Slow cookers - which non toxic material one do you recommend. And are they worth it?

[advicepls1234]

My LO loves this pre packed already slow roasted seasoned lamb shoulder meal I get from Sainsbury’s and also this Beef short rib ones.

Let’s just say she likes her food! And I’m trying to get into feeding her the best I can in her formative yrs but make it more affordable and while doing that, have more control over how it’s made. Less crap ingredients in.

So was thinking if I buy cuts of lamb shoulder, short rib etc from local farmer/butcher I trust on how his produce is created and have a go at doing them in a slow cooker. Atleast I know where the meats come from. The ingredients I add to it. And cost all round. As we know supermarkets aren’t even that cost effective these days.

Any tips?

Not had one before.

Many thanks 🙏🏼

The meats you get from the supermarket have been slow cooked in the plastic bags they are sold in, I assume. So all the flavour is sealed in.
I have had a slow cooker for years and on the whole I find slow cooked meat pretty tasteless. I reckon the only things that are really successful in it are highly spiced dishes like chilli and curry which it cooks very well.

I gave mine away. I much prefer slow cooking in my oven.

I like my slow cooker. It was about £20 from Tesco. It's really good for cheaper cuts of meat. And you can find other recipes on line for puddings.

I use an instant pot. It does slow cook but I’d cook lamb shoulder, ribs, etc on pressure cooker. Takes about a quarter of the time and tastes amazing. You need to adapt your cooking method a little but it’s easy to get used to if you’re a confident cook.

I love mine. It also cost about £ 20 from Amazon.
you can make really nice meals in it, and the best thing is coming home from work with a hot meal ready cooked.
it’s really easy and there are a million recipes online. And much much cheaper.
Would highly recommend op.

If you want to use a slow cooker, they are much of a muchness. Mine has a ceramic inside pot, so no toxics there.

If you want to cook predominantly meat like lamb or beef, I would seriously consider a pressure cooker instead. Quicker, more reliable results, and far far far better flavour. I have an Instant Pot and love it. The cooking pot is stainless steel, so no toxic worries there either.

I would avoid non-stick coating in a slow cooker. It’s one thing frying on non-stick, but I personally wouldn’t want a liquid bubbling away on non-stick for hours on end.

I would also recommend an Instant Pot, I mostly use mine as a (non scary) pressure cooker but it does slow cooking as well. I find slow cooker food bland and watery but others seem to have the knack of making tasty food. I gave my slow cooker away because I never made anything passable in it.

I really like my ceramic pot slow cooker. They are really economical to use and you can get lovely tasty low-effort meals out of them.
I often put a half-shoulder of lamb in, resting on a couple of onions cut in half, leave it for 8 hours, then put it in the oven for a bit at the end - absolutely delicious. If I do lamb shanks, I will wrap those in foil with some herbs etc to cook them. I sometimes do a whole chicken which makes the meat beautiful and moist (no crispy skin though, obviously). I think people think you always need a sauce to slow-cook meat, but you don’t.

I have two slow cookers at the moment, both quite old, ceramic pots. I had my first slow cooker when I started work around 1979. I still use very regularly, biggest mistake people make is too much liquid in them and that makes stuff tasteless. Even for a stew type meal you don't need as much liquid as you think, I would only have the liquid coming up half way on the ingredients, ingredients will release liquid too and it will be covered when finished. For other meats like lamb joint etc you just need some veg under it and a splash of liquid to start it off creating steam. One of mine is very hot and even on low it bubbles so I consider it as a sort of electric saucepan and don't need to do hours and hours in it, the other is slower. I make bolonaise/curry/stock/meatballs in tomato sc/ham joints/chicken, even got a small turkey crown in there at Christmas as had the turkey in the main oven. They are great yokes used right.