Crockpot - cooking from cold?

[lilolilmanchester]

I have 2slowcookers. First one,instruction book is clear that ingredients have to be hot before cooking in slow cooker. Have also got a crock pot but instructions not clear. Anyone know, and got tried and tested examples of things that can be cooked entirely from scratch in slow cooker ?

I have a crockpot and regularly put cold ingredients in there!

Lamb tagine, chilli con carne for example! Always turn out just fine!

Thanks Pink. My other slow cooker book was so insistent that food had to be hot (for food safety purposes) made me nervous - I was sure it would 'work'. If from cold, do you use high setting? My other one only had low which may be why not wise to cook meat from raw

I always cook from cold

It takes just over an hour or more to get up to a simmer, so I just factor that into the timings - and yes I do it on high

Always cook from cold apart from I do brown meat off first, but that's from the flavour point of view. Then leave it on low all day (sometimes up to 12 hours due to work shifts!)

Another one here who almost always cooks from cold, mostly lamb and beef casseroles but also sausage casserole, pulled pork, gammon joints etc. either cook on high or on auto (which I think cooks on high for four hours then to low) and leave on for up to 12 hours

Great thanks that gives me confidence. Knew it would 'work', just worried about food safety but if you all do it regularly and are still alive, happy to give it a go, thanks all

We recently spent 5 months with only a slow cooker to cook in. Obviously everything went in cold, meat not browned etc and we survived.

Have never browned or put in hot food. Always cold from scratch and use it regularly

Great thanks, fab news

I'm doing slowcooker/crockpot pulled pork tomorrow and will put the ingredients in cold. I nearly always do use cold ingredients, only pre-cooking I might do is browning meat.

I always cook from cold also. I tend to put it on high to start with then turn down after an hour or so once bubbling

Balls to that! I never put hot stuff in my SC, onlynever cold stuff. I'm a huge fan of using tinned potatoes and other vegetables though as tye slow cooker just doesn't seem to cook them properly. EAZY fried onions are my biggest recommendation...

Just seen the other messages thank you everyone.

Have owned 3 slow cookers in my time - none required putting stuff in hot. imo that defeats their convenience.
Even on low, everything reaches 70+ degrees or the chemical reaction of cooking would not occur!
Plus, browned meat is still raw inside of course so it doesn't actually make it safer does it!? I mean raw inside chicken for example - the middle bit would still be pink, and if it was cooked through you'd not need to slow cook it!
It improves texture if you can be arsed but I don't think it's worth it for everyday.