Am bit confused about slow cooker and food to go in it.

[Ivegotaheadache]

I bought a slow cooker and have been searching for recipes to cook in it.

So, I was wondering what brisket of beef is?

Also, some recipes say chuck a few glasses of red wine in with the beef, so if I was to cook it for hours in the slow cooker would I be able to give it to the dc's? The youngest is 18 months. Would the alcohol disappear after a certain amount of time?

Also, for stew ect, to thicken the sauce the recipes say to make a paste of cornflour and water and add it in about an hour before cooking ends, but would I be able to stick a bit of flour in the stock at the start of cooking (like I do when i make stew on the hob)?

Hi. Any ordinary stew or casserole recipe can be done in a slow cooker. The instructions on mine just say add half the amount of liquid you usually would. Recipes with wine would be fine for the DCs - all the alcohol would have cooked off.

To thicken, either add cornflour and water paste an hour before end of cooking, or ladle off some of the juices right at the end into a small pan, add cornflour paste, boil for 5 mins until thickened then stir back into the stew. I think it's best not to add flour at the start as it could make it stick on the bottom as it cooks so long without needing to be stirred at all.

I've never really used brisket but I think it's just a cheap cut of beef that needs long cooking. Anything like stewing steak, braising steak, etc is fine.

I've done a brisket of beef joint in a slow cooker. result = devine, soft tender fall apart meat. In fact it was sooooooo tender you couldn't carve it without it falling to pieces. Don't quite know why I haven't done another actually as it was gorgous.