Is my new slow-cooker actually cooking???

[BEAUTlFUL]

I just bought a Morphy Richards "ecolectric" slow-cooker from Amazon. All excited, I plunged ahead without reading any recipes (the manual wasn't in the box, in my defence) and slung in a joint of bacon and a bottle of (room-temp) cider, turned it up to "High" and left it for 2 hours.

Then I read some info online, realised I should have covered the meat with the liquid, opened it up to add more and the cider already in there was barely warm!

I have since tipped the contents into a saucepan, brought it all to the boil and put it back in slow-cooker, keeping it on "High".

But my questions:

1. If the cooker was on "High", shouldn't the liquid have heated up more than just warm after 2 hours?

1. Is the bacon joint now crawling with germs/bacteria, etc, and ould it be safe to eat even if I now cook it for 8-10 hours?

So sorry for tripled thread... arghhh, have no idea what happened!!

I have no idea about slow cookers but in answer to your second question, no the bacon joint won't now be crawling with germs or bacteria and yes it will be safe to eat.

Yes it should have been hot after 2 hours on high. How's it looking now?

I don't think it's very good. I just boiled the bacon on the stove in the end, and attempted an Egg custard in the agonisingly Slow cooker. it said 3hrs on Low, but I did that and it hadn't set. Bugger.

I usually estimate on high that a meal would be cooked in about 4-6 hours in my slow cooker depending what it is, so 2 hours to warm up does sound far too slow. I generally start things off though - soften onions / heat liquids etc then bung it all in. My instructions do tell me not to keep lifting the lid though - you can add about half an hour each time you lift the lid long enough to have a peek + give it a taste + stir it up.