Are slow cookers shit?

I have The Easy Indian Slow Cooker cookbook which is great for curry but you need to fry the onions and some spices before you put them in. Otherwise - I do jacket potatoes and that's it. My spag bol and chili is better just done quickly on the hob in a cast iron then put in the oven for an hour.

Slow cookers are fantastic for some things (lamb and beef especially), not so good for others. If you’re adapting a normal recipe use a third less liquid than it says. And the best bit of slow cooker advice I was given, just because you can cook everything for ten hours, doesn’t mean you should!

I agree the recipe is the issue. I also love my slow cooker but I wouldn't use it for everything, mainly soups, stews or casseroles, bolognese, curry or chilli.

I never used to brown anything but it does make a difference I find. My kids always groan when it gets to autumn and the slow cooker comes out 😂 but I love it and feels like someone else has made me dinner by the time it is actually ready in the evening!!

there are some things I wont cook- I don’t think a bolognaise is ever quite right but I love a beef stew or a chicken tagine type thing, always use much less liquid than any recipes suggest and I’ve not tried it but apparently putting a tea towel under the lid allows some of the liquid to escape as steam??

Pressure cooker is much better imo.

I find them a bit hit and miss. Good for some things, not so much for others. A worthwhile tool for when I was working full time with a long commute - the convenience was worth the trade off for not quite so tasty meals.

Nowadays, I only use one for soups, stews and gammon (plus pea and ham soup in the resulting stock).

I love mine, it’s just a cheap one from Asda but has the metal pan that can be transferred onto the hob or into the oven. I use it twice a week to batch cook lunches and put everything in raw then leave it to cook for around 4-6 hrs. At the end I give it 15 mins on the hob to thicken and cook off some or all of the sauce.

I just made an amazing veg recipe. Head of broccoli chopped in big chunks with red onion & garlic (I had pre-fried for another recipe & took out of freezer). Added last week’s pumpkin in biggish chunks, spinach, courgette remains & 1 can of tomatoes. Sumac, parsley, garam masala & red chilli. I literally put it in the bowl with the lid on top, switched it on slow & went out to work this morning. Dinner was ready to perfection when I got home.

Have made this before but with the thai curry sachet from the Ocado stir fry offer. Also a success.

Cut the veg up big so they don’t go soggy & don’t add too much liquid. Daal also works as does beef stew but you do have to leave it for a few hours.

They’re useful and cheap to use, but imo they’re nothing like as good as the oven. Just not as tasty.

I use mine mainly to make stock - I just put a chicken carcass in water and leave it overnight.

I love my slow cooker!

Honestly, unless you're prepared to start the cooking by browning meat and starting the onions cooking it'll be horrible. I'm not a fan of the 'bung it in and leave it' method so it's not entirely faff free but if you like that kind of melty, falling off the bone, tender meat (which I do) slow cookers are brilliant.

Jade’s bites on Instagram has some good slow cooker recipes and videos. They’re also on her website (lots of ads so I screenshot what I need)
I would recommend this Mongolian beef recipe www.jadesbites.co.uk/slow-cooker-mongolian-beef

It seems notable that the amazon reviews complain the photos in the book are not very good perhaps that why I'm not disappointed by it - no hopes raised by unrealistic photographs! Actually most dishes don't have a picture at all, but that's good because it means the pages stay flat as they are mostly not glossy.

I have this, the paperback (it just defaulted to kindle because I buy everything on kindle now) and everything I've cooked out of it has been nice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Recipes-your-Slo-Cooker-ebook/dp/B0081GDQ1K/

We are vegetarian and have found you cannot go out and expect a lovely cooked meal when you get back that isn't mush .

I’ve used a few recipes from the taming twins website. The slow cooker works so well for my family as we are all in and out at different times due to school and working changing shifts. Short rib ragu is my favourite. I’ve asked for the ‘Poppy Cooks’ slow cooker recipe book for Xmas from my kids.

@rainbowstardrops when searching for recipes I always put ‘best slow cooker thai curry’ or something like that, then only go for those with at least 4 out of 5 star reviews. Also read a few of the low reviews to see if it’s a dimwit who’s done it wrong rather than the recipe. Most times then what I’ve made has worked a treat!

I find casseroles really good but need to thicken gravy with cornflour.

My slow cooker is great and the meals I cook in it are always lovely
i I use recipes from tamingtwins and they turn out great every time

Did get one to do casseroles in but the gravy was rubbish compared to an oven cooked one so I gave up.

I've never seen or tasted a meal out of a slow cooker that looks appetising.

I haven't voted because you have actually conflated two different issues.
Slow cookers are marvelous, I wouldn't be without mine, however, you need to be aware of a few basics, one of which is that you need to make the initial sauce much, much thicker than normal as the slow cooking makes the ingredients give off juices which can't evaporate to reduce the sauce. They just condense on the pot lid and go back in to the food.
Second point: the pictures in cookery books. A long, long time ago, when I was an inexperienced cook, I made an apricot tart to serve to my favourite aunt and uncle who were visiting. Athough it tasted fine the appearance was really disappointing, nothing like the photo. When I told my uncle how disappointed I was he explained to me that food photos are a big con, and the perfectly rounded, glossy apricots were a) not cooked and b) covered in inedible glossy gloop to make an appealing photo. I bless him for that to this day because it has made all the difference in how I judge my success at home cooking.....and various magazine articles over the years have confirmed that the food in recipe photos is often not actually edible!
So no vote because you are being unreasonable to expect what you cook to resemble the photo in the recipe book.

Edited to add: I see you say "am currently cooking" and " it looks", unless your slow cooker has a transparent lid (mine doesn't) you shouldn't have any idea what it looks like until you reach the end of the cooking time. As a PP said, you absolutely must not take the lid off until the end of the cooking time.

I think they are, yes.

I use mine a few times a week and have made some great tasty meals. I use specific recipes though . This book is great. Particularly recommend the garlic and honey beef noodles. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whats-Dinner-Slow-Cooker-bestselling-ebook/dp/B0DYM2F9ZJ

I’ve never tasted anything out of a slow cooker that’s has much flavour or any texture at all and it always looks like unappetising slop.

Pressure cooked food is far, far superior in every possible way.