Sausages in an air fryer

Manufacturer figures with no state given

Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.

Whichever it is, this comes first: Minced, reformed and rolled meat — burgers, sausages, meatballs, kebabs, rolled joints — must be cooked through to the centre, not served pink.

• Philips Airfryer XXL HD9650 series: 200°C for 12–15 min

  Published range for 1–6 thick sausages of around 100g and 4cm diameter, in one layer. The chart gives thin 70g sausages 9–12 minutes separately, so diameter is the variable it conditions on.

• Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 200°C for 8–10 min

  Published range for twelve sausages weighing 600g between them.

• Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 200°C for 7–10 min

  Published range for twelve sausages weighing 600g between them, at the lowest of the four grill settings.

• Philips Essential Airfryer HD9252/91 4.1L: 200°C for 9–13 min

  Published for one to six thin sausages of around 50g each. Thicker sausages are outside what the row prints.

• Philips Airfryer Series 5000 XXL HD9285/93 7.2L: 200°C for 9–12 min

  Published for two to ten thin sausages of around 60g each.

Questions people ask about sausages

Should I prick sausages before air frying them?

There is no need to. Pricking lets fat and juice run out, which gives a drier sausage and puts more fat on the drawer floor to smoke. Skins split when the heat is too fierce, so the fix for bursting is a lower setting, not holes.A general cooking principle, not a measurement.

Why do sausages make my air fryer smoke?

Rendered fat is landing on hot metal. One multicooker manual says high-fat foods such as pork may create smoke, that this is oil residue burning off at high temperature, and that reducing the temperature may reduce it. Start with a clean drawer and pour the fat off between batches.From a manufacturer’s printed instructions: Russell Hobbs SatisFry Air Fryer & Grill Multi Cooker 5.5L — Instructions. Smoke, grease and smells

Can I cook sausages straight from frozen?

Yes, and this page holds a from-frozen figure for it. The middle is the last part to thaw and then to cook, so the outside will look finished first: cut one open or probe it. From frozen, a sausage has to reach the same core temperature as a fresh one.Governed by the food-safety rule on this page.

What usually goes wrong

Cooked outside, pink inside. Compounded by cooking too hot, which splits the skins and drives the fat out before the centre is up to temperature.

Running the appliance safely

The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.

Pork in fast-moving hot air

Rendering fat is the defining behaviour. It liquefies, drains, and in a basket machine lands on a hot surface below the food where it can smoke — which is the single commonest cause of an air fryer filling a kitchen with smoke. Rendered fat also self-bastes the surface, which is why bacon crisps evenly with no added oil. Sausage skins tighten and set early, trapping steam inside and splitting if the temperature is too high.

More on pork

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. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
• 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.
• Smoke, grease and smells: one problem, three symptomsSmoke, a lingering smell and a machine that seems to have got worse are usually the same fat in the same place, and one of them is an emergency.

If it went wrong

What tends to go wrong with sausages, each with the fastest thing to check first.

• Burnt outside, raw inside — The temperature is too high for the thickness. Heat is finishing the surface before it can reach the middle.
• The air fryer is smoking — Usually rendered fat on a hot surface below the basket. Distinguishing that from an electrical smell is the first thing to do.
• A burning smell from the air fryer — The question is not what is burning but what KIND of burning. Food and fat smell one way; insulation smells another, and only one of those is a cooking problem.
• Grease or liquid leaking from the appliance — Liquid escaping the chamber of a mains appliance is not a mess to be wiped up and forgotten. Find out where it came from.