Two meals slow-cooked so far. Two piles of inedible slop

[Bibulus]

I don't know how this is so difficult!

one chicken stew with chicken legs that completely disintegrated into individual fibres

one pearl barley stew (Hugh F-W's) which turned into lumpy glue

and both of them tasted of nothing! all the lovely veg etc I put in was totally annihilated

Each time I have left it on low all day and gone to work. That's how it's supposed to work, isn't it?

that the problem though isn't it?/ They are talked of as you just throw everything in, and at the end of the day you have a wonderful meal ready to eat.

Then I buy one (thinking great) and every recipe I see is four hours or so. So it doesn't really work for FT workers.

My DH has threatened many times to chuck mine out, I've made so many crap meals but now I have it sussed.
With new and modern slow cockers, there is no such thing as 'all day' cooking.
I've stopped browning prior to adding to slow cooker, no need.
I use a timer switch, like the ones you use to switch on lamps when you're on holiday.
Depending on dish to be ready for 5pm the timer is set for 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm etc.
If it's a joint or bird I do not add liquid.
Stews, currys etc I use a sauce jar then add wine, or a tin of tomatoes etc
On Wednesday I cooked a lamb breast reduced to £2 at Tesco, put in slow cooker at 4pm (no liquid), added potatoes and carrots at 8.30pm. Tested meat at 10pm was cooked, removed potatoes and carrots and stored seperately. Thursday arrived home at 4pm with kids, put potatoes and carrots in baking tray to roast, sliced up lamb and lay in tin foil with some of its cooking juice having stirred in mint sauce, wrapped it up to warm next to cooking veg. Eh voila, lush dinner.
Spagetti Bolognaise 4 hours
Meatballs 4 hours
Chicken curry 3 hours
Gammon 5 hours
Whole Chicken 6 hours
I find the cooking time is reduced if the raw meat is room temp as opposed to coming straight out of the fridge.

bows to tread
you've cracked it!

PS I cook on low.

I always use cheap cuts of red meat, and use either port, sherry or wine for liquid, plus bay leaves and thyme or rosemary and root veg. Had lots of lovely slow cooked meals. Don't use it for chicken or fish though. I think slow cookers are brilliant.

Heres an easy peasy one for you

Pork Shoulder joint
Paul Newmans BBQ Sauce
Can of full fat Coke

whack it all in, leave on low all day and the meat will fall apart all yummy and shredded. Serve with cheesy mash/waffles/baked potatoes/rice whatever

Ghost, can u post the recipe for falafel please?

I find mine useless for work days - even on shortish ones (last person leaves at 9:30, first home at 15:30).

The only time it's really useful is when I'm home after school, but need to taxi ds off somewhere in the early eveining; I get whatever it is on as soon as I get in, then it's ready when we come home from swimming or whatever at 7-ish.

Any links to the recipes for pulled pork and beef & Guinness, please?

By the way, to those who have a wonderbag. Please don't leave it out all day if you work FT. You need to check that the temperature when you get home is still over 60C. This page is from the food safety council in Australia. But if you google about hot food safety, you'll find that it's risky to keep food out between 5C and 60C.

It's popular in Hong Kong for cooking soup, but it's a lot hotter than the UK. Ditto for South Africa. Therefore, it takes a lot longer in those countries for the temperature to dip to below 60C. I've inherited two thermos ones from my mother. I tried it and used a jam thermometer when I got home from work, and the pot is only at 40C. I'm not going to risk my family's stomach on this.

This recipe is great - I borrowed a book from the library to get me started and this was in it. Definitely not tasteless gloop! The book suggests leaving out the star anise and putting cinnamon stick (broken) in instead. That's what I tend to do. I also don't bother with the chilli.

slowcookerrecipes.org.uk/pork-orange-star-anise.htm

Good luck

DH has also threatened to throw my slow cooker out, as he says it turns everything to mush etc, but I am continuing to experiment and things are improving. It worked out great for a ham in coke the other day.

I have really found that although it is slow its nowhere near as slow as I might have thought, so as someone else said, 4 hours is about right for loads of things and the 8 hours mentioned in the recipes just turn it to mush.

Dilly, the falafel recipe is here

crockpot365.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/crockpot-falafel-recipe.html

It's all in American, but I'm sure you'll get it, e.g. garbanzo beans = chick peas

The falafel recipe is on that crockpot blog, here

You beat me to it :)
I never knew that a chick pea was a garbanzo bean, learn something new every day

I always cook chicken in mine. I shove in a quartered onion, a couple of halved carrots, some celery and a ton of herbs. The veg are just to flavour the bird, I throw them out afterwards. No water or fat. I leave it on low all day, after which the meat is fall-off-bone tender but obviously looks a bit limp. You could bung it in a high oven to crisp the skin, but I usually pull off the skin and put in back in the pot with the bones, fill up with water and more veg/herbs, then leave it on for up to 24 hours to make soup stock.

Treadmill's post is really good - and I'm going to try falafel!

I am like nomorei -all goes in no pre cooking and tastes delicious!!
Real life saver when babies little and it makes the BEST bolognaise sauce!!

Please can I have the pulled pork recipe? I'm attending a BBQ tomorrow and would really like to take some along :)

I love the slow cooker, its much safer to leave alone if you have to attend to little ones. I do lots of stuff with no liquid at all - just marinade in olive oil and herbs first and put on a bed of chopped onions - works great for chicken, tuna steaks and pork chops.

I also make rice pudding in the slow cooker - so easy just a tin of condensed milk, water and rice. Yum.

Has anyone had success with baked potatoes in their slow cooker?

I always meant to try crockpot365.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/crockpot-baked-potatoes_28.html

It takes 10 hours so perfect for us who work FT.

The falafel is my favourite recipe ever, I make them all the time, and they freeze really well.

I made Delia's steak au poivre in red wine in my SC the other day, and then used as the filling for a pie. It was amazing, great flavours and really tender meat.

I also do pulled pork, all types of dried beans/stocks/soups/bolog/chilli etc.

I love my slow cookers.

Do you think the baked potatoes would have a crispy skin? If so, sounds brilliant!

First few times were a bit of a watery mess - but I've cracked it now. I tend to always use a decent amount of veg that will add flavour to at least halfway up the pot - usually swede, carrots, onion, mushrooms as the base of any meal. Use less liquid than you think - I'd add liquid until it is about 1/2 or 2/3 of the way up from the veg. Plenty of salt, pepper, herbs and/or any other seasoning. Mix well then put the meat on top of this.
Then leave on low while at work. I've noticed that if at home and I'm tempted to open and check on it, then the results aren't as good. If it's a bit too liquid when I get home I might add some cornflour to thicken it up while I get some fresh veg on.

Favourite combinations:
Chicken leg quarters (99p at Aldi!) with cider as the liquid
Lamb tagine - cheap lamb cuts, with paprika, honey and apricots to get a lovely sweet tagine