Slow Cooker - What am I doing wrong?

[Lovestosing]

I bought my slow cooker about 5 years ago thinking it would be the answer to my prayers. I don’t know what possessed me to be honest as we’re not a casseroley taginey family (whatever that is) I have made chilli, bolognese, chicken cacciatore and my Christmas ham in it but that’s it! It was supposed to make my life easier but it hasn’t.

I spend as much time prepping as I usually do and always have to brown the meat off first which means getting up much earlier in the morning in a week days. The other day I looked up slow cooker chilli without browning mince. It was much quicker, I left for work feeling i was winning at life. When I got home the smell was incredible. Unfortunately the mince had completely broken down so the chilli was a weird texture and just not as nice as usual, I could have cried!

What am I doing wrong? I have been cooking for nearly 30 years, I usually cook from scratch so I am experienced but despite this I’m not the quickest so meals usually take me at least an hour to make. When the kids have to leave at 6.45 pm for an activity and the meal isn’t ready until 6.30 at the earliest this is far from ideal! I just want to try to make my life a bit easier during the week.

Any tips/easy recipes please wise mumsnetters?

You probably want a food processor.

And also I'd hugely recommend joining this group on Facebook 'Slow Cooking UK'

Do the sauce and then add the browned meat at the end. I love to make sauces in mine because the flavours just develop so much better on slow and low.

We use ours loads. Whole roast chicken, joints of pork or gammon, stews, soups, chillis etc.

I never brown the meat. I think it's a pointless faff. Beef shin or similar does lend itself better than mince, but if you cook mince for a shorter time then it should be fine, and on the lowest setting.

I agree with a PP that chopping veg the night before and putting in the fridge is a time saver.

@WhatsInAMolatovMocktail do you have an online version of the pork shoulder with honey/thyme etc? Sounds like the sort of thing that would go down well in this house.

Cheers

More of a winter dish, but find some blade of beef to cook in the slow cooker.

Mince isn't really that great.

Red cabbage also worth a lot

Leaving soup simmering ready to come back to when you go out for a long winter walk.

Soup for a bonfire party.

I love my slow cooker. It's useful for all sorts, and very energy efficient.

I tend to put in meat and veg first, then let it cast off all of its juices before adding anything else. Plus batch cooking things like daal or a ri h tomato sauce that can go on anything, or a week's worth of bulgar wheat. Shakshuka is a good one too - make your base, then add the eggs last thing.

But my latest discovery is bread, and nut roasting. You can prove a loaf in there to part-baked level, then finish it off in the oven. Or use it for flatbread. And nuts roast to a nice crunch.

I cook sausage casserole in mine all the time

Cut up six sausages into 5
Add in 2 times of spicy taco beans
Add some frozen sweetcorn
1 pint of veg or chicken stock (1 cube) stirred into boiling water
Chopped red onion if you have it, not if you don't
3 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
Some mixed herbs

Put it on low when you leave in the morning 8am
Yum
it smells your house out lovely when you all get home

Serve with microwave rice (2 mins, 1/2 pack pp)

Also join a fb slow cooker recipe page - there are loads

Sorry cut up 6 sausages into 5 pieces each (so that you have sausage bite sized- I use scissors to do this) use decent sausages - we use caramelised onion & pork sausages asdas special

Some things are nice in it but a lot of stuff comes out bland and watery.

things that are nice imo are gammon, fake donor kebeb, ribs, chocolate fudge.

stews and casseroles are nicer with a long slow cook in the oven.

Cooked lamb in the slow cooker is amazing.

I love my slow cooker and use it twice a week but we do love casseroles and chillis and curries so feel slow cooked meals suit us!

I cook all sorts in it. Pulled pork is amazing in the slow cooker.

I also do desserts in mine - rice pudding always turns out well.

Just try a few different recipes and if you still don't like it, donate it to someone who will make use of it

I love my slow cooker, but agree with PP that slow cooked chicken isn't good.

