If you’ve ever bought a bag of spinach only to come home and realize you already had a bag of spinach, you may appreciate this fridge. I had a chance to check out the GE Profile Smart Fridge with Kitchen Assistant at CES and was surprised to find I kinda wanted one. To be perfectly honest, most attempts I’ve seen at the show to “stick some AI in it” are at best amusing but usually completely unnecessary.
Here, though, the AI has a purpose. After seeing how the autofill water dispenser worked, I asked the GE Appliance reps how easy it was to change the fridge’s water filter. Jason May, a GE Appliances product management executive, walked up to the fridge’s (appropriately sized) touchscreen and said “Hey HQ, where’s my water filter?” (HQ is short for SmartHQ, GE Profile’s assistant). Then, relying on information it had gathered from this model’s user manual, the AI assistant explained exactly where to find it (in the left hand door below the ice maker). It took another rep about two seconds to pop out the filter and, justlikethat, the task was on its way to done.
As for the spinach conundrum, that’s handled by a crisper drawer camera, called Fridge Focus. Each time you open the drawers, a built-in camera (that you can physically shutter or turn off in the app) takes a video snapshot of what’s left when you’re done. So if you’re at the store and wondering how much kale you already have, you can take a peek and see.
Checking out what's in the crisper drawer using the Fridge Focus feature.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Wendy Treinen, GE Appliances’ senior director of product communications, told me the camera can see what’s in the crisper drawer, but can’t see who accessed it. So if you’re hoping your fridge will rat out whoever at the last of the grapes, you’re out of luck. It can however, help that grape-eater easily add more fruit to the family shopping list.
That’s the most unique feature the fridge offers: a patented, built-in barcode scanner. It lives in the water dispenser and when you walk up, a little green light activates and scans the barcode of whatever you hold up to it. So if you’re drinking the last of the almond milk, you scan the container and it’ll automatically add it to your list.
That list can be accessed through the SmartHQ app which you can either check off at the grocery store or, if you really want to get deluxe about it, use the Instacart integration and have it delivered to your door. I scanned a few products — a box of vitamin C mix and a package of cinnamon raisin bagels — both of which quickly popped up on the screen and joined the running list.
Adding grocery items to Instacart with one button.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The scanner can recognize four million products, including household items like paper towels and trash bags, but you can add things a other ways too. The easiest is probably just asking your fridge to do so, saying “Hey HQ, add paper towels to my shopping list.” The app allows manual additions and you can add items using the recipe function as well.
For the launch of the fridge, GE Profile has partnered with Taste of Home and will send 50 recipes each month to the fridge for users to try. Once you see the ingredients list, you can add anything you’re missing to your shopping. Those 50 recipes will cycle out at the end of the month to make way for a new 50, so if you cook something and like it, you’ll need to to add it to your personal recipe vault.
The AI assistant can also create recipes for you. The GE rep snapped a picture of an array of produce and asked SmartHQ what he could make with it. A list of recipe suggestions popped up and they all looked quite tasty (to be fair, I hadn’t eaten yet and it was already 2PM).
The recipe created from a picture of produce. Sam Rutherford for Engadget
I mentioned the water dispenser’s hands-free auto-fill feature earlier. That’s been available on GE Profile fridges for a while and lets you select your glass capacity and walk away while it fills. You can also ask for, say, a half cup of water for a recipe. A new “precise fill” feature will dispense larger amounts in sequence. Say you need ten cups of water for soup. Since you can’t fit a huge vat in the water dispenser tray, you can instead use a smaller jug and the auto-filler will fill it the correct amount of times.
Another of my favorite bits is the screen. Fridges with giant, interactive screens make my eyes roll. Yes, it’s novel and eye-catching and perhaps amusing, but what possible problem is it trying to solve? The screen here is eight inches, which is enough to display scanned items, show recipes, and display the weather atop a pretty image when you’re not actively using the interface.
Finally! A reasonably sized fridge screen.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The GE Appliances reps were eager to point out that this is just the beginning of what they want to do with the fridge. My college Sam Rutherford asked whether the fridge would be able to alert you before your lettuce went bad, and we were told something that addresses that problem is on the horizon. It would likely work by recognizing when you purchased a perishable, and how long that perishable typically lasts. The company is also working with a chef on a feature that can reimagine your leftovers to create something new.
During the demo, May told me that the whole idea around the fridge’s design was to do something other than just “put a big screen on it with a bunch of apps that don’t have ay relevance to anything.” Instead the engineers started with problems people actually have — knowing what to buy at the store, knowing what’s already in the fridge, answering the eternal, unrelenting “What’s for dinner?” question — and designed the fridge around that.
I’d have to live with it a while to know whether those problems were solved, but so far, I can say this is the most intrigued I’ve felt about a smart fridge yet. The GE Profile Smart Fridge with Kitchen Assistant will be available in March from geappliances.com for $4,899.
A good amount of organization.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-ge-profile-smart-fridge-stops-you-from-buying-too-much-kale-172433059.html?src=rss
Brisk It has shown off AI-enabled smart grills at CES before now, but for 2026, the company is taking its cooking tech indoors. With the Neoma multi-function countertop oven, the company offers AI features that can serve as both sous chef and nutritionist, helping you create dishes that fit your budget, diet and other lifestyle needs. The Brisk It Agentic AI can also help with meal planning and grocery orders on top of automatic cooking cycles for recipes it selects.
