record is therefore AirfryerHQ's own estimate.

    AirfryerHQ's interpretation of what it says

    Citation checked — the document exists and is described correctly

From frozen

No time or temperature for this, and not by accident

Fish cakes is sold and cooked from frozen, so the question is a real one. AirfryerHQ holds no published figure for it: not one of the manufacturer manuals read for this catalogue gives a chart row for this food in this state.

We are not going to produce one by adjusting the chilled figure above. A time arrived at that way would appear on this page looking exactly like a time somebody measured, and you would have no way to tell the difference.

What still governs, figure or no figure

These rules come from national food-safety authorities and apply whether or not anybody has published a cooking time. They are the part of this question we can answer.

Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)

Food cooked from frozen must reach the same core temperature as the same food cooked fresh — the frozen centre is the last thing to get there.

Target: 70°C in the thickest part.

How to tell, without a thermometer

  • No ice or cold spot at the centre when the thickest piece is cut open
  • Steaming hot throughout, tested in the middle rather than the edge

If it has not got there: Reduce the temperature by 10–20°C and give it longer. A lower set point lets the centre catch up before the surface passes the point of no return, and it is the single most useful adjustment for cooking from frozen.

Important: If the packaging says the product must be thawed before cooking, follow it. That instruction exists because the manufacturer has tested cooking it from frozen and it did not reach temperature reliably.

What we do hold for fish cakes: chilled, leftover (reheating). Those are a different question, not a starting point for this one.

What usually goes wrong

A dark crumb around a cool middle. Mashed potato conducts heat badly and a fish cake is thick for its footprint, so the crumb reaches its limit before the centre is hot — lower and longer is the fix, not hotter.

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.

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 fish cakes behaves this way

The crumb behaves like every other factory-applied coating: it already contains oil from the par-fry and crisps in dry moving air with nothing added. The inside is mashed potato and cooked fish — a dense, wet, low-conductivity mixture that heats slowly from the outside in, which is why a fish cake is the convenience food most likely to come out with a perfect crust and a cool centre. Handling is the other failure: the binding is weak until it is hot, so turning one too early breaks it.

More on fish cakes

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 fish cakes.
  • 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.
  • Cooking from frozenUsually cooler and longer than the same food fresh, and never worked out from the fresh figure.
  • 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.

Easily confused with

  • Breaded scampi — A different cooking problem with a different answer.
  • Fish fingers — A different cooking problem with a different answer.