Rant: I called parchment paper a waste of money until my neighbor's wings changed my mind
For two years I skipped parchment in my air fryer because I figured the basket already has a coating and liners cost like $6 a roll for nothing. Last Saturday my neighbor Dave had us over for football and pulled 3 pounds of wings out of his basket with the paper still under them, and the bottom of that basket looked brand new, no stuck skin, no scrubbing. He said he's been doing it twice a week for a year and a half and the coating still looks like day one. Meanwhile mine has two spots where the nonstick is worn down to bare metal from me going at it with a scouring pad. I checked my own basket after and sure enough, there's a scratch about the size of a dime right where the wings always sit. So now I'm the guy buying parchment rounds, which I swore I'd never be. Does the paper block airflow enough to matter, or am I overthinking it?