Are slow cookers shit?

[rainbowstardrops]

I mean, I know they’re not shit but I’m currently cooking a Thai beef dish and it looks absolutely nothing like the picture in the recipe book. It looks dull and watery and just so unappetising.
Am I being unreasonable to think that the bloody recipes in these books look nothing like the final result photos?
Oh and I put half of the chilli flakes in because one of mine doesn’t like spicy (I do) but this is even setting my mouth on fire!
Pah!

😂 wtf. Folk on Mumsnet are properly bonkers

I have a multi cooker which is brilliant, I can sauté and brown off meat and veg, then have lots of cook options including slow cooking but I generally use the pressure cooker function, then put the cooked food in the fridge for later, then reheat, curry, stews, bolagnaise etc taste better reheated

Thanks for this. I shall look into it!

Yes, I agree . I make my normal stew, bolognaise whatever in a pan in my usual way, then tip it into the slow cooker. I can cook about 3-4 meals worth of bolognaise at once and freeze some.
Another tip I learned here I think is to put a tea towel over the pot, then put the lid on, it soaks up condensation leaving less wateryness.

My slow cooker is fab, we use it a lot at home, everything I make is delicious, and I find meat (especially chicken) cooks so nicely and is so tender. As many people have said, put in less liquid than you need. I’ll often make a cornflour paste and add that to thicken things up if needed, and meals always come out very tasty.

I would agree with OP that slow cooker food isn't thatpretty and a lot of recipes (even actualy slow cooker recipes) end up too watery.

Normally MN threads about slow cookers are from people that have bought one but don't actually enjoy eating the type of food they do best, like stews, casseroles etc. Ours gets used every week in winter, i work FT and leave it on all day when I'm not in the house, which I wouldn't do with the hob or oven.

Scott Baptie's slow cooker recipes are fab, they use much less liquid and actually come out like the photso!

@RampantIvy

i always sear first - which is another reason for my dislike of them. I sear in a Le Creuset casserole for optimum browning and then that has to be washed up as well as the slow cooker. I might as well just leave it all in the casserole dish and slow cook at 110 degrees in the oven.

I will be honest, I always thought certain dishes taste better the next day as they have had time to thicken IYSWIM? Such as chilli or stew or bolognese. 😋

So now, I do my slow cooking the night before, and place all the contents in the pot at about 9-10pm, then leave it on low overnight, so it's thickened and perfect fot the next days tea at 5pm. 🙌

I do too always put a bit less liquid….you can always add more if needed…

I've never got on with them, I either end up with watery hard veg or watery mushy veg. Quite handy for steaming Christmas pudding though. I love my pressure cooker, I blast everything in there.

Love mine

This makes me laugh.
I overheard my children discussing the hardest part of their final year exams with a younger sibling, and my son said "coming in around the back of the house and seeing that fxcking slow cooker on the worktop, knowing its some stew for dinner".....they didn't know I could hear, but it really cracked me up.

Exactly, slow cookers a crap, aren’t they.

Same as this really. It was also good for cooking a ham. Everything else was meh…

I have a sear and stew type and I hate it. The non stick coating which enables the searing leaves a strange taste in the casserole, in my opinion. Brilliant idea; poor execution. I haven’t used it for probably 3 years. And I know it’s a coating issue, as I previously had a Stone/ceramic one, and that didn’t happen.

Another vote for whole meat joints! Slow cooked a lamb leg curry on Sunday. Had to take some of the juice away to reduce separately in a pan for 10 mins as, as has been mentioned before, there's nowhere for the moisture to evaporate off too.
Oh my god it was good!

Have also recently discovered you can do jacket spuds in a slow cooker which is a revelation. I have no microwave (microwaved spuds are shit anyway) and having the oven on for one jacket spud is criminal. Can chuck spuds in in the morning and they're perfect by lunchtime to go with the slow cooked chilli/bolognaise out of the freezer.

Slow cookers are only crap if you don't prep your food properly or use them properly.

If you just bung everything in and expect miracles you are going to be disappointed. If I am making a curry I fry my onions for ages in a pan then add my aromats and everything to make a sauce. I also brown my meat in a pan then mix it in with the sauce in the slow cooker. If you can't be bothered to do that then you are doing it wrong.

I do the same when making mince or ragu or beef brisket. I always brown everything and make the sauce in a pan on the hob before putting everything in the slow cooker. My slow cooked meals are not watery or lacking in flavour.

I love my slow cooker but paella! Bonkers.

What I’ve found is to cook meat separate and then add it after. I just cooked a chilli in it and all the veg, sauces, spices, kidney beans and cooked that all day - then I cooked mince on the hob and then added it about 40 minutes before serving

i love my slow cooker, I cook things from rice pudding to spaghetti bolognese to even shoving a jacket potato in there. I live alone and am disabled so it’s nice to not have to faff around the kitchen with multiple pots and pans or focus on back and forth ensuring stuff doesn’t burn. It’s one/two steps and done

Most slow cooked food has a very distinctive (rank) taste, whatever method you use.

I love my £35 Aldi own brand pressure cooker.

Why wait for eight hours for something you can do in 30mins?

I am not a fan of 'kitchen gadgets'. They notoriously don't get used and take up valuable space.

The only other exception is my £30 mixer with dough hook.

I have found that recipes for spicy food online tend to be fair too mild and lacking in punch - they play to the masses and US tastes. We tend to have a palette for spicier food in UK.

I love mine, been using for many years and the food is definitely not bland or watery. Most people put too much liquid in when many dishes need little to none. Great for batch cooking, for no-fuss meals and just one pot to wash at the end (don't bother with all the pre-cooking nonsense).

It makes lovely chicken stock and rice pudding and meringues (not at the same time). Much less energy-intensive than oven cooking too which is good for bills and the planet

Get an electric one.

Aldi wouldn't sell them if they were problematic.

I have two slow cookers (big metal pan, smaller ceramic pan) and a pressure cooker. They are all good for different things. I use mine for soup, stocks, cordials, baked apples, jacket spuds in bulk, curries/chilli, stews, hams and other meats (cook for less time if you want to slice the joint, more time if you want "pulled" style. Great for faff-free chutney and lemon curd and things like bottled plums in brandy syrup or raspberry sauces.

As well as all the caveats about liquid and opening the lid I would add that modern slow cookers cook a LOT quicker than older ones. And high/low/med settings are fairly meaningless and vary between models quite a bit. I almost never use high. Usually low for everything and halve the cooking time and take a look. You will get to know how much to reduce recipe time by, just as you will get to know how much to reduce the liquids as you use the sc more.