Most other things need far less liquid than you think, especially if you are using a lot of vegetables which already have a high water content.

I do what the poster upthread does and prepare everything the night before in a Tupperware, let it marinate then cook it the following day.

Sounds like a huge faff tbh. Would rather make a huge batch of something at the weekend (with a different dish every weekend) so you can then rotate through the various options…..

My mum had one when we were kids and everything came out tasting the same with a horrible texture. Put me off for life.
Went round one day recently and she was dishing up dinner and asked me if I wanted any, it was from the slow cooker she had just bought. It was bloody horrible, like boiled meat 😳 and again, everything had the same flavour and a weird texture.
Not my cup of tea to be honest!

I agree, don’t like the texture of chicken done in the slow cooker. However I do use it for beef stews, and chilli made with larger chunks of beef rather than mince. Pulled pork or a joint of lamb, or Somerset pork all do well in the slow cooker. If I’m in a rush I will chop the veg the night before.

Buy an instant pot. I use the slow cooker once a year for my Xmas pudding. Food much better in instant pot

IMO, you put edible food in and take inedible crap out. Mine is only used for one thing now - making scented candles.

If I make a meal with onion in it I definitely have to fry it first or the meal comes out the slow cooker tasting very strange!

Slow cooker meals are flavourless mush. Agree that meat goes a weird texture - slow cooker fans talk about meat being so tender it’s ‘falling apart’, I think it becomes weirdly dry, stringy and flavourless.

I agree, instant pots are much better. Everything tastes the same in a slow cooker and as you said OP, it’s grim having to brown onions/meat/whatever at 6.30am before work.

My IP has a slow cooker function but I have never used it. I prefer to cook quickly when I get home from work rather than to prep before work (which makes me heave TBH). And I much prefer using one pan to having to fry things off in a different pan and transfer.

Lulumo I cook my Christmas pudding in the IP and it is not only much quicker (obviously) than the traditional method, but it’s also much more delicious IMO. Here is the method I use if you’re interested:

Place trivet in bottom of inner pot. Pop one pudding basin on trivet. Fill inner pot with boiled water from a kettle until it reaches half way up the side of the pudding basin. Cover and lock lid.

Give your pudding 15 to 30 mins initial steaming NOT under pressure (steam release handle set to Venting). Then another hour or so steaming under low pressure.

I use mine for sausage casserole too...
Chopped onion, chopped red pepper, sliced mushrooms, can of chopped tomatoes, splash of olive oil, splash of balsamic vinegar, thyme and a couple of bay leaves, the right number of chipolatas for your family whole, couple of tbsp of cornflour mixed with water to a thick paste and added. Cook for c 6 hours low. Serve with crusty bread or jackets. Delicious.

I love our slow cooker! We have a massive one (only 2 of us) so we fill it to the brim and freeze in portions. I always brown the meat as it adds to the flavour and gives it depth. Admittedly some veg don’t fare well when cooked for hours so I just add those in for less cooking time.
Give the blue dragon beef massaman paste a go. So easy, and so tasty!

I think your expectations were off and so are your food timings. A slow cooker doesnt save time, it redistributes time. I quite often prep the night before, leave the pot in the fridge, then put it in the SC in the morning. I also use a timer plug. Our fqvourites are

• sweet potato and egg curry
• Spinach curry
• whole chicken
• chilli

I buy frozen onions and a bag of casserole veg so no chopping.

I like that it gets to the evening and the cooking is done. Love my slow cooker.

I make Thomasina myers Mexican black beans in mine and we have eaten them every week for 2.5 years. Beans, frozen chopped onions, herbs and anise. It’s magic. You have to boil the beans for 20mins first but makes loads.

also you can make black garlic in it which takes about 3 weeks and may be dangerous but tastes out of this world (leave on ‘heat’ setting, wrap each bulb in tin foil and seal the whole lot with cling film!!!!)