The Neoma has a temperature range from 90 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and cooking times of one minute up to twelve hours. This means you can do everything from baking to roasting, air frying and more. In fact, it comes with an air fry basket, baking pan, oven rack, and crumb tray. The robust steel construction, glass door and interior space should make the Neoma well-suited for most kitchens.
Brisk It isn’t leaving the grill game though. The company also announced the AI Hybrid Gas Grill at CES. The hybrid bit describes the dual gas and wood pellet combustion, giving users the ability to infuse wood smoke in their high-heat grilling sessions. Of course, Brisk It’s AI goes to work here too, with adaptive cooking and personalized meal plans.
The AI Hybrid Gas Grill will be available at retailers later this year. The Neoma AI Countertop Oven will hit Kickstarter in February before a wider retail launch. Brisk it didn’t mention pricing for either model in its press materials.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/brisk-it-brings-its-ai-cooking-tech-to-an-indoor-oven-at-ces-2026-170000705.html?src=rss
A great rice cooker can change the way you handle weeknight meals. Instead of watching the pot or dealing with uneven results, you get fluffy, consistent rice with almost no effort. Modern rice cookers can do a lot more than white rice, too. Many handle brown rice, oatmeal and grains, and some function like mini multi-cookers for soups or stews.
With so many options available, the best rice cooker for you depends on how often you cook, how much counter space you have and which features matter most. We tested a range of models to find the best rice cookers for everything from small kitchens to big family dinners.
Best rice cookers for 2026
How we test rice cookers
Since rice is a foundation for so many different cuisines, I placed a high value on a machine’s ability to cook different types of rice well. I started testing each electric rice cooker by making a Japanese style, sushi-grade white rice. The appliances that delivered tasty results moved on to the brown rice round, then the top performers made long-grain white basmati as a final challenge. Some models I tested included a steamer basket, but I didn't try all of them out. This is a rice-only party. Multi-cookers and steaming functions are merely a nice bonus in these, although if that's a feature you want, an instant pot might be more your jam.
While I weighed rice tastiness and texture as the most important criteria, I also assessed how easy the machines were to use and to clean. That includes things like how intuitive the cooking functions are, whether the inner pot is nonstick and how well the keep warm setting performs. I also took note of helpful kitchen tools that came included like a measuring cup, which is essential when getting the amount of water just right for each cup of rice. Because a cool piece of gear that sits in your cabinet gathering dust is a cool, but ultimately useless piece of gear. I limited my testing to models retailing for less than $300, which felt like the most I could recommend investing in a specialized appliance, and value for cost wound up being the distinguishing point for a good rice cooker.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-rice-cooker-120015478.html?src=rss
Air fryers have earned their spot on countless countertops for good reason. They make it easy to whip up crispy fries, roasted vegetables and even baked treats without dealing with a pot of hot oil or larger, slower appliances. These compact machines use rapid hot air circulation to deliver crunch and flavor with less mess, making them a practical upgrade for busy cooks or anyone looking to simplify weeknight meals.
There’s now an air fryer for almost every kitchen setup, from small baskets that handle quick snacks to larger multi-function models that can roast, reheat and dehydrate. After testing a range of options, our current top pick is the Instant Vortex Plus air fryer. It offers a balance of power, ease of use and consistent results, making it a standout choice for most households.
In this guide, we’ve rounded up the best air fryers available right now, covering a range of sizes and features. Whether you’re upgrading from an older model or buying your first, these picks can help you cook crisp, golden meals without the extra oil or hassle.
Let’s clear one thing up first: it’s not frying. Not really. Air fryers are more like smaller convection bake ovens, ones that are often pod-shaped. Most work by combining a heating element and fan, which means the hot air can usually better crisp the outside of food than other methods. They often reach higher top temperatures than toaster ovens – which is part of the appeal.
For most recipes, a thin layer of oil (usually sprayed) helps to replicate that fried look and feel better. However, it will rarely taste precisely like the deep-fried or pan frying version when it comes out of the air fryer basket. Don’t let that put you off, though, because the air fryer, in its many forms, combines some of the best parts of other cooking processes and brings them together into an energy-efficient way of air fryer cooking dinner. Or breakfast. Or lunch.
You can separate most of these machines into two types of air fryers, and each has different pros and cons. Convection ovens are usually ovens with air fryer functions and features. They might have higher temperature settings to ensure that food crisps and cooks more like actually fried food. Most convection ovens are larger than dedicated air fryers, defeating some of the purpose of those looking to shrink cooking appliance surface area. Still, they are often more versatile with multiple cooking functions, and most have finer controls for temperatures, timings and even fan speed.
You may never need a built-in oven if you have a decent convection oven. They often have the volume to handle roasts, entire chickens or tray bakes, and simply cook more, capacity-wise, making them more versatile than the pod-shaped competition.
The flip side of that is that you’ll need counter space in the kitchen to house them. It also means you can use traditional oven accessories, like baking trays or cake tins, that you might already own.
Pod-shaped air fryers
Pod-shaped air fryers are what you imagine when you think “air fryer.” They look like a cool, space-age kitchen gadget, bigger than a kettle but smaller than a toaster oven. Many use a drawer to hold ingredients while cooking, usually a mesh sheet or a more solid, non-stick tray with holes to allow the hot air to circulate. With a few exceptions, most require you to open the drawer while things cook and flip or shake half-cooked items to ensure the even distribution of heat and airflow to everything.
