(Lighthearted) He took the lid off the slow cooker

[dreamygirl25]

My husbands friend came to stay yesterday. I had a busy day planned and was in and out with the kids so chucked a meal in the slow cooker. It was about an hour in and when he came in, he said 'oh smells good' while lifting the lid for a better sniff. I think he doesn't know slow. Cooker etiquette!

Was he being unreasonable??

Aibu (he was not)
Yanbu (he was)

If there was another button for 'who really cares' I'm sure that would get all the votes. But as the title says, Lighthearted! For those slow cooker fans

So if you lift the lid with the kitchen light off, is it worse, as it's been "darked" on?

Air-ed on is the new darked on.

You got there before me 😁

I know exactly what you mean OP , if you take the lid off it apparently takes up to half an hour to come back up to temperature, it won’t do any actual harm but just adds to the time ! I usually do one stir roughly half way through. My husband has been warned !

I'm a lid lifter.
In fact when DH put way too much liquor in I had the lid off for the last half hour 🤷‍♀️

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles I absolutely mentally walked through that process and concur entirely.

I often take the lid off. For seasoning, stirring, adding ingredients or just general peering and sniffing.

Having the lid off for 10 seconds cannot possible make any difference to cooking times. The whole point is that it's SLOW. If your slow cooker is colling down that much in 10 seconds @Ihatethenewlook it needs replacing

I had no idea you weren’t meant to take the lid off a slow cooker!

As for your guest’s behaviour, would you feel the same if it was a pot on the hob?

Personally I would find it a bit overfamiliar, but wouldn’t dwell on it. Sometimes people can be on autopilot and act without thinking.

I wish there was a button for “what the fluff is the OP on about”, not clear to me what the etiquette for s slow cooker consists of 🤣

I can't leave mine alone I'm always taking the kid off and fucking about adding more seasonings etc.

I'd object to anyone taking the lid off of anything I'm cooking - SC or otherwise.
It's very rude, I'd have told him to get out of the kitchen.

It's meat and veg in a pot, not a cheese souffle.

If you’re not the one doing the prep/cooking, MITTS OFF! 😄

Why are you all stirring in your slow cookers? The whole point of them is surely that you chuck the stuff in, turn it on and leave it to do it’s thing 🤷‍♀️

I remember, back in the day when slow cookers were the latest 'new thing', taking the lid off was punishable by death! But I still take the lid off mine

Makes no difference if it is the odd time. If he had poked his finger in it I'd have had an issue!

I mean, at least he's no spoony fucker.

Given most women (myself included) using slow cookers have no idea about this supposed lid-lifting etiquette, YABU.

i was taught that they are a cost effective way of cooking as they cost little to run.
so when I was working full time as a single parent, I shoved all the ingredients in before leaving the house….. eight hours or so laters, come home to a kitchen filled with hunger provoking aromas.
I didn’t need to stir, as I added any kind of thickener like gravy, once I was home and the ingredients were fully cooked anyway.
pp is correct in saying that lid lifting does add more time to the total.
I guess if you’re at home whilst your recipe is cooking, it’s too tempting to resist…

But it doesn’t add more time to the total cooking time.

I lift the lid regularly to stir, and have never once needed to extend the cooking time as a result.

But it would have been ready earlier if you hadn't.

Clearly it wasn't an issue, you had allowed plenty of time.

I never found the cook times very accurate - it was always ready sooner than the cook times indicated, lifting the lid or not!

You're all stirring your slow cookers? Really? I've never stirred. Should I be stirring?

No, not if you haven’t been and the food’s coming out fine.

I think this thread points out that people are just fine doing it their own way, even if it’s ‘wrong’ or not like how everyone else does it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

DH does the same - or takes the lid off, stirs it, leves the spoon in the bowl then rests the top back on it so it’s open.

I wouldn’t mind if he was actually the one cooking or if he were to ask if I needed him to do anything towards the meal cooking - but he never does!

I had no idea I was supposed to give it a stir! I heard it adds 1/2 hour each time you left the lid like a pp said. But I am no master chef, I just chuck stuff with a load of veg and stock usually.

In the grand scheme of things, an hour into a 7 hour slow cook isn't a problem really. And as I said, it's definitely light-hearted! I thought you should never lift the lid, unless adding pasta or middles etc towards the end. And those things cooks surprisingly quickly in them!

Also, just to confirm, I did not mean a pressure cooker

It would certainly add cooking time if you take the lid off a pressure cooker, but it shouldn't with a slow cooker. They are going for hours anyway!