Slow cooker- what's the point?

[SaagAloopa]

Every recipie I've tried in my slow cooker has involved me having to cook the meat on the hob first. So please can you explain to me in simple language what is the benefit? How does it cook if it does it so slowly, how is it safe? Is it more or less energy efficient? What is the point.

I don't know what you're cooking but I've got a hunk of beef in mine currently and the smell is making me hungry

Everything I've ever cooked in an electric slow cooker ends up with a tinned, boiled, premade kind of taste to it. I don't get the point of them. Just slow cook stuff in a casserole dish in the oven on low temperature, it tastes so much better because the maillard reaction can actually occur.

Have you had a roast done in a SC? Lamb is beautiful cooked in a SC. I use shoulder which is quite fatty but in the SC it melts and bastes the meat.

If you add your liquids to the slow cooker first, mine is a 3.5 litre, i found the 6.5 litre didn't suit my cooking, no more than two inches in depth, add meat and veg.
That gives me a delicious rich gravy.

Since roasting is a cooking technique that, by definition, uses dry heat I am not convinced that a 'roast' done in a slow cooker is a roast at all really. Especially as, in my family at least, many people prefer beef and lamb served rare. Now you are right, shoulder isn't as good rare, rare, so maybe is suitable for a slow cooker. What you are desribing almost sounds like a lamb confit!! Given how a slow cooker works surely the meat is more boiled / steamed than roasted, whether it's beef, lamb, chicken or pork. How does crackling work in a slow cooker? I am sure slow cooked meat can still be tasty, but is it really a roast...?

The lamb is still pink after 8 hours, not rare but still pink.

Crackling doesn't crackle, if I want it then I put it under the grill or in the oven for 10 - 15 mins.

You don’t have to brown meat before you put it in a slow cooker but it won’t taste as good. We cooked ox cheeks at the weekend. They are so tough when raw that they are hard to cut with a sharp knife. Quick brown on the hob and then seven hours in the slow cooker on low and you can cut them without a knife.

You are correct it's not roasted. I would say braised.
Braised brisket is beautiful done in slow cooker but I'd never use it for a "good" cut of meat like loin or sirloin. Those are better roasted in and oven.
Works well for cheaper cuts like pork shoulder for pulled pork or lamb shoulder.

I would say braised has some liquid with it.

@sashh of course but it's not a stew.

I don't think anyone thinks it is a stew.

Putting meat in a slow cooker with nothing else isn't a stew or braised IMHO.

Definitely not a stew, as to me stew is smaller chunks of meast, but it is closer to braised that roasted I think. I think that because while you don't add any liquid, the nature of a slow cooker is that the moisture that comes out of the meat when cooked is retained in the slow cooker, forming liquid. Whereas when roasting in a hot oven that moisture has a far larger volume to disipate in and isn't in the roasting tray, on the whole. Obviously some fat and so on does get held in the roasting tray. That's my logic anyway!! Although, technically braising requires the meat to be seared first, so who knows...!

Maybe the Americans are right - it's a pot roast!!

It doesn't get hot enough to create the Maillard reaction so you need to brown meat and onions elsewhere but it does the rest of the cooking at A slow, lower energy temperature. I'm veggie and use it a lot for pulses, daal and suchlike, cooking chickpeas and beans overnight.

Interesting point on the energy front - yes, a slow cooker uses less than a conventional fan oven. But does 6/7/8 hours of slow cooking use more or less energy than 10/15/20 minutes of an 'airfyer' which, I'd argue, is more capabale of roasting something... I have no idea!