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?

4-bird roast update: The glaze has slithered off, predictably, and the meat isn't browning. So I've perched a strip of foil on top. 1hr to go.

I don't think it will brown in a slow cooker.

greyvix when you say 'top up with boiling water from kettle', do you mean literally top up to the top of the Sc, ie covering the joint completely?

nkf

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

I've misunderstood this foil thing. You can use snakes of screwed-up foil to bake a chicken brown in the slow cooker - I've even cooked bread & cakes this way - but it's because the warm air gets to circulate round the item. Not that foil has magic properties
You can even get wire mesh baking inserts for the pot.

I should have remembered (it was a very long time ago) that my bread came out crusted on the sides, where the metal tin touched the dough, but only a bit suntanned on the top.

Never mind, there's still 20 mins to go on my experiment ...

It has gone brown!!! If I ever do slow-cooked bread again, I'll stick a piece of foil on the top

Results: Overcooked. Should have been 3hrs, or maybe even less. It says 2hrs for a normal oven, after defrosting. Perhaps I should have put it in frozen.

The stuffing hasn't melted, which worried me, but some of the meat has collapsed onto the floor of the cooker. In future I'd stand it on foil screws and maybe add top foil ½hr before ending, then put the glaze on after it's finished.

I'm going to spoon all the gunk back over the roll, then chill it.
It was quite an expensive experiment, however I've learned a LOT ... and will never have to put up with colourless chicken again!

Redlac - that sound easy! Brown it first?

Nope, just whack it into the slow cooker - make sure there's no fat on it though and then pour the cola then the BBQ sauce over the top

Agree with the poster that said don't leave it on when out at work, mine cooks in about 4 hrs, if I left it 8hrs it would be mush. i cook batches on a weekend or on an evening.
Bolognaise, chilli cnd curry all work well.

redlac these are the kind of lazy receipes i go for most , i shall try that.

So I bought a pork shoulder joint, can of coke and BBQ sauce today (Tesco's own, PN was a bit pricey!). Am planning to cook on Wednesday, will keep you updated!

HateBeingCantDoUpMyJeans I did your sausage casserole recipe you put on p1 of the thread last night and it was absolutey gorgeous, so thank you so much!

FeakAndWeeble yay so glad you loved it tis my own creation just makes sausages so meltingly yummy and tge sauce is hmm

Here's a pork chop recipe that's very easy and tasty: allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8224/pork-chops-for-the-slow-cooker.aspx

We tried Beveridge's Lamb Tagine today - very very tasty, very very quick to prepare and was in the slow cooker for about six hours on high (oops - still haven't got the hang of the high/low knob) but the lamb (reduced section lamb neck) was still there, intact. Really cheap and cheerful!

Definitely something I shall be doing again and

Pork shoulder joint, Paul Newman's BBQ sauce and can of Coke in the slow cooker... Pulled pork here we come. I'll let you know how it goes!

We're going to have it with buttery jacket potatoes.

That sounds fab redlac - might try that one.

Often i am proud of cobbling something together and then the kids say they don't like it It's not like i use lots of spices either and it comes in handy when i am working late on Mondays, particularly in the winter.
I would say put it on low and sometimes you can use too many veg which makes it mushy!

bring back sideburns lol xxxxx

^ That was my daughter. Sorry!

Right... Just finished the pork... It was very tasty, but didn't taste of BBQ in anyway?

I'm making it at the moment. I've cut off most of the fat. I've used 3/4 of a bottle of Paul Newman's BBQ sauce and a little bit of water. No coke, because it would be too sweet for our tastes. Will have to wait and see how it turn out.

I've just done a 1/4 gammon joint (bit left over after slicing off some steaks, from reduced section in supermarket) in 4 tablespoons of cola and a paste of 4 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tea spoon of mustard powder rubbed into the diamond cut skin. Cooked it on high for 6 hours - so you could do it for longer on low, I would imagine. Took a lot of the saltiness away (which DS does not like) and it was firm (ie kept its shape) but was moist and absolutely melt in the mouth.

DP and DS (and me, of course) loved it

I've done pulled pork loads of times, I don't add the sauce at the beginning.
I just put the pork in completely plain, and then 'pull' it, and add the sauce for the last hour or so.
I've done both bottled and home made sauce.

If you leave the pork plain, you can also have it on buns with apple sauce, stuffing, and gravy.

So what did I do wrong with the pork? It wasn't tender at all, a real effort to 'pull'! Put it on low for 6 ish hours, following redlac's instructions :(

I've done pulled pork loads of times on low in the oven, and it turns out great!! May have to get rid of the slow cooker, nothing works!

I love my slow cooker, it is am absoute wonder at the moment as I have a 5 weeks old who doesn't really sleep much during the day so I have perfected the art of flinging food in the slow cooker during any brief morning snooze and can then magically produce a fabulous dinner when dp gets home despite having spent the rest of the day sitting in bed eating chocolate and trying to feed a screaming baby.

Yesterday I did a layered potato bake thing which was a bit of an experiment but turned out delicious. Had sausages and barley stew thursday, also amazing. I am currently planning some ideas for next week, probably involving some soup and a curry at some point I imagine. I would also love to try some bread in it and will give the tin foil browning a go when I get round to it.

Interested to see that some people have got the wonderbag. I have been thinking about getting one for a while as it does look pretty magic but was wondering if it was worth the money and if it was worth getting one even if I have a slow cooker already. It would be great to get more feedback from those who have one.