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Original poster

Slow cookers

184 replies

MrsCadwallader · 06/01/2010 20:08

My sister has just bought one and is utterly evangelical and attempting to convert me

Do I need one? Are they worth having? Or will it simply spend all but the first month of its life cluttering up my worktop until my husband eventually puts it in the loft with the bread machine?

And if I do need one, does anyone have any tips? Brand recommendations? Recipes?

Thanks!

OP posts:
mogs0 · 17/01/2010 21:40

Jacket pots don't take very long but I don't think you can over-cook them. I just wash them, stab with a fork a couple of times then put them in - no liquid. I think (don't really follow any strict time-scale!) I put them in high for about 5ish hours. When I first started doing them I was putting them in at breakfast time but finding they were ready by mid-afternoon but still perfectly edible at tea-time !

BTW, they do come out looking a bit grey but taste fab!!

onadietcokebreak · 17/01/2010 21:45

Well I am going to try this on Tuesday and will feed back the results....cant wait! yummy!

mogs0 · 17/01/2010 21:55

I might put one in for my tea tomorrow. Ds has an afternoon of activities tomorrow and will have dinner at school and a toasty between activities so won't have to suffer another one of my horrid yummy dinners!!

SuperBunny · 17/01/2010 22:04

We're veggie and use slow cooker for all sorts - stews, chili, soup etc. I even made my xmas pudding in it and it was fab.

commuter · 17/01/2010 22:10

With chicken drumsticks, I added juice of a lemon and some runny honey over the top - yummy!

MrsDinky · 18/01/2010 14:22

Hi, Just found this thread and am considering buying a slow cooker. Slight thread hijack.

Could any of you tell me what brands and features are good, or not worth the extra money, and what size would suite a family of 4? Many thanks.

dreamingofsun · 18/01/2010 15:38

i think mine is 3 litres - at least i've just fitted that amount of water in it. mine's a swan - but i've had it 23 years so not sure if they exist any more. it definately needs a removable pot so its easily washable and should have a high and low setting and mine also has auto - this enables you to cook at different speeds - say 4 hours or 6 hours. there's 5 in our family and i've always found this sized one to be fine

i use mine a lot, especially in the winter. they are good if you are going to be out all day as you put them on before you go; or if people need to eat at different times, they can just help themselves

TheBuggerofSuburbia · 18/01/2010 18:52

I bought a cheapy one (think it might be Russell Hobbs, but not sure) when on offer at Amazon a couple of years ago. It's perfectly adequate, but when the time comes to replace it, I'll upgrade because it gets used a lot, and it'll be worth it. I'd like a timer, and a pot that can go on the hob for browning, so either a crock pot I think, or there's another one, can't remember the make, but it was a Which best buy recently.

I have a shoulder of lamb in mine right now - it's been cooking away all day and smells fab!

googietheegg · 18/01/2010 20:57

I've tried risotto in mine and it was REALLY awful, so I wouldn't recommend it.

I make a mean risotto normally, but in the slow cooker it was just a thick mush, none of the lovely creamy rich rice you get when you stir and stir over the stove.

aristocat · 18/01/2010 22:22

MrsDinky i only bought mine last week after thinking about getting for ages.
its a Breville 4.5L and is quite a size but i thought the 3.5L might be too small for a family of 4.

i wanted to be able to cook extra and then freeze what i can .......

there are lots of slow cookers in argos as their new catalogue will be out soon!

clemette · 18/01/2010 23:42

Have tried mine on two consecutive Mondays now and each time has been rubbish. Last week I treid the whole chicken with a few veg at the bottom. Had it on low for 7 hours - chicken lovely, veg rock hard. Today I did chicken pieces and veg in a sauce. On low for 4 hours - not cooked.
I need serious timing / level advice please. MiL says she uses the auto setting but I have no idea what this does (and have lost my instructions...).
Please help before I give it up as a bad job and try to work out the timer for my oven...

dreamingofsun · 19/01/2010 09:16

please don't give up just yet. your auto setting starts off on a hot setting and once its built up temp goes to low - so its sort of between the 2 settings. if you are putting veg such as carrots, celery in it needs to be sliced or chopped and i would also add say a cupful of liquid - stock/wine/berr or water. i don't put pots in mine as they never seem to cook.

if you only have 4 hours it needs to be on high.

i tend to put mine on at breakfast, sometimes prepping the night before and keeping in the fridge. sometimes its ready bit too early

clemette · 19/01/2010 11:24

Thank you. I think I just need to keep experimenting. Last year I tried to leave a chicken casserole on auto all day and it cooked so much the bones were disintegrating (yuck).
Am going to try auto for six hours next...

