Rating:
Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven | £199 | Tester: Sally FitzGerald
15-litre black air fryer oven with rotissery fork and 12 preset recipe programmes. This fryer can also be operated from your phone via an app
The Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven has an impressive 15L capacity and 360° air circulation, but does that make for perfectly cooked food? We put it to the test to find out...
It’s hard to have a conversation about cooking at the moment without someone bringing up the words ‘air fryer’ at some point during the conversation.
They’re taking over the UK and can certainly be considered the must-have gadget of 2023.
But which one do you get? With so many different brands and types on offer, it can be hard to choose, so we’ve been testing the best air fryers on the market to help you decide which one is right for you.
It’s the turn of the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven which, as the name suggests, is an oven-style air fryer.
This means that rather than having a basket, you cook the food on cooking trays with holes to allow the 360° air circulation to crisp everything evenly. The 15L capacity also allows you to cook larger amounts of food for a family, and experiment with a host of different air fryer recipes.
So far, so good. But does it really deserve a place in your kitchen? We put it through its paces for you.
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Pros
- Quiet fan
- Lots of space and the option to cook different foods on different trays
- Very responsive digital display
- Shuts down when food has finished cooking
- Option to control via the app
- Good for a family
- Sleek design
Cons
- Takes up quite a lot of space in your kitchen
- Mid-range price, not a budget option
- Does have quite a strong aroma the first time you use it
Buy today at Amazon’s best price (£149)
Technical details
- Dimensions: 41 x 39 x 34cm
- Capacity: 15L
- Power: 1700W
- Temperature range: 80-200℃
- Features: Air frying, rotisserie, baking, preheating
- App & Alexa Control: Yes with the Proscenic air fryer app
- Where to buy: Amazon
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Ease of set up
I’ve taken to judging an air fryer firstly on its instruction booklet. After all, if it’s your first time using an air fryer, how do you know how to make the most of it unless the company gives you all the information up front?
Proscenic’s instruction manual is great. Not only is it translated into five different languages in case English isn’t your first language, but it goes through all aspects of the air fryer in a really easy to understand and thorough way.
The fryer comes with a drip pan to catch any oil and grease from cooking food, two cooking trays, a rotisserie fork and rotisserie tongs. All of which it’s advisable to give a quick wash before you use it.
The booklet has good health and safety instructions to tell you how much space to leave around your fryer when it’s on, and tips for avoiding it overheating.
Using the fryer for the first time
As with most fryers, it does advise to select air fry, adjust to the highest temperature and heat for 15 minutes before you cook food in it for the first time. This allows the protective coating against salt corrosion that’s been added to the heaters to burn off a little.
It suggests that there might be a slight odour at this point, and I definitely found this to be the case. It was quite strong for a while, but thankfully didn’t return the second time that I used the fryer.
After that you’re free to experiment with the different preset functions, all of which are really well explained in the instructions.
I love the combination of the really responsive digital display and the very stylish dial on this fryer. It not only looks good, but works perfectly.
If you’re a fan of apps, you’ll be pleased to hear that this fryer has one, which allows you to connect it to your phone and control the fryer when you aren’t in the same room, or even in the house. High tech box fully ticked.
In need of recipe inspiration? This fryer also comes with a recipe book, which although is limited in the amount of vegan recipes it contains, can be adapted with a little creativity.
The ultimate test for any air fryer is how it cooks chips. Image © Vegan Food & Living
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Cooking results – cooking chips in the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven
The first thing we always cook in our air fryer test is chips.
For this test I decided to do skinnier chips, so soaked them for 15 minutes to remove starch, as recommended in the instructions, but didn’t pre-boil them in water.
You really get a feeling for the size and capacity of this oven by the amount you can fit onto a tray. I cut two large potatoes into thin chips and they all fitted onto just one cooking tray, still allowing space around each chip.
Rather than tossing in oil, I just used a couple of squirts of a spray oil to coat the chips for a healthier approach.
I used the fries setting, which automatically set the time for 20 minutes, and set it going.
This fryer does have a shake ‘timer’ that will go off halfway through cooking on some presets, and chips is one of those settings. Considering how quiet the fan is on the fryer, I was surprised by quite how loud the alarm was to alert you that it’s time to turn the chips. And it’s persistent too – there’s no ignoring or forgetting that it’s time to give your chips a shuffle.