That’s one of a few caveats. This type of air fryer typically doesn't have a window to see how things are cooking (with only a few exceptions), so you’ll need to closely scrutinize things as they cook, opening the device to check progress. Basket-style air fryers also generally use less energy – there’s less space to heat – and many have parts that can be put directly into a dishwasher.
Some of the larger pod-shaped air fryers offer two separate compartments, which is especially useful for anyone planning to cook an entire meal with the appliance. You could cook a couple of tasty chicken wings or tenders while simultaneously rustling up enough frozen fries or veggies for everyone. Naturally, those options take up more space, and they’re usually heavy enough to stop you from storing them in cupboards or shelves elsewhere.
As mentioned earlier, you might have to buy extra things to make these pod fryers work the way you want them to. Some of the bigger manufacturers, like Philips and Ninja, offer convenient additions, but you’ll have to pay for them.
Air fryer pros and cons
Beyond the strengths and weaknesses of individual models, air fryers are pretty easy to use from the outset. Most models come with a convenient cooking time booklet covering most of the major foods you’ll be air frying, so even beginners can master these machines.
One of the early selling points is the ability to cook fries, wings, frozen foods and other delights with less fat than other methods like deep frying, which gets foods the crispiest. As air fryers work by circulating heated air, the trays and cooking plates have holes that can also let oil and fat drain out of meats, meaning less fat and crisper food when you finally plate things up. For most cooking situations, you will likely need to lightly spray food with vegetable oil. If you don’t, there’s the chance that things will burn or char. The oil will keep things moist on the surface, and we advise refreshing things with a dash of oil spray when you turn items during cooking.
Most air fryers are easy to clean – especially in comparison to a shallow or deep fryer. We’ll get into cleaning guidance a little later.
With a smaller space to heat, air fryers are generally more energy-efficient for cooking food than larger appliances like ovens. And if you don’t have an oven, air fryers are much more affordable – especially the pod options.
There are, however, some drawbacks. While air fryers are easy enough to use, they take time to master. You will adjust cooking times for even the simplest types of food – like chicken nuggets, frozen French fries or brussels sprouts. If you’re the kind of person that loves to find inspiration from the internet, in our experience, you can pretty much throw their timings out of the window. There are a lot of air fryer options, and factors like how fast they heat and how well distributed that heat is can – and will – affect cooking.
There’s also a space limitation to air fryers. This is not a TARDIS – there’s simply less space than most traditional ovens and many deep fat fryers. If you have a bigger family, you’ll probably want to go for a large capacity air fryer – possibly one that has multiple cooking areas. You also might want to consider a different kitchen appliance, like a multicooker, sous vide or slow cooker to meet your specific cooking needs.
You may also struggle to cook many items through as the heat settings will cook the surface of dishes long before it’s cooked right through. If you’re planning to cook a whole chicken or a roast, please get a meat thermometer!
Best air fryer accessories
Beyond official accessories from the manufacturer, try to pick up silicone-tipped tools. Tongs are ideal, as is a silicon spatula to gently loosen food that might get stuck on the sides of the air fryer. These silicone mats will also help stop things from sticking to the wire racks on some air fryers. They have holes to ensure the heated air is still able to circulate around the food.
Silicone trivets are also useful for resting any cooked food on while you sort out the rest of the meal. And if you find yourself needing oil spray, but don’t feel like repeatedly buying tiny bottles, you can decant your favorite vegetable oil into a permanent mister like this.
How to clean an air fryer
We’re keeping clean up simple here. Yes, you could use power cleaners from the grocery store, they could damage the surface of your air fryer. Likewise, metal scourers or brushes could strip away the non-stick coating. Remember to unplug the device and let it cool completely.
Remove the trays, baskets and everything else from inside. If the manufacturer says the parts are dishwasher safe – and you have a dishwasher – the job is pretty much done.
Otherwise, hand wash each part in a mixture of warm water, with a splash of Dawn or another strong dish soap. Use a soft-bristled brush to pull away any crumbs, greasy deposits or bits of food stuck to any surfaces. Remember to rinse everything. Otherwise, your next batch of wings could have a mild Dawn aftertaste. Trust us.
Take a microfiber cloth and tackle the outer parts and handles that might also get a little messy after repeated uses. This is especially useful for oven-style air fryers – use the cloth to wipe down the inner sides.
If Dawn isn’t shifting oily stains, try mixing a small amount of baking soda with enough water to make a paste, and apply that so that it doesn’t seep into any electrical parts or the heating element. Leave it to work for a few seconds before using a damp cloth to pull any greasy spots away. Rinse out the cloth and wipe everything down again, and you should be ready for the next time you need to air fry.
How to find air fryer recipes
Beyond fries, nuggets and – a revelation – frozen gyoza, there are a few ways to find recipes for air-fried foods. First, we found that the air fryer instruction manuals often have cooking guides and recipe suggestions for you to test out in your new kitchen gadget. The good thing with these is that they were made for your air fryer model, meaning success should be all but guaranteed. They are often a little unimaginative, however.
