To wonder if you can overcome that slow cooker taste?

[AStitchInTimeSavesN1ne]

When slow cooking goes wrong, there is an identifiable taste to it.. I don’t know how or why it goes wrong.

AIBU to wonder if you can overcome that weird taste it develops?

I use my slow cooker all the time, it’s just an Asda own one so nothing fancy and I find everything tastes good, but I like spicy, big flavours so it could be that all the chilli is masking whatever the slow cooker flavor is. I do also tend to give it 15 minutes on the hob with the lid off at the end because it’s a metal pan that can be used on the hob. That just thickens up the sauce and intensifies the flavour.

There is defo a slow cooker taste & the texture can be off.

You can reduce it my browning the meat first etc and adding extra seasoning near the end but that defeats the purpose of leaving it to do the cooking. I just use my Le Creuset dishes.

Water is the enemy when slow cooking. You should start off with a tiny amount of water - just enough to make the bottom of the pot wet. The vegetable should be added first with the meat on top of the vegetables.

The steam from the water will wilt the vegetables, which will release more liquid, and cook the meat, which will also release liquid. You don't want the meat sat in liquid because it will end up bland and watery.

If the recipe needs tomatoes, it's best to use concentrated tomato puree. Rather than using coconut milk, add creamed coconut.

Basically, don't add any additional liquid if you can help it.

I know what you mean. It always tastes slightly like tinned food somehow.

All my slow cooker meals taste the same. It’s not bad, but whatever it is it tastes the same. Still, it’s a convenient way for me to prepare a reasonable healthy meal.

They do sound revolting though. I try and cook from scratch.

That's the reason I gave mine away, I always thought I was the only one who could taste it as everyone I know is obssessed with theirs.

I have tried many kinds of slow cookers and desperately experimented to get things to taste ok: browned food first, wide variety of recipes -- I have SO WANTED to be able to like slow cooker food but I have concluded I never will and have given up. I am ASD and a supertaster though so there are lots of things I can taste that many other people can't. (Not plastic spoons though!)

I go through phases of trying to use my slow cooker but stews and things always have a weird taste. I don't know what it is but it really puts me off.

The only thing I use it for now is rice pudding, which doesn't get a weird taste.
I think it's just meaty things.

I don't think I am fussy or especially sensitive to tastes usually.

It's not just meaty things, because we are veggie and I still get the weird flavour!

I find beef stew related things tend to have the taste, but others not. Bolognese is fine, as is lentil dahl and chicken with honey & mustard, and a black bean chilli I do. But those are really the only four I do, and I'd love to find more that work just as well!

I always brown on the hob before it goes in the slow cooker.

The idea of non browned meat - particularly beef - is 🤢

I know exactly what the OP means. The food all tastes the same. Veg, meat, carbs. It's the reason I got rid of mine. I didn't twig why I didn't like it, and then I read a description of it in a novel and the light bulb went on.

I don't know why a slow cooker does it when a casserole doesn't.

I think you need to be discerning about what you cook in the slow cooker. Curries, soups, stews, can't go wrong. Just don't use too much water. Roast is okay but needs to go in the oven for a bit of crisping up after. It does make meat very tender, which is lovely. I think the issue is you don't get drying/crisping from a slow cooker, so some things will just be mushy. I only use a ceramic slow cooker. No metal inners.

I have a soup going in the slow cooker right now. It will be fine and have no funny taste, because it's soup.

For me it’s exactly this: a kind of stewed taste. Everything just seems quite bland. I gave my slow cooker away in the end.

I think it’s a metallic taste. You can avoid this by using the plastic liners. Makes washing up easier too, although not very green.

Don't put raw meat in for meals like chilli.

Or just get a ceramic one. I don't want to cook my food in plastic and those metal inners are usually non-stick coated, which I don't want my food cooked in either. I'll only use ceramic.

I think slow cooker meals are just gross. Dumping everything in like some slop. Meat should be properly browned AND seasoned but most people wouldn’t do that. Dumping a can of tomatoes veg and raw meat is just from to me.
Ive eaten just once from someone who cooked a meal like this and exactly as I described. It had such a grim taste probably what you described op.

It's a metallic taste for me. I use a ceramic pot so it must be that tomatoes don't get their edge taken off them as much or something.

I agree about the taste, sort of a tomato taste even if the recipe has zero tomato. My son mentioned it first, it was a new slow cooker, not metal, and I saw what he meant so regifted it to a church for their curry nights etc.

Do you still get that taste if you don't have tomatoes in the meal? Curious.

My slow cooker is ceramic.

And it tastes metallic? That's weird.

Based on discussion here, curious if you make dishes with tomatoes all the time? Just curious about the metallic taste people are experiencing.

I've made things without tomatoes without a metallic taste (like coconut curries). I do understand the limitations of the slow cooker for texture and drier dishes.

The weird taste is why I ditched the slow cooker