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?

I use a pressure cooker (Instant Pot) as I don’t see the point of a slow cooker (beyond not having to tend it).

Just the other day I threw together a tagine - frozen onion, frozen garlic, frozen ginger, fresh spices, tomatoes, lamb. Added chick peas and apricots after the pressure was off.

It was super quick and delicious.

You can use Instant Pot to slow cook but cba.

Re making chilli. I now use diced beef shin in the slow cooker. Amazing. Will not use mince again for it!

Tbh I don't really rate anything done in the slow cooker apart from maybe gammon. I much prefer using the pressure cooker on the Ninja foodi.

I have a slow cooker, use it mainly for curries. Just dump everything in in the morning before work.

for time saving I use my pressure cooker. A roast chicken is cooked from chilled super quick and so tender!

Another slow cooker lover here. My cooker has never given me tasteless mush.

I think lean meat is part of the issue.

High fat lamb mince, leg of lamb are very tender slow cooked in their fat.

I skim that off in the end, but the texture is great.

Lean mince would not be great IMO.

After a while of having my instant pot I got rid of my slow cooker, the instant pot is much better and you can slow cook in it anyway.

I love ours. Takes minutes to throw everything in, no browning needed. We use it at least 3 times a week and come home to dinner cooked and ready to serve.

The problem I have with the slow cooker is it doesn’t give that caramelisation and thickening that oven cooking does, so I find a lot of the food is bland and watery. I have used it successfully for curries before, but don’t touch it for stews for the above reason.

If your sauce is “watery” it just needs reducing/thickening.

Another tip for watery sauces, put a clean tea towel over the pot and then the lid on top. The tea towel absorbs the steam rather than it condensing and running back into the sauce x

I gave mine away. Everything I made in it tasted the same.

I use the Wonder Bag way more. Just prep night before if needing it to be an all day thing (sometimes I do it overnight) bring up to boiling temp on the stove and then put into the bag.

And its free to use......

I wanted to love my slow cooker too, but meh, I couldn't.

The only decent thing I ever made in a slow cooker was a lovely rice pudding.

Pinch of Nom books have loads of easy slow cooker recipies.

Fajita pie & campfire stew are favourites. Whack it all in, leave for whatever time required and come back to lovely meal. The trick is to read the instructions. If it says 8 hours on low then dont think it will be good to do it 8hrs on high etc.

Our weekend beef joint is always done in slow cooker. Always perfect. Juices we use for the best gravy ever.

My favorites in the slow cooker are pulled pork, this chilli, jacket potatoes wrapped in foil with a little oil and salt and a daub recipe but won't let me attach them photo. I don't brown my meat or anything else, just chuck it all in.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/recipes/slow-cooker-beef-chilli

We make so many things in our slow cooker and it makes our lives so much easier! I love knowing my dinner is ready as soon as I get home! We use mince regularly for chilli, spag bol, lasagne and never had a problem with it. Are you adding water because we never do, just let it cook in its own juices. We never brown meat or veg either. Just shove it all in in the morning.

Slow cookers used to be all the rage. Now multi cookers are. I succumbed and bought a multi cooker. Slow cooker has been retired.
I only used my slow cooker for stock latterly. Occasionally we’d use if having a get together to keep a curry warm for guest to help themselves.
My dh really doesn’t like the taste and texture of things done in the slow cooker. I tend to agree.

I did a whole chicken once and it just fell apart. I obviously cooked it too long but I was very disappointed. I had wanted to crisp it up in the oven.
A batch of baked potatoes I though was quite impressive. Again dh thought they had a taste to them.
I don’t think you were doing anything wrong, it’s just not what you want I suppose?
Pressure cooking is the new old thing. I love being able to prep a stew/curry and have it cooked and very tender in a short space of time.

With my instant pot I compared cooking a tagine on the slow cooker setting with one cooked on the pressure cooker - the latter was incomparably better - tenderer, moister meat - as well as taking a fraction of the time.