To ask about your views on slow cookers and recipes

[oldishladyinashoebox]

Okay I'm sure this has been done a lot but I just wanted to ask

.what do you think of slow cookers ?
. Do have any favourite recipes to share?

I like my slow cooker but I don't love it. To me, meals cooked in the oven do taste nicer but it's a nice( and smug ) feeling to throw something in the SC at the start of the day and come home to a nice hot meal without having to get an awful takeaway.
Recipes that work for us so far are.

1. Vietnamese chicken curry
2. Butternut squash risotto

3.a whole chicken ( not as nice as oven roasted but still nice)

1. Mumsnet cowgirl stew
2. Homemade baked beans

A Korean style beef stew 5 ratatouille

1. Baked potatoes
2. Soup stock

The biggest total flop was mac and cheese . That was awful, resembled 🐱 sick 🤢.

It's also nice to not turn the oven on when it's really hot outside

Thanks everyone

Generally don’t like my slow cooker. We are likely to be without a kitchen for a few weeks this year so will probably use it then but generally it’s bland and watery. I’ve done some nice curries in it though.

One of the reasons they are so awful is because they never get home enough to get the caramelisation reactions that make everything so gooey and yummy

*hot enough

Get a pressure cooker instead. Most slow cooked food is a bit nasty.

www.seriouseats.com/2018/09/what-is-the-instant-pot-good-for.html

www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers.html

Can you help me with the instant pot? If I put a meal in there including meat and put it on timer while I’m at work won’t the meat go off being out of the fridge? Or should I let it cook then leave on keep warm for hours?

It took a bit of getting used to. You have to use less liquid. I find you need more spices. You need to use cuts that are supposed to be slow cooked. And our particular model the high setting is too high. I also found a lot of recipes were too slow and worked better with less cooking time than suggested or the meat sort of dessicates. I find it useful but only once a fortnight useful. The instant pots sound good

If food is watery it's because you're not adapting the recipe correctly.

Wrt whole chickens you need to cook a free range chook not a £3 Asda one, Waitrose £5 are the exception and particularly nice.

You can't just bung everything in and expect it to taste nice.

@Postmanbear I would put it to go in the morning and leave on keep warm
just so you can check it gets to pressure properly.

@LoafofSellotape nothin wrong with a £3 Asda chicken . It's kept us during tough times.

@Flyingarcher I have that too but it's rubbish for SC . It boils the food even if turned down below the recommended temperature. The food burns and is just not very nice.

@LoafofSellotape fed

nothin wrong with a £3 Asda chicken . It's kept us during tough times

Did I say there was? in a slow cooker a free range chicken will taste better than one that been pumped full of water ime, because that's what we're discussing here isn't it?

I love mine, but only use it for certain things. Like a pp I don't like it for anything with chicken.
I do prebrown meat etc.
It's great for pulled pork, ragu for lasagne (as it comes out too wet for spaghetti), confit duck legs (then crisp them under the grill), tagines, chilli, daube, bourgignon, and those types of dishes which use slow cook cuts of meat.
If I'm batch cooking I'll sometimes leave it on overnight on low to sweat off a vast amount of onions/carrot/leeks etc in olive oil so I have enough for several dishes.

@LoafofSellotape nope we are not discussing the virtues of lowest rung food vs that on the rung above. This is about SC not BS
If I want to read about how I am an evil person and should choose organic / free range 🙄 then I will simply open my HFW or JO cookbook

I also find everything comes out the same flavour and texture, no matter what you put in a slow cooker, so I’m no fan. I am, however, a vegetarian and most people who like them seem to value them for cooking meat so that could be a factor. Veggies and beans probably can’t hold their own under hours of heat.

Also, the whole ‘put something in in the morning and it’s ready when I get home from work’ was what I had hoped for...if I put something in at 6:30am when I’m getting ready to leave for 6:45am, then get home after 5pm, what I put in would be a burned mess welded to the bottom of the dish. Anything in longer than four hours is a conflagrated disaster, IME, and I’ve tried about three cookers on a low setting. The only thing it’s worthwhile for is one rice pudding recipe I have. I also wanted it to have porridge hot and ready in the morning - unqualified, minging, varying degrees of burned disaster at every attempt.

It’s languishing at the back of the pot cupboard.

I think there are very few 'bung everything in' recipes that work. Onions need softening first (if you don't do that you get the 'slow cooker' taste) and meat needs browning.

This minestrone recipe is excellent. I also like this lentil and carrot soup recipe which really is a bung it in recipe, although I usually have some squash or sweet potato in as well to make it smoother.

Christmas pudding in the slow cooker is wonderful. Just put the pudding bowl in the crock and half fill the crock with water and use it as a bain marie. Cook for the normal amount of time on high. Much less hassle than steaming for hours because it doesn't boil dry.

Haggis is good in it, I have the potatoes simmering in the water and the haggis wrapped in foil steaming on top. Still need to boil the neeps for ages when you get home though.

I like veggie stews cooked in it because the very gentle simmer breaks down soft veg like squash much less than cooking on the stove top. But you must fry up the onions first.

The only stew I just bung in everything don't have onions in, otherwise I do my prep as normal then put in the slow cooker so it takes longer to cook than if it was in the oven. It's mainly useful for days out at the weekend when there's time to brown off the meat in the morning and then it's on low all day. During the week I use it less. It doesn't actually save time, it just allows you to do prep earlier.

nope we are not discussing the virtues of lowest rung food vs that on the rung above. This is about SC not BS
If I want to read about how I am an evil person and should choose organic / free range 🙄 then I will simply open my HFW or JO cookbook

You said that not me

PP said whole chickens don't taste great in a SC, IME a free range or a Waitrose one tastes better IN A SLOW COOKER. I'm not preaching about chicken ethics I'm talking about how it tastes in a slow cooker.

I like it but we go through phases of using it all the time and then hardly using it at all.

We make chillies and sweetcorn chilli, fajita mix (using our own OeP copycat seasoning), sausage casserole, stew, veg curry, and of course slow-cooked fudge. I even made a pizza in it once and the base was evenly cooked and crispy, something I struggle to do in the oven!

@LoafofSellotape you started the chat about cheap meat, not me.

you started the chat about cheap meat, not me

I was responding to pp talking about how whole chickens don't taste nice in SC's. You've made this into something it's not. Crack on with whatever fucking chicken you like.

If m not a fan in general but I do use mine for a few specific things that taste fantastic.

These are oxtail stew and the mumsnet Kleftico recipe.

I also make mumsnet virtuous vegetable chilli in it which is nice but not spectacular.

@LoafofSellotape 😝 I'm
Not into that at all thank you

Go on the right forum

I've come to the conclusion after having tried tried several recipes that you put good ingredients into a slow cooker and take inedible crap out. I really hate the taste and texture of slow cooked food.

Did a nice sausage casserole yesterday - 2 packs of raw sausages, frozen mixed peppers, frozen chopped onions; 300 mls water mixed with sausage casserole sachet. 9 hours on low. Served with microwaved jacket potatoes. Easy and nice.

Using mine today to make hunters chicken!