Many of the top recipe sites and portals have no shortage of air fryer recipes, and there’s no harm in googling your favorite cuisine and adding the words “air fryer” on the end of the search string. We’ve picked up some reliable options from Delish, which also has a handy air fryer time converter for changing oven and traditional fryer recipes. BBC Good Food is also worth browsing for some simple ideas, as is NYT Cooking, with the ability to directly search for air fryer suggestions. Aside from that, you can also grab plenty of cookbooks from your local bookshop with lots of recipes that you can use in your favorite air fryer.
And if you have a killer recipe or unique use for your air fryer, let us know in the comments. What’s the air fryer equivalent of the Instant Pot cheesecake? We’re ready to try it.
How we test air fryers
We put each air fryer we test through its paces by cooking a variety of foods in it including raw proteins like fish and chicken, raw vegetables like potatoes and cauliflower and frozen snacks like mozzarella sticks. We attempt to use each cooking method that the machine has pre-programmed, and when possible, follow a couple of recipes in any provided recipe booklets that come with the air fryer. We also clean the cooking basket and all other removable components as many times as possible, and will put those components into a dishwasher if they claim to be dishwasher-safe. We also make note of how loud the machine is when using different cooking settings and how warm the surrounding area becomes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-air-fryers-133047180.html?src=rss
After taking a break from the Playdate following Season Two and the wonderfully weird experience that was Blippo+, I finally dusted off my little yellow console this week and dove back in. And what better place to start than with a couple of games about cheese? Cheese 'n Crackers and Say When! both hit the Playdate Catalog recently, but aside from the thematic similarity, they're two very different games. As an extra treat (unrelated to cheese), I also picked up Ware-wolf Campfire Stories, a free game on itch.io that's actually over a dozen bite-sized games in one.
Cheese 'n Crackers
When it comes to snacking, everyone's got their preferences. Some crave a savory blast of umami, while for others, a sweet treat might be what always hits the spot. Or maybe you're like me, and if you have one, it needs to be followed by the other. Creating snacks that hit just right iswhat Cheese 'n Crackers is all about.
In this Playdate game, you have what is essentially a neverending charcuterie board with all the fixins you could imagine. There are meats, cheeses, spreads, spices, vegetables, fruits and various types of crackers and breads to adorn with those toppings. You have to combine ingredients to make the perfect snacks for whatever group you're serving that round. Each group — like the Speed Daters or Grandma's Bridge Club — has a specific set of guidelines that may include favorites, dietary restrictions or aversions to certain tastes.
A still from the Playdate game Cheese n Crackers showing a cutting board with various meats, vegetables, cheeses and crackers
Scenic Route Software
While pairing ingredients is pretty intuitive, there are specific combinations that will earn you more points, so you'll have to pay attention to descriptions of each food item. Or, you can turn to the Cheese 'n Crackers Compatibility Spreadsheet for all of that information in one place. Yes, that exists, and it's an intimidating work of culinary organization. Toppings will go bad if they sit out for too long, so you won't want to waste too much time scouring the spreadsheet, but it's still a relatively low-pressure game that you can play at your own pace. For the more competitive among us, though, there are leaderboards so you can challenge yourself with scores to beat.
Say When!
This is the more intense of our cheese games, with a Root Bear-like structure that sees you tending to a revolving door of restaurant patrons and trying to grate the perfect amount of cheese for their meals using the crank. And despite being called Say When!, your customers (very unhelpfully) will not actually say "when" to let you know you can stop cranking; you have to pay attention to their unique tells to know when they're satisfied — the twitch of a mustache, a change in facial expression, etc.
A still from the Playdate game Say When! showing a man wearing dark sunglasses sitting at a table, with a dish in front of him. Grated cheese is pouring onto the dish from a cheese grater that floats above it
Smashtoad Studios
There's a customer satisfaction meter at the top of the screen that will take hits any time you under- or over-serve cheese, or suffer if you're moving too slowly, and once it's down to the bottom, you're fired. After each shift, you'll be given the choice to use a modifier that can help you out in areas like customer satisfaction or getting the boss off your back. To mix things up, there are also mini-games that pop up in the middle of your shift. You might be furiously grating cheese and then have to switch gears and save the life of a choking customer, for example.
It's fast-paced, it's silly and it's pretty hard to put down once you get going.
Ware-wolf Campfire Stories
While the Playdate Catalog has lots of great titles to choose from, there are plenty of gems not on there that are worth checking out too. One such example is Ware-wolf Campfire Stories, a unique package of 14 tiny games that's free on itch.io. It's the result of a collaboration between 15 developer teams — including the developers of Off-Planet Dreams, the Life's Too Short series, Voidblazers and other popular Playdate titles.
Per the description:
In Ware-wolf Campfire Stories, 5 kids are sitting around a fire with their counselor telling spoooooky tales! Each story launches a separate game that you may win or lose.... with consequences.
It's a cool format, and there's some nice variety among the games, which each only take a few minutes to get through for the most part. They're all of the spooky sort, so expect bats, ghosts and skeletons galore. It's a nice way to get a taste of some of the many different game styles you'll encounter on the Playdate, and maybe discover some developers whose games you haven't yet checked out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/two-playdate-games-about-cheese-and-spooky-campfire-stories-with-a-twist-232516706.html?src=rss
Cold fall weather shouldn't get in the way of you enjoying a nice frozen dessert, and if you purchase our favorite ice cream maker for its discounted price of $180 for Black Friday, you could remove another obstacle between you and fresh ice cream every day. In our review testing, the Ninja Creami wasn't just good for ice cream, but could also make a mean sorbet in a pinch, and if you buy it today, you'll get if for the lowest price we've seen this year — $50 off its regular $230 starting price.
