Are slow cookers shit?

Interesting article 🙂 The concept of long slow cooking has been around in many cultures for a very long time, though generally for reasons of fuel preservation or absence from the house for tending the fields etc rather than religious reasons. I’ve had delicious meat cooked in a Māori hangi - cooked from heated rocks , sealed in a buried pit. The haybox method of starting a stew off with heat then placing it in an insulated box (hay, wool or even paper) was very prevalent in WW2 in this country and revived again during the strikes of the 1970s which resulted in interrupted power. It’s more of a niche interest now but people use it for camping and I’m sure people are using it now fuel has become so expensive.

That poster knows what I mean, she just think she’s funny. God love her, she’s really trying her best.

I had no idea you could do jacket potatoes in them. How long do you do them for? And which setting do you use?

I love mine use a couple of times a week.

I do sometimes thicken with cornflour or gravy granules.

If she’s scorned by a slow cooker, perhaps she should learn to use one.

The lid on my slow cooker isn't a tight fit and I think some evaporation happens anyway when it is in use. My casseroles are never watery or taste like mass produced canteen food.

I inherited it from one of DD's houseshare friends when they moved out. She didn't want it so I thought I would give it a try. It is just a cheap Tesco own brand one and does a great job.

I don't use it very often as we tend not to eat many casserlie type meals.

I think she means you sound like a woman scorned, by a slow cooker.

You only need to leave the lid slightly off the pot towards the end of the cook to reduce liquid - it’s not rocket science!

No, I don’t think using a slow cooker is cheating. Why would you say that?

Ah excellent topic. I'm unimpressed with mine too although I have one stew recipe which is acceptable and it's useful for a Sunday dinner if I'm out during the day.

For the same reason- potential disappointment- I'm avoiding buying an airfryer too.

You don't need to use a pan to reduce the liquid, just take the lid off the sc.

I think it’s knowing how to adjust for that
i season more heavily for the slow cooker, massively reduce liquids, use more umami flavours etc so you’re not having to bother about evaporation and concentrating flavours because you’ve already allowed for it
I don’t like everything in a slow cooker but it works for the stuff I do like

Oven cooking allows evaporation of liquid, concentrating flavours and giving more depth to them. In a slow cooker the moisture is trapped and cannot escape, so it’s not possible to get the same taste.

Take a dish with tinned or fresh tomato in it. They contain a lot of water, but conventional cooking allows some of that to evaporate, intensifying the tomato flavour. In a slow cooker that water evaporates, condenses on the lid and drops back into the pot, That doesn’t mean that slow cooked food tastes bad, but it’s incontrovertible that slow cooked food does taste different to that cooked in an oven or on a hob, and many of us can tell the difference. A few posters have suggested sticking a tea towel between the lid a pot of a slow cooker to absorb moisture. Maybe that helps, or maybe it makes the food taste of damp tea towel 😂

I have a big original Tower,china bowl, metal lid. From the 1980s.It's brilliant, everyone loves the food. It's not watery,or bland or tasteless. I did a Christmas cake in there a couple of years ago,it was gorgeous.

Perhaps you’ve just eaten at shit places? My husband used to be a chef and uses a slow cooker to make casseroles etc in the winter and they’re amazing. Nothing school canteen about it 😂 I’m at a loss as to how oven cooking something could result in a better result than searing and slow cooking.

Agree with this - we use our slow cooker all winter and have some amazing, rich, flavoursome dinners from it. The watery slop others are describing are completely alien to me!

I don’t do any prep to food before I stick it in the slow cooker. No one has ever commented negatively on the meals I make in mine, but many friends have bought one themselves after eating at ours and asking for the recipe and finding out it was done in the slow cooker.

@MorrisonsPlatterit has blown my mind, it’s a Tesco recipe I follow that and then also add some chorizo which I brown off and then add to the pan with the prawns!

I guess people have different tastes and preferences. I reckon I can tell a slow-cooked dinner a mile off. There is a distinct taste of school canteen about it, no matter what it is. If you have to faff around searing the meat and frying off the onions anyway then you may as well just make a decent casserole in the oven the night before and reheat on the stovetop.

Not in my slow cooker they don’t. Sorry, but it’s probably the recipes you’re using. Slow cookers need much less liquid than conventional casseroles as they don’t evaporate liquid as much casseroles done on the stove or in the oven.

I love mine! Used it almost every day this week. Had a lasagne in it today and doing creamy Tuscan chicken orzo tomorrow. It's brilliant for us coming home to dinner and not rushing. Or reaching for a takeaway 🙈

Did a slow cooker cheat on you once or something?

Yes in my experience. Everything gets turned into bland mush. Or if you add less liquid it boils dry. Got rid of mine.

Slow cookers are great. Be cautious about how much liquid you add.