Are slow cookers great or crap?

[Whenisitmysleepytime]

Dh is about to start a new job which will mean him being away from home 4 days a week.

The dc are 3&1 so still require a lot of watching which makes cooking a bit tricky.

Is a slow cooker a godsend for bunging stuff in and having a decent tea or do you just end up with slop?

Any thoughts welcome! :)

Yep absolutely agree with the minimal liquid usage. I put a ton.of cut up.pears,apples,blackberries and raspberries in.mine today and then put in the oven after hours slow cooking to.make the most amazing crumble .

They are great! My DC are 1 & 3 too - I often prep something up in the evening after they have gone to bed and set the timer plug so that it's ready for lunchtime.

I have been writing my recipes down here - ginger soup is our favourite - I don't bother pre-browning anything - if I'm converting a "normal" recipe, as a rule of thumb I just bung it all in apart from the liquid

I think they're crap! No matter what I put in I just get a bowl of brown tasteless stuff even when I follow a recipe to the letter!

I don't actually find them that convenient. Well, they are at the weekend I suppose but if you work during the week I find them useless - I don't want to have my manic mornings made even more manic by having to sort the slow cooker stuff out as well as the breakfast stuff. And it would be on too long as well sometimes if I left it till I got back in the house in the evening.

I must say I agree about the wierd merged flavours of things. I like long slow cooking of things but prefer the flavour of it done the proper long way!

You could chop everything up and keep it in the fridge over night and just bung it in the SC in the morning.

I agree curly - there is no way I could find time to prep a meal in the morning, that's why I would do as vallium suggests & prep it all the night before, and then use a timer plug to control when it starts cooking.

I have two.

You can roast meat in it, works really well for lamb because all the fat melts.

I have a gammon on mine atm!

I have boston baked beans in mine. I'm just going to serve it on thickly sliced tiger bread toast.

Right I am going to get one. :)

So what size and features do I need? We're a family of 4 (dc are 3&1) but we like cooking enough for a leftover dinner to go in the freezer. :)

Thanks all!

Definately agree with viperidae with planning it one day ahead. You'll need to do all the preparing in the morning, so you'll need to take out frozen stuff the day before.

I use mine at least twice a week. There's only me and DS (and sometimes DB and SIL) but I've got a 6.5 litre one, and I always do two or three times as much as we need, and freeze the rest, that's dinner taken care of for a day or so in the future. Do go for a bigger one, the small ones (2l) are absolutely tiny. Enjoy it, they are fab.

Also, leaving the lid off for the last hour really does reduce the liquid in it.

Ok, a big capacity sounds good. I have no idea how big a casserole is in litres! :)

The plan will be to prep stuff the night before or during the morning/ dd's nap and then bung it on while me and the dc are busy/ out etc then cook some rice/ pasta/ spuds etc just before tea. Will that work?

I have cleared every gadget from the Worktop in an effort to sell the house ASAP but when dh starts working away one more kitchen gadget will be the least of my 'tidy house' worries!

ours is 3.5 litres for 5 people. great, except no good for large joints, only medium ones

Op if you google mumsnet slow cooker recipes, there is a huge thread with loads of fab recipes. Am on phone/ trying to ensure toddler doesn't get into too much trouble so can't link right now. I want to print it off for myself so if I find it I'll post it or pm you.
I have dc with similar age gap so understand your dinner issues. It's handy that you can dish some out for them and still have yours later.
I haven't tried a curry yet but I would!

Yes your plan will work, similar to what I do. I prep whilst mine are having breakfast and strapped in!
I tend to bung my potatoes in the slow cooker.
I also cheat and use frozen stewing vegetables- Waitrose are nicest at £1.49 I think which was similar price to sainsburys but I think the veg hold their shape better.

Just get yourself I lovely large casserole, do the same prep and stick it in the oven, it will taste much better than the slow cooker.

I need to declutter my slow cooker and slow cooker receipe books, I now detest them sloppy yucky results.

A bad workman always blames his tools.

HA HA HA

Most slowcooker threads have yes I put the raw chicken/meat/lamb etc and pour a jar on sauce on top and its lovely when I get home from work. I find that an indicator of the average slow cooker devotee.

I'd rather us the oven on low. Plus I can take the cover off and burn off some of the water. On modern electric oven you can pre time on and off.

When I used the slow cooker I used an electric timer on the swtich and it came on 11am rather than all day and a gloopy mess.

Well I've got one now. :)

I got a 4.2L one from sainsburys for about £19. It has 3 settings.

I'm planning on doing pulled pork in it tmrw as dh has been raving about it since his last trip to the states with work. . Fingers crossed I don't end up with sludge!

Chestnutx3

What? no, no, no.

Before you decluter get a half breast of lamb and cook it in the slow cooker - add nothing to it, just put it in the pot and switch on.

If that doesn't convert you, well...................

whenis - my fussiest son raves about pork in slow cooker. i cook lump of meat in stock, then hour before i want to eat remove liquid and fat and bung in barbecue sauce and break meat up a bit. probably not how the americans do it....but now a family favourite

The pulled pork was a huge success! :)
Was super easy but v yummy.

What next in the slow cooker?

This putting in a joint of lamb with nowt else scares me a bit. Literally, nothing in with it?