Aibu to think people who don't like slow cookers usually don't no what to make

[pleasemothermay1]

I love my slow cooker when I first got it made stews as I hadn't a clue what else I could make however since then I found out you can make loads

Most people either don't no how to use it or don't really know what you can make

I have make fudge in mine

Chicken wrapped in backed stuffed with cream cheese on a bed of leeks

Also make cakes in mine often it's so moist

Why would you make bacon wrapped chicken breasts in a slow cooker? They take twenty minutes in the oven!

I agree wibbly-you can even do all the prep in the morning and shove them in the oven when you get in.

I use mine most for things that take a long time in the oven when I've got time first thing but I'm not around in the daytime. I have made some really nice dahls, stews, curries type things in it.

Whoever said "know your tool" was spot on. Just because you can slow cook something it doesn't mean you should!

Its called an oven with a heavy pot and a start and stop timer. I find it weirder that its become a fad.. my mum use to slow cook stews, does she deserve a bag too?

I really like the idea of slow cookers but we eat mainly veggie at home so I don't think you get the same wide use or benefits as you do from slow cooking meat.

It's not a timesaver though - you just defer the prep time to when it's more convenient.

Agreed. And OF COURSE we're not chopping veg at 7am, we do it the night before.

Yy to the pp who mentioned microwave fudge. It's genius.

I love a casserole but am a bit about slow cooked cake. Or sweet and sour type thing. Some things are great slow cooked, others just need to be cooked a bit hotter and faster. Tbo I don't really get the obsession of using a single pan to cook everything.

I've got one and I love it. It's a bit of a comfort food / winter thing though I find.

DeltaSunrise
And that there proves op's point. If everything tastes the same, you are not using it right. The one thing I do the most is stick a whole chicken in it, on low for 6 hours. Once it's cooked, it all gets shredded and put in the fridge, it's there then for sandwiches, salads, omelettes, pasta etc through the week which makes getting dinner on the table for the kids easy when you have only walked through the door at 6.30pm.

Lovely curries, pulled pork, balsamic beef, bolognese, soups, BBQ ribs, chilli, casseroles. Put on in morning and have a lovely dinner ready by the time I get home from work.

But I don't want a chicken shredded into tiny pieces - I want a roast chicken with crispy brown skin which can be sliced or jointed.

Plus I hate pasta and curry and chilli

Casseroles and stews DO all taste the same so my slow cooker is going to a good home or in the bin and I will buy a pressure cooker which I know will produce tasty, yummy stews for the winter.

I used mine a lot for months and then put it a way and rarely used it again. I don't know why.
I have always used it to cook joints of meat and I make pulled pork about every 4 months so use it then. I only use it when I will be in the house all day or popping out for a short time. I wouldn't feel comfortable having it on at night or while I was at work .

1. I don't have time on work days to prep food and start it in the morning.
2. I can make everything that can be made in a slow cooker by other methods
3. I don't have room for a slow cooker
4. We don't eat many meals that are slow cooker friendly

Will that do?

But I don't want a chicken shredded into tiny pieces - I want a roast chicken with crispy brown skin which can be sliced or jointed.

So don't shred it

I've never understood what advantage a slow cooker would have over my big casserole dish a proper le creuset heavy one and my oven with a decent timer

The only thing I can think of is the ability to say 'I made a fabulous slow cooker stew/soup/whatever in midweek' rather than 'yeah I made some food'.

I've used one once to make a chilli, when living with friends for a while. My chilli usually goes in the big pot in the oven for 3-4 hours minimum. I decided to use her slow cooker. It was watery and insipid. My oven chilli is thick and gooey. Wasn't impressed

I'm not a huge fan of mine. I wouldn't say everything tastes the same exactly, but it does all seem to have the same slow cookery background taste.
And I hate the whole house smelling of food.
I use mine for the days where I get back from work and have a 30min turnaround before getting children out to an activity - means I can dish up as soon as I walk in.