While you’ll definitely need a bit of space to accommodate it, the Creami is a more compact ice cream machine than some of its rivals. It works similarly to a food processor, only here you’ll be using strictly frozen liquid ice cream as a base. Once you have that (you’ll need to give the base around 24 hours in the freezer for the desired consistency) you use Ninja’s machine to blend in your chosen flavors. And if you make a mess (and let’s face it, you probably will), rest assured that most of the components are dishwasher-safe.
It’s admittedly a fairly loud machine during use, but as long as you’re willing to put up with the noise, you can choose between seven one-touch programs, including milkshake if you’re in the mood for a cold drink. And if you’re hosting people with allergies, they can be reassured that you have total control about what’s going into and coming out of the machine, which is much harder to guarantee when you’re buying dessert in a restaurant. This model also includes two pint containers with lids.
If you want the latest and greatest, though, the Ninja Swirl is the ice-cream maker to get. It can make regular and soft-serve ice cream, plus a number of other frozen treats. Right now, QVC has it for the best price we've seen, from $350 to $280.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-ninja-creami-ice-cream-drops-to-180-for-black-friday-133009780.html?src=rss
When a brand new company debuts its first product at CES, it can take a while before the device makes it to market. In fact, sometimes those products don’t make it at all. That’s not the case with Seergrills though, as the company has started shipping its AI-powered Perfecta grills to early adopters after introducing the machine at CES 2024.
The Perfecta relies on AI-powered cooking tech that helps you create “chef-quality results” in a fraction of the time as traditional grilling. It’s powered by a quad-core processor and an arsenal of sensors which allow it to detect food thickness, temperature and doneness. All you have to do is select the food and desired sear and doneness levels via the built-in touchscreen or the Seergrills app.
The Perfecta utilizes a vertical cooking system where food is held by so-called VertiGrates. Dual infrared burners move closer to foods as needed during the cooking process and can achieve a maximum temperature of 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to cook a steak in 90 seconds. Seergrills says the Perfecta can hit those temps in under two minutes, drastically reducing preheating times. This setup also means that there’s no flipping required. The company says the configuration will consistently provide the perfect sear, doneness and moisture retention. Over time, the Perfecta learns from your culinary exploits, refining various cooking profiles to become more precise with each grilling session.
The Perfecta has a vertical cooking configuration with infrared burners that move automatically during use.
Seergrills
And it’s not just a grill either. The Perfecta has oven, pizza and rotisserie modes — if you splurge for the requisite accessories — and a manual mode (called Human Mode) for AI-free operation. What’s more, you can build and save your own cooking profiles for future use.
Despite the oven look, the Perfecta is very much an outdoor grill. It runs on 120-volt electricity and propane gas in order to power the electronics and those high-heat burners. The grill is built with aerospace-grade aluminum, marine-grade stainless steel and both ceramic and tempered glass. The cooking grates are made of naturally non-stick stainless steel and internal components also use stainless steel for easy cleaning. Lastly, the drip tray and grease management system are dishwasher safe.
If you were waiting until the company starting shipping units before committing to one, you’re going to have to wait even longer. Seergrills is now taking orders for its fifth wave of shipments, but those aren’t scheduled to go out until May 2026. You’re also going to pay a lot more for it. Back in 2024, the price tag on the Perfecta was set at $3,500, but now that has gone up to $5,999.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-ai-powered-perfecta-from-seergrills-is-now-shipping-after-its-ces-2024-debut-163000474.html?src=rss
When it comes to hot coffee, my preference is for pour-over. Sure, it’s a manual brewing method that takes time and attention, but I want all of the nuanced flavors and aromas that slow pouring extracts from the locally roasted coffee I resupply weekly. I can make as much or as little as I want (within the capacity of my Chemex, of course) and control all of the parameters of the process, varying them based on the characteristics of my beans. Plenty of companies have tried to offer a similar experience in a countertop drip machine, but many of them only get about halfway there.
Enter the Fellow Aiden ($369). For the first time, an automatic brewer promising pour-over quality actually delivered. The machine can accurately and precisely maintain water temperature, even offering a bloom cycle to appropriately begin the extraction process. The Aiden has both guided brewing and minutely customizable options for achieving your ideal cup whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been a coffee snob for decades. It’s this abundance of control that sets Fellow’s machine apart, and why it actually gives you coffee that may have you ditching your pour-over dripper for good.
Design
Fellow is well known for its design prowess when it comes to coffee gear like grinders, kettles and drinkware. The company usually takes a more mechanical looking approach, with an aesthetic that resembles lab equipment instead of coffee devices. For the Aiden though, the company went for a more minimal design, giving it a plainer cube structure that’s a lot more modern than many automatic drip machines on the market. It won’t appeal to everyone, but I do think it’s unique.
A removable water tank sits on the left, complete with volume markings for your desired quantity of coffee. You don’t have to take the tank off to fill it, but if you’re working from a faucet the fact that you can makes things easier. Inside the brewing chamber, there’s a spray head adjustment which allows you to reconfigure the Aiden for single-cup use. The machine also comes with a second brew basket for this purpose that can deposit coffee straight into your favorite cup.
