...to think there’s nothing that a slow cooker does better?

[Bebepoor]

Cheaper running costs maybe. More convenient with timer etc, granted. But not better tasting than the traditional way of simmering for hours on hob or sitting in low oven.

My granny’s curries always taste amazing from the slow cooker.

I have just started using one and the pork casserole I cooked on Christmas Eve was divine!

The only good thing I have made in mine is slow cooker fudge... It is gathering dust in my kitchen...

I agree. Food in the slow cooker tastes nowhere near as nice as that slow cooked in the oven. There's no depth of flavour, sauces are watery. I've also had rock hard vegetables after about 6 hrs in the slow cooker. I've chucked mine away.

Nothing makes a whole chicken sweaty, weird and unappetising like a slow cooker can.
They are useful when you want to go out and leave something cooking although if I had an oven with a slow cook function I don't think I'd bother with one. Although they are also good when catering for lots of people to hold mulled cider/gravy freeing up hob space, and for keeping food warm without frying it out so maybe I would still have one.

Drying it out not frying it out!

I have yet to have a success with mine, it’s the texture of the meat I don’t like, it’s spongy.
Much prefer my pressure cooker.

I disagree wholeheartedly! I bloody love my slow cooker & use it every chance i get. Never had a bad tasting meal out of it & saves loads on the leccy!

Yanbu everything tastes sludgy, completely different to the same dish cooked in the oven.

The only thing i have found it useful for is steaming the Christmas pudding.

Chilli is nicer from the slow cooker.

It isn’t meant to be is it?

It’s famed for dinner being ready when you get home from work which you can’t do with a regular casserole dish.

Tips please from those who like slow cookers? I got one for xmas and all I can think of is chilli and curries. I’m veggie so options are limited.

I make veg & barley soup in mine which work really well, but meat dishes are less successful (I put it down to me being a crap cook - but it looks like this may not be the case )

Chuck in the meat. some frozen veg, cover in a sauce and 6 hours later eat meat that falls apart with a fork,,, urh yes blooming love mine and my youngest uses it as well, and falls over laughing when someone tells her she is a great cook.

I know of no other way to cook lamb so that a) the fat melts and bastes the meat and b) still leaves the meat pink.

Much less fuss to do a steamed pudding such as steak and kidney, you don't need to check the water constantly.

You shouldn't do anything in the SC with exactly the same recipe as in the oven or on the hob.

Can't help with veggie stuff i'm afraid! I do spag bol, curry, soup, stew/casserole, even chicken dinners in mine! And puddings

I have mine away. Couple of months later was asked if I wanted it back or could they give it away. It was given away.

4 hours for a horrible chicken. Or hour and half for a juicy chicken with a crispy skin.

This article explains why the slow cooker is rarely the best way to cook anything (even if it is convenient).

My DH has renamed the Crock Pot the Crock of Shit Pot because everything comes out stringy and soft with a watery sauce. Maybe I'm doing something wrong because there seems to be an almost cult-like following of slow cooker everywhere I look. I'm the only person I know who doesn't use one!

acquiescence use a frozen cassarol veg mix £1 in Tesco, add one of the packet sauces you can use, they are so tasty as have herbs and spices already mixed...
Add water to cover the veg, and just cook it..

emsyj37 we add some gravy mix if too water...
Also add the veg much later if you don't want it as soft..

Throw everything in first th8ng. Stir at luncht8me if I'm home. Serve at six. If it was on the hob I'd have to keep checking it. In the oven, well it's expensive to run. Hard to clean.

I use both depending.

Slow cooker is also great for keeping food warm/serving from for catering. At church we do soups, Hot Dogs, mushy peas, onions, chilli, burgers...

I love mine! Beef brisket slow cooked in ale, tastes amazing.

Stew cooked while I'm at work, gammon cooked in apple juice... Sure, they have their limitations but they doesn't every method of cooking? I use mine for things that I know will turn out well and the only disaster I've had with it was when I went out to work and forgot to turn it on because I was drunk hungover.

Crikey! This must be yet another way to divide a population

Those who get thin watery shite out of a sloco and those who get a delicious meal.

Mmm! I wonder if we could find out why, what the differences in methodology are?

If things are coming out watery you're doing it wrong!