I'm giving my slow cooker one last chance...

[storminabuttercup]

Then it's going in the bin.

And I know I've said it before but I mean it.

If I can't cook a decent meal this time it's gone.

Any ideas

If you don;t brown the onions it will be revolting.

Meat and some veg can go in raw, yes, but some of it needs to be browned.

Of course it's simple, it's a jar of curry sauce.

You don't need to cook that for hours, it would taste the same if it simmered in a saucepan for 30 mins.

I've always browned it but I'm sure I've read you don't have to.

I had missed the part about it being a jar.

Surely the point of a slow cooker is that you don't have to resort to using jars etc?

Why do most slow cooker fanatics use an immense amount of sugar - coke + bbq sauce, or jars of sauce (full of sugar). Just use the oven...

I once tried a gammon in the slow cooker - it tasted of string. I dont like very very soft tasteless food.

Beef always comes out tasting rank when I use a SC. I use mine for bean stew and spag bol/chilli. Soup too.

And don't cook sausages in them without browning, fgs.

Not if you want to avoid a revolting condom sucking off experience when eating your casserole.

Why have something simmer to death for 8 hours when 3 will do?

In the case of a shoulder of lamb so tht all the fat melts and bastes the meat leaving pink meat with no layers of fat.

Then there is comming home to a warm meal - I don't have long enough evenings to start cooking at 6pm for three hours.

And I don't brown anything, you just don't need to.

You dooooooo need to brown onions.

Otherwise you just have slime in a bowl.

I don't understand the point of slow cookers. Why not just put your oven on at a lower temperature?

I hadn't thought of doing soup in mine. Does that work well?

Whole chicken. Put it in the slow cooker upside down, 8 hours on high. Don't add anything to it. Perfect tender meat. Lovely cold for the next couple of days too. Please try it.

I can't leave the oven on all day. Bunging something in the slow cooker means I can give DD her dinner (easily, as all I need to do is cook up some pasta or cous cous etc) when we get in from work/nursery and dinner is there for DH and I later.

Going to try my beef in black ran sauce idea first, then the pork chops, then pulled pork, then a chicken. That's four chances!

I don't have slime in a bowl, I have nicely cooked onions.

Pulled pork sounds nice, do you have a recipe?

You do not have to brown the onions or the meat.

Redlac posted pork shoulder which I reckon is pulled pork, pork shoulder, can of coke and newmans BBQ sauce. I'm looking for an alternative to cola, thinking brown sugar and water

I do a lot of cooking a casserole in the oven on low. For 4+ hours.

And a lot of stock on the hob on vv low. For 6+ hours.

I do it in my Le Crusette which can't be put in the washing maching and have to be washed by hand.....

My electricity bills are sky high.....

so I am picking up a £20 slow cooker tonight!

(for people who asked why you don't just put it in the oven)

This is a non-slow cooker recipe for pulled pork. You could shove it in the slow cooker for 8 rather than your oen for 5 as suggested here: www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/jun/09/barbecue-pulled-pork-in-pictures#/?picture=375074779&index=5

I put chicken breast in (raw), passarta, chorizo, chopped Tom, paprika, onions, after a few hrs I'll chopp some peppers and ass these and it makes a Spanish chicken dish which is gorgeous

Beef strips in a jar of blackbean sauce was brilliant, with that micro rice it meant that I could eat within five mins of getting home from work at 9pm! Maybe I'll give the slow cooker a bit longer...

I've done rabbit, coat in mustard a bit of flour and brown with some onions,chuck in the slow cooker with water, white wine, stock cube and mustard seeds on low all day, turn up and add root veg later on. Rabbit can be a dry meat but this leaves it very moist and tender. Sorry for any bunny lovers!

Theres a pulled pork recipe on this thread that looks good.