Billy Steele for Engadget
Down below, a double wall carafe provides enough heat retention to keep your coffee warm for a few hours. The lid doesn’t close off the container entirely, but if you consume all of your morning joe in under three hours, you’ll be fine. I would’ve liked to see a second lid that would seal things to keep them at just-brewed temps, but Fellow did design the carafe so that it pours easily without a mess. I can’t say the same for the 2020 model Moccamaster the Aiden replaced in my kitchen.
Instead of the typical on/off switch, the Aiden has a one-button, knob-based interface where you make all of your selections. A small, circular display sits at the top left of the front panel, and turning the knob navigates the plethora of menu options. Once you find what you’re looking for, simply press the dial to make a selection. (Reviewer’s note: The display on my review unit was damaged before it arrived, but since the machine still performed as intended, I didn’t feel the need to return it just for that reason.)
Pour-over performance
There are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of automatic or semi-automatic drip coffee makers that promise the quality you’d get in a manually brewed pour-over. Sadly, almost none of them actually deliver. I’ve used a Moccamaster for four years, and while there’s a lot to like about the machine, the straight-line arrangement of the shower head doesn’t give you the even water distribution you’d want for quality pour-over simulation. Other machines don’t get hot enough, and many don’t allow you to adjust the bloom cycle, water ratios or brew temperature.
On the Aiden, Fellow addressed all of my gripes with machines I’ve used in the past. First, the dual shower heads’ spouts are spaced out so that coffee grounds are evenly saturated throughout the bloom and brewing cycles. The two easily switchable modes mean you can make a full 10-cup carafe or as little as one cup with the same quality. You will have to keep two types of filters on hand for the two baskets, but those are much easier to store than a second, single-cup pod machine. This alone would be a big innovation for drip brewers, but the company didn’t stop there.
An infinitely customizable brewing system
Billy Steele for Engadget
Fellow also accounted for customization, another area where coffee nerds want room to experiment. The Aiden allows you to adjust brew temperature, coffee-to-water ratio and pulse behavior as much as you’d like. You can dial in the number of pulses of water, the time between them and even set each one to be a different temperature. For the bloom cycle, Fellow unlocks duration, temperature and the bloom ratio (amount of water in the initial pour).
Instead of having to live with the one setting a company programmed into its machine, you’re in complete control of all of the parameters here. The degree with which you can dial in the brew cycle to your every whim is the biggest reason why the Aiden will be so attractive to serious coffee lovers. What’s more, another important piece of the machine’s customization abilities are brew profiles, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
If you’re not familiar with the term, the best way to think about brew profiles is like recipes. The Aiden offers three out of the box — light roast, medium roast and dark roast — so you don’t need to immediately start tweaking and saving things. But if your favorite coffee roaster is like mine (Hi, Vignette Coffee Roasters), it will offer brewing guidance for things like water ratios. Of course, those companies may not always nail your preferred flavor or strength, but they provide a good starting point since they’re aware of the nuances. And with the Aiden, you’re able to actually employ that advice for each single origin or custom blend you use.
Eventually, Fellow will allow roasters and coffee shops to create and share profiles so you can brew like they do in a cafe. If you subscribe to Fellow Drops, a coffee lineup curated by the company, your Aiden will be able to automatically download the profiles for the beans that are headed your way.
Don’t fret if you aren’t at that level of coffee snobbery just yet. The Aiden provides guided brewing based on those three roast profiles and your desired number of cups for quick and easy use. These aren’t just helpful for beginners, but also for the times when more advanced users want a pot of joe without much thought. I found them helpful on the weekends when I wasn’t sure when I’d be getting out of bed and didn’t want to wake up to a cold pot of coffee. During the week though, the scheduling tool is a big advantage that much of the competition lacks.
I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the Aiden’s heating system, since this tech is what enables to-the-degree temperature control throughout the brew cycle. Any moderate or advanced coffee lover knows that water temperature is a key aspect of brewing great coffee. Lots of automatic drip machines simply don’t get hot enough to extract all of the flavor from the grounds, leaving you with a more muted flavor profile. Inside the Aiden though, Fellow designed a heating setup with single-degree precision that even lets you adjust temperatures while the machine is brewing without stalling the process. The way this machine heats water offers consistency and control that many coffee makers can’t match.
There’s also an Aiden app, but it doesn’t do much right now. You can connect the machine to the software for firmware updates, to set the time and to name the brewer. Eventually, Fellow plans to enable the shareable profiles I mentioned earlier, in addition to scheduling and remote control from your phone. However, those items have been listed as “coming soon” since the Aiden’s launch in September. I’ve asked Fellow for the current status and I’ll update this review if I hear back.
The competition
Billy Steele for Enagadget
Before I tested the Aiden, I used a Moccamaster KBT that I purchased in 2020. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to upgrade my coffee setup at home, where I’d been brewing manual pour-overs via Chemex for years. I wanted something I could turn on and have it make coffee comparable to what I’d been doing, and that’s what I got.
Moccamaster coffee machines have a reputation for being well-built and reliable, and I found that to be true. My KBT worked well daily, providing coffee that was more akin to pour-over quality than a much cheaper auto-drip brewer. The KBT still comes with an insulated carafe, although the 2020 model didn’t have a pour spout like the updated version does. This made pouring difficult and often messy. And while the machine brews at temperatures between 196 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit, the straight-line design of the shower head doesn’t provide the best saturation during the brewing cycle.
