Slow cookers users please - does it give your food a slightly unpleasant taste?

[mamhaf]

I find our slow cooker extremely useful, but no matter what the recipe, there's always a slightly discernable unpleasant taste to whatever the meal is.

Does everyone who uses a slow cooker find this is the case? The model we have is over 20 years old (it was a wedding present) and has a ceramic bowl on a metal base (i.e. the bit which plugs in).

I wondered if I could substitute a cast iron casserole for the ceramic pot - if that might work and if it would solve the problem of the strange taste?

Or might a new slow cooker be better - if so, which would you recommend?

TIA

No. Not at all. How odd.

No, ours is fine.

No mine is fine, maybe time to invest in a new slow cooker?

There is only 4 of us so we have a very basic, cheapy Argos one and it does us fine.

This is a weird coincidence - had a conversation with mum last week about slow cookers (how exciting) and she said the same thing. She used one back in the 70s so perhaps its a fault of the old models?

Ours is fine.

Its the Anthony Worrell-Thompson one from argos.

Love it because it feeds 5 of us with enough left over for another meal.

No-it is fine-I use it a lot.

I'm on my 2nd slow cooker in 6 years. Upgraded from the smallest capacity to a medium size.

Love it, never had any "taste" issues with it other than not scoffing the lot when I ought to be freezing the leftovers LOL.

Might be time to update yours?

Ditto!! no problems with taste and i love my slow cooker, cant understand why more people dont use them.. :0

Yes! With a new one. Broke the lid on our old one which was fine and bought a new bigger one. And yes, stuff didn't taste quite right sometimes, particularly veg soups which is what I make most often. And anything cooked with the all-in-one method. I worked out that it was having it on too high - stuff was basically overcooked. No-one else noticed it, though, no matter how much I pointed it out.

no.

i LOVE ours! just made applesauce in it.

yummy scrummy.

it's just a basic Rival one.

Hmm. Interesting. Yes, mine does if I use the all in one pot method. If I brown meat first, then it's OK, but if not it tastes odd. And also I find green peppers sometimes taste horrible as well from a slow cooker.

Thanks. I made a beef casserole yesterday and did brown the meat first - but it still tasted a bit odd - "medieval" was how dd1 described it, although unless she's been in the Tardis I'm not sure how she knew that.

Before I invest in a new one (with a built-in timer to stop the overcooking problem), could you give me your favourite, never-fail slow cooker recipe? I'll try that first!