A couple of things are nice in it, pulled pork, beef stew, chicken thighs with honey,soy, garlic,chilli. But sometimes I walk in and the stew isn't great but we have to eat it anyway

Why are all slow cooker recipes full of cans of soup or packets of whatever?? That's not cooking...

If you made the slow cooker chilli exactly the same way as you made the oven chilli then of course it wouldn't have come out right.

I'm out too much (work full time and busy many evenings and weekends) to have an oven on for 3-4 hours (no timer on/off switch). So the slow cooker works well for me for those dishes that taste good cooked that way and which I have properly adapted for the slow cooker.

they're not obligatory

But I don't want a chicken shredded into tiny pieces - I want a roast chicken with crispy brown skin which can be sliced or jointed

Agreed. Yeah of course you could slice it instead, but slow cooked meat just isn't the same as freshly roasted meat. The texture is completely different.

If you cook sponge cake in the slow cooker you are steaming it rather than baking it surely, as it is much more sealed than an oven.

A bit like microwaving, yes things are cooked, but imv there is a reason for sticking stuff in a hot oven. An oven cake is slightly crisped on the outside, the flavour must also be different, and it is probably browned more.

The brown/black bits on the outside of a roast of meat are worth oven roasting them for.

I am in the everything tastes shit out of a slow cooker camp apart from pulled pork, or beef curry

Otherwise we only use ours for parties - we gather up a few slow cookers and use them to keep currys etc warm so its like a little hot food buffet

I have a slow cooker and barely use it. During the winter I'll make the occasional stew or casserole or something, but at the moment it's cluttering up the work surfaces and heading for the bin. I'm around a lot of the day - or at least in and out a bit - so can quite easily use more conventional cooking. I can see it's a huge benefit for people who are working full time as they can pop a meal on before leaving for work and it's ready when they get back.

Vegan here, use it occasionally for things involving dried beans or such like (dhal, stews etc), but it can produce some right farty tasting stews if you're not careful.

And agree that slow cooked chicken is not good. You try to slice it and it sort of crumbles. It's grainy, and sticks to the top of your mouth. The only benefit is that the meat just falls off the bones and you get every last piece off the carcass so there is no waste. Not that anyone in our house wanted seconds anyway.

Much prefer the standard roast in the oven chicken, or the ones you get in the special bags so you don't need foil.

I've never understood what advantage a slow cooker would have over my big casserole dish a proper le creuset heavy one and my oven with a decent timer

Steak and kidney pudding? Or other steamed pudding - on the hob you would have to keep topping the water up.

How much electricity does your oven use for 3-4 hours? Using the figures from the link 90p compared to 10p for the slow cooker. It might not make a huge difference to you but it would to me.

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/10449285/Slow-cooker-vs-oven-How-much-cheaper.html

You can leave a slow cooker to cook away all day, go out all day, or leave them overnight unattended.

Chicken is good if you don't leave it too long IMO. I've found everything casseroles. curries etc cook in about 4 hours whatever I put in it. All Tender and delicious. .

The main issue I have is that we don't tend to eat slow cooker friendly dishes. Also, I just don't have time to do the food prep in the morning before I go to work. I find getting up at 6.15 early enough.

I have 2. Different sizes. I would never ever leave them and go off to work. My old SC was great, it was slow. These aren't slow enough and I can't remember the last time I used them. I actually sent 2 back to Amazon as they burnt round the edge, I got refunds and started again. Why do they call them slow cookers if they burn food? One was a crockpot I think and highly recommended but within an hour or so a casserole was all burnt round the edge. I thought the whole idea of a SC was that you could leave it!

These ones I've got aren't quite so bad but still not what I would call a slow cooker. This was the one I had but one of the DCs dropped the lid. They don't make 'em like that any more. Here's a pic. I miss him

Meant to say... with my old one, a bubble would break on the surface of a casserole, then another... you get the picture. In SC's nowadays they are bubbling away, even on slow, which I why I have to be in to have my SC on! Daft!