I cooked meatballs in 4 different appliances, and I won't use my air fryer again

I used the same frozen meatballs in all four appliances. Steven John

• I cooked frozen meatballs using my air fryer, microwave, oven, and stovetop to see which is best.
• The microwaved meatballs were too rubbery and overly hot, but they were ready in one minute

If there's a more comforting meal than pasta and meatballs, I'm not sure what it is. Give me a good homemade marinara sauce, a fistful of linguini, and seven or eight meatballs, and I'm a happy man.

And with grocery prices still high due to years of rising inflation, it's also an affordable meal that helps my family stick to our budget.

I've traditionally prepared premade frozen meatballs by plopping them into a pot of pasta sauce and letting it simmer on the stove while I boil the noodles.

But I wanted to see once and for all if that's really the best method. As an experiment, I made frozen meatballs with my stovetop, oven, air fryer, and microwave.

Here's how the appliances stacked up.