After the 20 minutes was up, I tested one chip and found it was still a little al dente, so put them back in for another 5 minutes.
That finished them off perfectly. The insides were soft and the exteriors were well cooked, with as good a level of crunch as you can expect without using much oil.
I would give this air fryer 4 out of 5 for cooking chips.
Vegan sausages cook perfectly in the Proscenic T31. Image © Vegan Food & Living
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Cooking sausages in the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven
Next up is the mock meat test. For this one we decided to try out some vegan sausages.
Again, eight sausages easily fit onto one large cooking tray, with plenty of space to spare.
For this one, I set the temperature to 180°C and the time as 12 minutes as suggested on the packet instructions.
This time the ‘shake’ timer didn’t go off, but it also wasn’t needed. Because the cooking trays have holes in them, the air circulates fully and the sausages cook really evenly all round without the need for turning them.
By the end of the 12 minutes, the ‘skins’ had crisped up nicely and the sausages were perfectly cooked all the way through.
Quick, easy and perfectly effective.
Air fryers are surprisingly good for baking. Image © Vegan Food & Living
Baking muffins in the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven
It never fails to amaze me that you can bake in an air fryer. So when I saw vegan lemon and blueberry muffins in the recipe book provided with the Proscenic T31, I had to give them a go.
One thing I was a little unsure of with regards to baking muffins in an air fryer, without the use of my trusted muffin tin, was whether standard muffin cases would be able to hold their shape without any support. So I invested in some sturdier muffin cups which worked a treat and would definitely be my top tip.
It turned out that the mixture was quite a thick one, so I probably didn’t need to worry, but better safe than sorry I always say.
The instructions said to bake the muffins on the dessert setting for 15 minutes and this was pretty accurate. I didn’t have to keep putting them back into the oven for a couple of minutes at a time and endless testing with my cake skewer. It was a completely different baking experience to the one I’m used to.
And what impressed me most was how light and fluffy the muffins were. They were perfectly cooked all the way through thanks to the 360° air circulation, the blueberries had burst to almost create a jam, and the texture was so light and airy.
They didn’t burn, they rose amazingly, and they were quick to cook. I was converted to air fryer baking on the spot.
Buy today at Amazon’s best price (£149)
Overall verdict of the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven
After cooking several different types of food in the Proscenic T31 Air Fryer Oven, the only real downside I can find with the machine is its size.
It’s sleek and stylish and looks great in the kitchen, but there’s no getting around the fact that it’s one of the bigger air fryers, and sadly this comes with the territory with an oven-style air fryer. So if you’ve got a small kitchen then I would suggest you think twice about this one.
In every other way, however, this is a really great machine.
I like oven-style air fryers because of the flexibility that they offer. This one has two large cooking trays, so as long as the food cooks at the same temperature, you can cook two things at once, which saves energy.
The food also cooks really evenly without you having to turn or ‘shake’ it very often, if at all.
It didn’t perhaps cook chips quite as well as the Ninja air fryer, which does seem to be the ultimate chip air fryer, but I was really impressed with its baking capabilities. It’s a really versatile bit of equipment, and the mid-range price makes it more accessible, especially when it’s on sale.
When it comes to air fryers, you really do have to first decide which type is for you, but if you’re looking for an oven-style then this one comes highly recommended.
How we test air fryers
We thoroughly test each air fryer in order to write an informed, useful review that you can trust.
To do this, we follow the same process for every air fryer that we review.
First we unpack the box, look at what you get with the air fryer, and then follow the instructions that come with each specific air fryer to set it up.
The important thing for any air fryer is how it cooks food though, so we test each one at least three times. Firstly to cook homemade chips, then to cook a mock meat, and thirdly to either cook a baked item, or to test the frying ability, depending on the capabilities.
We judge the air fryers on how well they cook the food, how crisp the finish is, how long food takes to cook, how easy the machine is to use, how easy is it to clean, and how many extra capabilities/functions it has.
Each air fryer is then given a score out of 5, and rated on what purpose it is best suited to.
Want to put another oven-style air fryer to the test? Check out our review of the Tower XpressPro 10-in-1 Air Fryer Oven
