Cosori Dual Blaze review: A great oil-free frying pan

Since the summer, Cosori has been introducing a new oil-free frying pan that is to say the least, but also very expensive – nearly €200 – under the name Dual Blaze. As its name suggests, this new model includes not one, but two resistors. Of course, there’s also a fan to distribute the heat, as well as a dual temperature probe to direct the heating and an aluminum basket that Kosuri advertises as three times thicker than competing models. All of these elements make up a technology called 360ThermoIQ, which should allow the Dual Blaze to cook food quickly and evenly, without user intervention.

Cosori’s new fryer offers automatic programs, while the mobile app should allow you to find recipes and follow cooking remotely. To do this, it is clear that Dual Blaze is connected. Finally, the technical newspaper announces a power of 1700 watts and a capacity of 6.4 liters.

Dual Blaze displays a refreshing sobriety. Their matte anthracite finish and raised edges change from the round, shiny shapes that feature most oil-free pans on the market. The plastic does not look of excellent quality, but the assembly is rather neat. A new kosori frying pan should be able to find its place in the majority of kitchens, provided that there is a square of at least 30 cm on the free side on the work surface. We’ve seen more compact ones, like Xiaomi’s Mi Smart Air Fryer. However, its capacity is much lower: 3.5 liters, compared to 6.4 for the Dual Blaze.

According to Kozuri, it can accommodate a chicken weighing up to 2.5 kg, 17 chicken wings, four steaks … but only 450 grams of french fries. During testing, we were able to see that this was barely enough to cover the bottom of the tank with just over 23cm on the side, so it could hold much more. We imagine that Kosuri preferred to play the safety card by declaring a small amount of French fries: the fewer there are, the greater the chances of getting uniform cooking, which should precisely be the strength of the Dual Blaze. But we will return to this in more detail in the “Cooking” section.

Kozuri connects the fryer with different attachments to be used depending on the type of cooking. As was the case with the CP158-AF from the same manufacturer, in the box we find in the box a kind of perforated tray for sliding into the bottom of the tank for chopping food, as well as skewers with a support not unlike a stainless steel raised grille; So we can imagine using it for two-level cooking for example. Also note that there is a bundle on Amazon with more accessories for baking cakes and pizza. Remember that an oil-free frying pan is nothing more or less than a small convection oven, and therefore it is possible to do more than frying.

You just have to look at the dashboard to realize this. Built into the top of the machine, but tilted slightly forward for easier reading, it includes 12 automatic programs: chicken, steak, seafood, vegetables, fries, frozen, air fry, reheat, roast, keep warm, cake and grill. Each is associated with an ideal cooking temperature and time, but they can still be set, and even permanently adjusted from the appliance. In addition, the Dual Blaze can operate only one resistance of the two corresponding types and also adjust the blower according to the program.

Simply tap on it to select one, and use the arrows to change settings. The temperature is set at 5 °C between 80 and 205 °C, the duration is between 1 and 60 minutes to the nearest minute. Cosori does not offer a manual mode in the strict sense of the word, but the freedom to modify the programs makes it possible to compensate in part. We would still like to be able to manually select the resistance like in an oven, especially since the software is not completely transparent at this point.

While the software may give a vague idea of ​​what can be cooked with the Dual Blaze, Cosori provides a recipe booklet and an app to find more: VeSync. More creative people can also write and save their own recipes. The app also makes it possible to adjust fryer program settings thanks to wifi, but also to remotely follow cooking operations and alert when done.

It is also possible to send the cooking settings to the pan from the recipe, but the kosori requires you to go through the control panel to start cooking, which is not so bad. The remote control of the fryer is not so important as it implies that the ingredients are placed in the tank in advance: they are therefore prone to spoilage. On the other hand, the fryer can be linked to a speaker, Google Assistant or Alexa screen to control it by voice, to avoid contaminating the control panel, for example.

Despite their resistance, the Dual Blaze manages to limit the heating on its outer surfaces. It also includes a safety system that automatically stops heating when the pot is removed, for example to control cooking. Because it is loaded via a drawer, the Cosori frying pan does not allow food to be seen during cooking, unlike the Seb Actifry Genius XL and Delonghi Multifry FH1394 which are loaded via a transparent lid. Cooking resumes automatically when the basket is replaced.

As with any food-holding device, it is important to clean the Dual Blaze after each use, especially its tank. The task is greatly facilitated by the non-stick coating, which certainly requires not using an abrasive sponge, but limits deposits. The grease can still be difficult to get rid of at long last, and you’ll have to deal with the entire volume of the tank. It can be difficult to handle in the sink or store in the dishwasher. Like the pot, the frying pan has a non-stick coating and is dishwasher safe. Cosori does not provide maintenance tips for grill and skewers, but they should be washed in the sink or dishwasher because they are made of stainless steel.

On the fryer side, we can be satisfied with less frequent cleanings, even if the touch control panel is covered fairly quickly with fingerprints. The matte coating that covers most of the device is dirt-resistant and can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth. We can also clean up the resistance of the top. It’s stain prone without the protective net, but again, that shouldn’t help after each use.

Like the Delonghi Multifry FH1394, the Dual Blaze has not one but two resistors. Allow it to heat up from above and below, from 80 to 205 ° C. Depending on the program chosen, it may only use one and reduce the blower speed. The measurements in our test protocol were made using Air Fry software, which typically uses both resistors and runs the fan at full speed.

Whatever the temperature setting, the Dual Blaze has a hard time distributing the heat within its tank. Our graphs show that the temperature increases less rapidly in the center (blue curve) than at the periphery (green and red curves). This is the case with most oil-free fryers equipped with a central heating system, but we do notice that the temperature continues to rise in the center while settling down the sides.

To get a target temperature of 180°C, we end up finding 200°C in the middle after about ten minutes of cooking. Then the temperature gradually decreases to a level that can be found on the sides, i.e. between 175 and 185 degrees Celsius. The curves follow similar paths at 200°C, with a slightly longer heating time: 3 minutes and 15 seconds versus 2 minutes and 45 seconds when dialing 180°C.

In general, we can say that the temperature is rather stable, but homogeneity is not quite present, with differences of about twenty degrees inside the tank. It should also be noted that the temperature obtained is often higher than that required.

By repeating our measurements with the minimum and maximum temperatures available on the Dual Blaze, we obtained similar results. On the other hand, the pie chart software gave a slightly different graph. The default temperature should be up to 160°C using only the bottom resistance, no venting, so cooking is done using constant heat. While our measurements again show often a higher temperature inside the tank, on the other hand it is more homogeneous.

So it appears that the different programs available have an interest other than providing a reference temperature for specific foods, as is the case with most competing models.

As with other oil-free fryers, we supplemented our measurements with a test cooking with French fries. Kosori gives some recommendations. To follow it up, we cut 450g of fries into thin fries that we drizzle with a spoonful of oil before starting our French fries program. Cook at 195°C for 20 minutes without mixing.

Once the timer was at 0, our French fries still lacked a bit of cooking, some more than others. So we decided to mix them all the same way before putting them back in the oven for 5 minutes and then getting surprisingly good fries. If it’s not as crunchy as it can come out of the oil bath, it’s crust is light on the outside and the texture is very nice.

In the end, we’re not entirely convinced by Cosori’s 360ThermoIQ in terms of cooking uniformity, but it’s a very crucial test for the texture of the fries. Note that the result was probably less good with more than 450g of fries, which is still a few, especially since the Dual Blaze basket can hold much more.