Monty100 · 19/01/2010 12:45

Hi everyone - I'm a slow cooker newbie too. So far have cooked chilli, bolognese, and curry and that's as far as I've experimented. Any more suggestions? I'm not the world's greatest cook.

If you put a whole chicken in, do you take the skin off? How much, if any liquid should I put in?

Can you run this by me again?

Patchybob · 19/01/2010 16:36

Glad i am not the only one concerned about a whole chicken!!! Will try it though!

onadietcokebreak · 19/01/2010 17:43

If you put a whole chicken in you dont need to remove skin or add liquid.

however if you are adding veg you need to add a little bit of liquid.

MOGS0 Just did Jacket potatoes and my 2 yr old fussy eater said more please mummy.

They were so delicious! 5hrs on high was too much though as they werent that big. If leaving them in all day on low I would recommend you put big ones in.

Monty100 · 19/01/2010 20:12

Thank you, will definitely give it a go.

Jacket potatoes sound yum too.

tispity · 19/01/2010 20:41

i think you have to reason out how frugal you are prepared to go - it is an important part of your relationship with your slow cooker . i will NOT :
1)add tins of soup or packet mixes (too '1980s granny')
2)reheat the food over consecutive days and change the recipe a bit each time (reminds me of my friends mum when i was little)
3)use the cheapest shittiest ingredients i can find in order to feel good about how little i spend. ds and dh have meat and whilst i am prepared to let dh eat what he chooses, i feel a sense of responsibility for ds so really fatty pieces of meat are out

biglips · 19/01/2010 20:47

i cant live without my slow cooker!!

Monty100 · 19/01/2010 21:13

Oh, give us some recipes/tips? I work full time so time is tight.

TIA

feetheart · 19/01/2010 21:50

OK, here's my rice pudding recipe:

2pts/1.2l milk
1 tin evaporated milk
150g pudding rice
150g sugar
grating nutmeg

Put it all in and cook for 6-7 hours on low, stir few times during the day to break up rice 'lumps'
Very, very yummy

MrsDinky · 19/01/2010 22:51

Thank you all, Aristocat I was wondering if 3.5L would be big enough too, you have answered that for me

kif · 19/01/2010 23:03

chicken: because of the close fitting lid, less water evaporates than conventional cooking (much much less that oven cooking). Hence, the chicken ends up kind of half poached in its own juices half steamed. You don;t get the crispy skin unfortunately (though nowt stopping yo ugiving it a final blast in the oven).

risotto - it's possible - but not really in one step. Main thing is not to overcook it. I had one for lunch the other day. Roughly speaking, I had the slocker on HIGH for about 40minutes with onions and rice softening in the bottom. Added in some veggies. Then I got a jug of leftover stock out of the fridge (left over from slow cooking a chicken the day before, natch). I added a ladleful everytime i walked past the slow cooker (ended up about 1/3 each time). Everytime I added liquid, I'd taste the rice to judge how much more time/liquid was needed. When it was 99% ready i actually took the whole pot off the base and added some cold peas/herbs/prawns to stop it cooking. I mistimed it slightly in that respect - but it was no real hardship to eat it lukewarm (esp for kids - who moan anyway if they're served hot-hot food).

bloss · 19/01/2010 23:23

Message withdrawn

kif · 19/01/2010 23:38

i made chowder today (rare treat cos DH is veggie). I started it off with a base of fried onion and bacon and chopped potatoes and some chicken stock (yup - frozen & defrosted from a slow cooker chicken stock glut last wk).

2 hours before eating I chucked is a glass of vermouth and placed a couple of frozen salmon fillets on top. I served it with craime fraiche, dill and prawns. Very tasty indeed.

(can you tell I went a bit mad with the online grocery order this week? I order vermouth, dill and prawns but forgot to order milk (!)).

Again, trick is not to overcook. Just because it can stay on all day, isn;t a challenge to keep it on all day. I sometimes put the pot filled with uncooked food in the fridge overnight (and/or start with frozen food), so that it starts chilled through, and hence gives me a couple more hours before it gets overdone. You need to use common sense w.r.t. food safety. E.g. I cook leg of lamb from frozen in the slow cooker, because lamb is ok if it is a touch rare in the middle. Veggie soup I often start chilled through (i.e. with the water very very cold) if I plan to eat it in the evening. I wouldn;t really mess about like that with cooking pork... maybe superstition on my part.