Slowcookers - are they any good?

[HuwEdwards]

Can anyone tell me what the good points, what the bad points are - and what make they have please?

I'm thinking they will be good for family meals, where I have people potentially wanting to eat at diff times - am I right?

Can't check make at the mo, but I love mine, do lots of stews, casseroles and soups in them, plenty of recipe threads for slow cookers if you search. Once nthe food is cooked mine can keep on warm for ages, so yes, you can feed different family members at different times. I really like it on the days when I am working until 6, last child leaves ( I am a childminder)and tea is instantly ready, or just another 20 mins for rice/pasta etc. Well worth the investment IMO.

I love mine. You get lots of easy, cheap meals from slow cookers. Casseroles of every type possible. You can slow cook joints, make soups. They are so easy to use & cost next to nothing to run. You do have to be organised enough to cook in advance. So I would put a casserole on in the morning & it would be ready by suppertime.

Thanks Panda - theyre the reasons I wanted to buy one.

Are there any 'features' to loo out for - and how easy are they to clean (self-confessed slattern here!)

look not loo

What make is yours Bugsy?

bump cos I'd like a bit more info!!

.

Yep, I like mine - will go and have a look to see what make it is in a mo. Fantastic to be able to knock dinner up before I go out to work (and to be able to tidy the kitchen and know it will stay tidy all day, not get trashed by dinner-making), one less chore to think about when I get in.

are there any downsides tho - are they a pain to clean?

great for doing meat like braising/stweing steak in as that needs to be cooked very slowly else it can be tough ad chewy.

Def not a pain to clean, just a non-stick bowl.

thx all.

Mine has a non stick bowl that removes from the cooking unit, very easy to clean. It is a Tefal, 3 in one slow cooker, rice cooker and veg steamer. Can't cook a huge amount of veg in the steamer, and I tend to add a bit more water than recommended when I cook rice, but the slow cooker function is fab. I would go for the biggest one you can find, then you can cook double and freeze half for even more time saving. Quite a lot of recipes say high heat and low heat, but my cooker only has one temperature, I've had no problems cooking recipes at just the one temp, sometimes for a little longer.

thanks Panda - am looking at Tefal on Google now.

We've got this one - has a huge bowl (not non stick, but dishwasherable if you can fit it in, and pretty easy to clean anyway) so good for feeding loads of people. Haven't used it huge amounts, as we haven't had it long - have done sort of made up chicken stews.

A friend gave me one about 15 years ago and its one of the few 'gadgets' I use regularly along with my blender, for soups and my food processor until it broke

I have a Swan one that was given to me by my Mum and Dad about 12 years ago. I've found it's great for beef casseroles and the dumplings come out a treat! It's also good for making lemon cu rd and I tried porridge for the first time a few weeks ago. I've found the only thing that doesn't come out very well are whole chickens. We usually make any leftovers into a curry or something for the next day, and while the meat falls away really easily from the bones, the bones fall to bits too!

I've got the three-in-one Tefal jobby as well, don't often use it for steaming or rice cooking (particularly as we have a rice cooker too, can't remember justification for buying this particular model now!).

Always on the lookout for suggestions of good slowcooker recipe books, btw.