The Cuisinart air fryer is an essential kitchen appliance that can turn your cooking experience around. It makes cooking more straightforward and gives you healthy meals, thanks to its ability to fry food with little to no oil.
The big question is, how to clean a Cuisinart air fryer? We perused the internet pages to bring you a step-by-step procedure to clean this air fryer.
The best way to clean a Cuisinart air fryer is by hand. Soak a piece of non-abrasive material or damp cloth in hot water or warm soapy water. And use it to wipe the exterior and interior parts of your air fryer.
If the pan, crumb tray, and air fryer basket have grease residue, you can soak them in soapy water and clean them by hand, just like you’d wash other dishes.
Another option is to use white vinegar or baking soda to clean and remove the bad smell or stubborn messes. Never put parts of the air fryer in the dishwasher since they are not safe.
How Often to Clean a Cuisinart Air Fryer?
The Cuisinart air fryer is a versatile kitchen appliance, meaning it can cook anything from meats to vegetables to potatoes. This means that you will likely need it to serve high-quality food for all your meals, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Knowing how to clean this appliance is the first step toward making it always available for your cooking needs.
How often you clean your Cuisinart air fryer depends on your usage needs. Typically, the best time to clean this air fryer is after every use, mainly if you’ve cooked greasy foods.
If you intend to cook greasy foods more than once a day, you can clean your Cuisinart air fryer once at the end of the day. However, for pastries that may only leave crumbs in the cooking basket and pan, cleaning once every few days may work just fine.
Steps How to Clean a Cuisinart Air Fryer
Once in a few days, your Cuisinart air fryer will require thorough cleaning. This is especially necessary if it has baked-on grease residue in it.
Even without, you just need to give it some deep cleaning once in a while. Since this appliance is electrical, it can’t go into the dishwasher, so manual cleaning is best.
Here is a detailed step-by-step process of cleaning a Cuisinart air fryer. Let’s jump right in.
What You Will Need
Equipment/Tools and Materials
- Non-abrasive material such as a soft sponge or soft cloth
- Sink
- Trash can
- Pastry brush
- Warm water
- Mild dish-friendly detergent, preferably with a degreaser like liquid soap
- White vinegar
- Baking soda
- Melamine sponge
- Microfiber cloth
Procedure
Step 1: Unplug the Cuisinart air fryer
Since you’re dealing with water, always unplug your air fryer before starting the cleaning process. This appliance interior and exterior should also be cool before you clean it to avoid burns.
Step 2: Remove the crumb tray and the basket
These are removable parts of the air fryer that you can wash separately. So, once you unplug the appliance, take the crumb tray and baking basket out. You can also remove the baking rack to prevent obstruction when cleaning the interior parts.
Step 3: Create a solution of warm soapy water
On your utensils sink, pour a mild liquid detergent into warm water and create a soapy solution. This detergent should contain a degreaser to remove any grease residue stuck on the basket and pan.
Step 4: Clean the exterior of the air fryer
Soak a piece of microfiber cloth or any other non-abrasive material in the warm soapy water and rub the exterior of the Cuisinart air fryer. You can wring it slightly to remove excess water.
Using a non-abrasive cloth is necessary as it prevents damaging the fine stainless-steel finish of the air fryer. The effort you apply when rubbing the exterior of the air fryer should depend on the toughness of the stains. If there are no stains, a light rub will still leave your appliance sparkling clean.
Step 5: Dry the exterior
Repeat step 5, soaking the cloth in soapy water, wringing, and rubbing it until all stains fade. Once the exterior looks clean, take a dry microfiber cloth and wipe it till dry.
Step 6: Clean the window
Open the window of the air fryer and clean it using a non-abrasive material soaked in warm soapy water and dry it.
Step 7: Wipe the crumb tray
Remove the crumb tray from underneath the air fryer window and empty the crumbs in the trashcan. Wipe it using a material soaked in warm soapy water and dry it using a clean, dry microfiber cloth. If this pan has grease residue that may not come out quickly, soak it in warm soapy water, preferably overnight, before washing it in the sink.
Step 8: Soak the pan and basket in warm soapy water and clean
Remove the air fryer pan and basket and soak them in warm soapy water. This is especially necessary if they have baked grease residue on them. Once the grease is loose, use a pastry brush to scrub it off before finally washing them using a soapy melamine sponge. Alternatively, make baking soda paste and use it to scrub the grease residue. Rinse in clean water and dry.
Step 9: Wipe the interior of the air fryer, including the gasket and the rack
Using a microfiber cloth soaked in warm soapy water, wipe the interior walls of the Cuisinart air fryer until all the food residue clears. Don’t forget to clean the gasket and oven rack as they can also catch some food residue.
Step 10: Reassemble the air fryer
Once every part of the air fryer is clean and dry, reassemble the rack, pan, basket, and crumb tray back in place. Close the air fryer window. Do not plug it again until your next cooking episode.
My Air Fryer Produces Bad Smell
If your air fryer has a foul smell of food debris, wiping alone may not be enough to get it back in good condition. In such a case, you should use white vinegar to clean it. Mix some distilled white vinegar with water to make a solution.
Soak a non-abrasive material in this solution and wipe the interior parts of the air fryer. Finally, wash out with clean water and let it dry.
For more information, I will not suggest you use oven cleaner for your dirty air fryer. Since oven cleaner has a strong fragrance, it can change your future batches’ food flavor. This fragrance can also produce fume in your air fryer and damage the taste of food.
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