The Parchment Paper That Wasn't Parched

[+ Gar1eth]

I bought a must -have air fryer over a year ago. In fact I had to have it so badly that today was my 1st time to use it. 
 

I had been to a Tex-Mex place the other day and hadn't been able to eat most of it in-between talking to my friend and filling up on chips and salsa. So I ended up taking the majority of the meal home. 

 

This was their 'lite' version.  They subtract part of the chicken and add in veggies for the reasonable price of only $24. 
 

Today seemed a perfect day to finally use the air fryer. So after reading the instructions and performing the initial wash, I got it ready to reheat the fajitas. The fryer came with parchment paper rounds, so I put one on the bottom of the basket. 
 

I hadn't been thinking about the fat that the dish contained a lot of moisture including pico de gallo and some beans from bean soup. 
 

I put all of that in the basket and start the cycle. It finishes without problems. I go to take the food out of the basket and see that the parchment paper is soaked. It's also torn. It couldn't handle (the truth or) the moisture of the dish. Most of the parchment paper was still in the air fryer basket. But while I'meating the leftovers, I occasionally come across little flecks of something that don't have a food type of  texture. I spit out some. But I'm sure I have some paper traveling through my alimentary tract. I hope the roughage is helpful for my digestive tract. 

[+ Gar1eth]

Well when I finished eating and cleaned up the air fryer, there was even less of the parchment paper left than I had originally thought. But cellulose is good for you, right?

Edited July 3 by Gar1eth

[samhexum]

[jeezifonly]

Parchment will indeed be broken down by excess moisture. Next time use a similarly sized piece of foil in the fryer, or switch to nuking. 

[mike carey]

As far as I'm aware, 'parchment' for use in the kitchen isn't a thing in Australia. There is a thing that's called 'baking paper' here, that according to the pack in my pantry is good up to 220°C, but in ovens, and not under a flame. I use it avoid thing like chips ('fries' to you) or pastry sticking to a tray or the oven shelf/air fryer basket, so things that tend oily rather than moist, and haven't had any problems.

I agree with @jeezifonly that it can be a matter of adjusting expectations. Using foil for things that might leak moisture while being heated is one solution, although at first treat it as an experiment as you become used to how the machine works with different foods. Putting food into a small ovenproof baking dish might also work (I have some small round and oval ones that I might try out). And some things will just work better in a microwave. (I always cook too much mashed potato for one serving and freeze the extra in single serves in small ramekins. I nuke those to thaw them and put them under the grill (I think 'broiler' to you) topped with grated cheese. I may try doing the cheese part in the air fryer.)

[+ nycman]

3 hours ago, mike carey said:

….is good up to 220°C

That’s 428°F for all the Yanks in the room.