With all of that said, I still think Moccamaster machines are the best alternative to the Aiden. They’re slightly cheaper, starting at $329, and will serve you well for years. Plus, there are options for glass carafes with heating elements if you prefer that to an insulated one. For many of the models though, you’ll have to live without an automatic drip stop when you remove the carafe during brewing. There’s a manual slider on the brew basket for most of the options, but an auto option is only available on machines like the KBGV Select. The 40-ounce Moccamaster models also brew about nine ounces less than the Aiden at max capacity (1.25 L/44 oz vs. 1.5 L/52.9 oz), so that’s something else to consider. It’s almost another full cup of coffee per pot.
Wrap-up
It’s clear Fellow recognized all of the shortcomings of so-called pour-over simulators on the market when designing the Aiden. The company finally delivers on the promise of the smoothness and flavor of manually brewed coffee in an automatic drip machine. The Aiden gets hot enough, offers adequate saturation and segments the brew cycle just like you would for a pour-over or Chemex. Plus, there’s a host of customization options, which allow you to dial in your process based on the beans you’re using. And that means I can actually get rid of a lot of the clutter I needed for a single-cup pick-me-up.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/fellow-aiden-review-a-highly-customizable-pour-over-coffee-machine-172028575.html?src=rss
London’s W1 is somewhere to go if you’ve got too much money to spend on something. Within minutes of each other, you can visit the city’s priciest private doctor, buy a Steinway and a pair of designer glasses that cost more than my mortgage. Wigmore Street is also where the ultra rich go to buy a kitchen that Thorstein Veblen would weep at the sight of. It’s also the new home of Moley Robotics, a company selling luxury kitchens and the robot arm that’ll kinda/sorta do all of the cooking for you, too.
Moley is the brainchild of Dr. Mark Oleynik and is one part kitchen showroom and one part robot lab. It’s a spartan space with three demo kitchens, a wide dining table and some display units showing you the different types of artisan marble you can have for your countertop. The point of interest is the working X-AiR robot just behind the front window that acts as a lure for would-be consumers. It’s got its own cooktop, shelves, oils and utensils and, with the proper help, can even whip up a meal.
Moley
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget
Oleynik explained he wanted to create something to help people eat better food with less reliance on preservatives. His dislike of reheated and processed food sent him looking for alternatives, which led him to finding a way to automate fresh cooking. If you’re coming back late from work, the obvious temptations are microwave meals or delivery food. He believes people would much rather healthy recipes where you just prep the raw ingredients and let the robot do the rest. The focus on health extends to the database of potential meals, many of which have been created by the SHA Wellness Clinic.
Moley has its own in-house chef, James Taylor, who adapts each recipe so it can be made by a one-armed robot. The company says it hopes to add two or three new recipes each month, and that if you have a family dish you’d love to see automated, you can send it in. Oleynik said the movements are mapped onto the robot after watching a human chef prepare the same meal. And that, once it had learned what to do, the robot would be far less error-prone than its human counterpart.
The initial demonstration of Moley’s vision (above) used a two-armed chef that ran on overhead tracks that earned the company so many plaudits initially. Unfortunately, Oleynik admitted the cost for such a robot would have likely reached north of £250,000 (Around $330,000). Which is probably too rich even for the sort of people who frequent Wigmore Street for their kitchen appliances. To reduce the price, the company stripped down the project from a mobile, two-armed version to a single arm. The robot that Moley is actually selling is bought off-the-shelf from Universal Robots, an industrial robotics company.
The robot
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget
The one-armed version that’s currently up for pre-order is known as the X-AiR, which is what sits in the front of Moley’s showroom. If you want one for yourself, you’ll need to buy a new countertop, two custom shelving units, a cooktop, control tablet and the robot itself. The prices are in the “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” range but the price to get in the door is £80,000 (around $105,000). So far, Moley hasn’t installed a single robot, but expects the process to begin in the next three to six months. But there are people who have already laid down cash to get one of these in their homes, and the kitchen that goes around it.
X-AiR has no built-in vision or sensing technology enabling it to perceive or engage with its environment. The system does come with a camera, embedded in one of the shelves, that I understand is more for technical support than to aid cooking. Instead, the robot arm moves around its space from memory, knowing where all of the ingredients, oils and tools should be. The saucepans are held in place over the jobs on the cooktop to keep the environment as controlled as possible.
I was present to witness Moley’s now standard demonstration using an SHA Clinic recipe for Asian Tofu Saute. Staff members had pre-prepared the ingredients and placed them in the pots necessary for the robot to grab. In order to start the process, the user needs to tell the system which ingredients are in which sections. There’s even a little diagram of the shelf layout, so you can tap “Bean Sprouts” and tap that the pot with them is seated in position A1, for instance. Once you’ve done that, you can set the machine going and theoretically leave it be until it’s time to eat.
The system is set up to call out every instruction from the recipe so it’s easy to follow along with it. In the video, you should be able to see why it’s an interesting thing to watch as the arm starts its ballet to start cooking your food. It almost theatrically turns on the cooktop before pouring a liberal quantity of oil into the pan to begin warming. After that, it begins adding the ingredients as and when commanded to, and stirring the mixture in between. The stirring is more of a back and forth pushing of the mix, which is obviously less thorough than a human would be. After each stir, the robot scrapes its spatula on the side of the pan before returning it to its hook.
