News — Cooking

Your grandmother probably loved it, your parents likely shunned it in favor of Teflon and your peers buy as much of it as they can. What are we talking about? Cast iron, of course. Although cast iron cookware has been on the market for more than 100 years, it has experienced a bit of a resurgence in the last decade. In fact, sales of cast iron have experienced more than a 225% increase in the last ten years, according to the Cookware Manufacturer’s Association. This is due in part to the revelation that the chemicals in non-stick skillets have caused...

Even better, the latest features mean that getting great results can be foolproof, so there’s no need to worry about soggy bread, unevenly heated meat or dried-out dishes. Microwaves come in three varieties – solo, which offer straightforward heating and are usually affordable; microwave grills, which have a heating element that browns food as well as heating it; and combination microwaves that also work like a conventional oven using hot air but on a smaller scale. They usually have the option of combining microwaving with convection heat, so you can roast a chicken in as little as half an hour...

But aside from altering what you eat, you may also want to alter how you cook it. Air fryers are one such gadget that claims to cook the food you love, but in a much healthier way. Requiring little or no oil, the counter-top ‘fryers’ are convection ovens that circulate heat to cook your food. Cooking items often much quicker than a regular oven, giving them a crispy texture, the results are similar to frying, but with significantly less fat. They’re also less messy than frying and easy to keep clean. And they’re versatile, able to cope with anything from...