Why can't I make my slow cooker work?

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

I want to love it, I really do, but everything I make in it ends up tasting the same somehow, kind of bland.

I've tried winging it, I've tried using slow cooker cookbooks, made all sorts of things - stews, curries, large cuts. But nothing tastes as good as it would in the oven. The only thing I've had some success with is whole chickens. Oh, and a chicken in black bean sauce thing.

Is it me? I'm normally a good cook.

if it tastes bland then add stuff - more curry paste, chutney, mustard, herbs, garlic. surely a gammon tastes like gammon whichever way you cook it?

or tom paste or chilli - these also spice it up more, obviously depending on what you are cooking.....maybe not rice pudding!!

I know what you mean, I often end up finishing things in the oven (which defeats the object ) - I don't think casseroles etc 'thicken up' enough, I know you can add cornflour but that doesn't taste as good.

Perhaps bland is the wrong word. It's more like all the flavours combine in a weird way so everything ends up with a similar kind of taste. Not sure how to describe it.

I usually brown the meat first on the hob, which I know is a faff but otherwise it tastes bland. Also use a lot less liquid than you think - in fact you can cook almost dry.

Yes, it took me a while to realize I needed to stop adding liquid!

Even things like bolognaise or chilli taste a bit blah from the slow cooker for me, and they taste amazing when I cook them slowly on the hob.

I've also had the same problem everything tastes the same and a faint metallic taste. Love the concept of the slow cooker but find the meat often tastes dried out but there is so much liquid in the pot.

I think stews taste so much better in the oven. I now have two large Le Creuset casserole dishes and the slower cooker is now confined to the cupboard for steaming the christmas pudding and the odd steam pudding.

I also don't like the whole house smelling of dinner for the whole day I don't feel like it when I have smelt it for 7 hours cooking.

That's it chestnut, kind if metallic. It's strange because I love the concept. I think what I really want is one of those super posh range cookers that have a special slow cooking oven, because its hard to get a normal oven to do it, plus it costs a lot.

I still don't understand why slow cookers taste different though, it doesn't make sense.

I think it's all down to the temperature. Put a tea bag in a cup, add luke-warm water, leave to sit and you get a very different result to adding boiling water. Warm up a piece of bread and it tastes different to toast. Cook onion in cool oil and you end up with something colourless, flavourless and greasy. High temperatures result in flavour-enhancing processes, mainly caramelisation. whereas things simmering at very low temperatures just taste boiled.

Yes, there's probably something in that. But it doesn't totally explain in because things that a slow cooked in the oven can taste amazing. Maybe it's the liquid that does it?

I think the other difference is that liquid doesn't evaporate much from a slow cooker. So the sauces don't reduce the same way, concentrating the flavour. I don't actually like the things myself having had a depressing series of grey, tasteless offerings from friends in the past ...

If I slow cook in the convential oven eg lamb shoulder, I'll blast at a high heat first for 20-30 mins, then cook on a low temp. Or with a casserole I would bring to boil on job before putting in oven. I think starting with high heat makes a difference to the flavour