There are similar touches when the robot adds the next ingredient from its dedicated bin, double tapping the pot on the side to ensure everything falls out. I noticed, however, that there were a few ingredients still attached to the spatula and the pots when they were returned to the shelf. This is the big issue with a robot that lacks any sort of vision to perceive its local environment. During my demonstration, a few strips of leek clung to the spatula and fell off, onto the cooktop itself, while in motion. It was quickly wiped away, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if it’d landed a millimeter closer to the burner and pan and started burning.
What it can’t do
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget
I’m much happier tending to a pan and actually cooking than I am peeling carrots and trying to dice onions. The obvious question, then, is why Moley sought to automate the ostensibly fun part of cooking rather than the bit people dislike? Oleynik said it might be possible in a far-flung future but there are just too many variables to make a carrot-peeling robot work. Not to mention, he added, the safety risks inherent in giving a robot a bladed instrument to wield.
Moley’s first-generation robots are also limited by the volume of food they can cook in a single session. Depending on the meal, they can make between eight and ten portions, enough for a dinner party but nothing more extravagant. Not to mention the robots can’t make much of any adjustment if you don’t have exactly the right ingredients ready for use. You can remove any you don’t have, naturally, but there’s no ability to improvise beyond that, or to variate its program to take into account seasonal differences in ingredient quality.
The food
Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget
When I was told the robot was making me tofu, I had to work hard to keep myself standing upright. If they could have seen my soul, they’d have watched my shoulders droop so hard they fell through the floor, through the basement, and into the subway line below. Friends, I cannot stand tofu and grimace my way through it whenever my vegan chums insist we go to a meat-free restaurant. Even when they insist I’m eating “really good” tofu, it just tastes like stringy matter, devoid of any inherent flavor as I try to mash it in my mouth. So bear that in mind when I say that the tofu the robot cooked me was actually delicious. It had a nice texture and tasted pretty delicious, meshing beautifully with the vegetables.
The future
Oleynik believes his robots will find a variety of niches to fill, first with money-rich, time-poor folks in London and beyond. The internet tells me that a private chef would set you back around £300 a day, so you’d burn through that £80,000 in less than a year. Naturally, it’s likely anyone who can drop £80,000 on a cooking robot can probably afford to buy their ingredients pre-prepared, so they could just dump them in the bins and set things going.
After that, Oleynik believes the technology could be used to prepare fresh meals for business and first-class airline passengers. Or in small kitchens where one employee supervises a production line of robots all making fresh dishes. His vision stretches to any situation where there may be a desire for fresh-cooked food, but the economics of a trained chef won’t allow it.
He cited the example of a hotel with 24/7 room service, where people are paid to wait around on the off-chance someone wants food. Or service stations in remote areas where there’s potential demand for meals but no need to hire a professional chef. Similarly, Oleynik cited care homes where there’s a similar conflict between a desire to produce good food but limited budgets.
Of course, it’s not clear, given there would need to be a human preparing the raw ingredients and dishing up, how much labor is being saved. And anyone who is involved with food would likely need to be trained and paid accordingly, which may eliminate any potential savings. But Oleynik is certain that a business can expect to see a return on its investment within its first year of service.
As for the price, Oleynik believes the technology will refine to the point that the cost will fall quite far. He gestured to one of the demo kitchens in the showroom, which had a Miele-branded oven and fridge, saying each model cost £5,000 (around $6,500) each. He hopes he’ll be able to sell a cooking robot for £10,000 to the sort of people who don’t blink when spending £5,000 on an oven and another £5,000 on a fridge. But, if nothing else, it’s entirely in keeping with everything else you can buy on Wigmore Street.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/a-105000-robot-arm-nobody-needs-cooked-me-a-delicious-lunch-140050065.html?src=rss
It's an experience many of us know all too well: open up a food blogger's recipe only to scroll past a mountain of content you don't care about to actually reach the ingredients and method. Google is trialing a feature that could eliminate this step, even though it's the result of the company's own policies.
The Verge noticed a new button on the thumbnails for select recipes called Quick View. This button brings up the complete recipe without leaving the search results page. In their testing, a search for "chocolate chip cookie recipe" revealed this Quick View button for the site Preppy Kitchen.
"We’re always experimenting with different ways to connect our users with high-quality and helpful information," Google rep Brianna Duff told Engadget about these Quick View recipes. "We have partnered with a limited number of creators to begin to explore new recipe experiences on Search that are both helpful for users and drive value to the web ecosystem. We don’t have anything to announce right now." While Google does have agreements inked with the participating bloggers, the company declined to reveal any further details about the scope of this testing.
It's quite a catch-22 Google has created when it comes to recipes online. Home cooks may find this Quick View feature appealing since so many food blogs front-load their posts with photos and personal stories before actually sharing the recipe. But it was Google's own rules that pushed bloggers toward that approach in the first place, with longer posts generally indexing higher up in search results and thus getting more traffic. (And no offense to the food bloggers of the world, but the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you need is the one on the back of the chocolate chip bag.)
While this recipe feature is just an early trial, Google has been rolling out other tools aimed at keeping users on its own webpages and platforms. The AI Overviews in search are one of the latest (and occasionally surreal) ways the company is changing the rules of engagement for web content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-tests-feature-to-show-full-recipes-in-search-results-212257585.html?src=rss
