I've been given a slow cooker - will it gather dust, or are they useful?

[puff]

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I love mine - use it at least once a week. Throw everything in the pot and switch it on in the morning and voila - dinner ready when you come home.

If you are like my mum you will use it all the time -- if you are like me it will gather dust

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I love mine too, at least once a week it comes out and so easy to use (and clean).

Very useful, sure there's been loads a threads about them before, mine's currently doing a stew for tea tonight! they're great for moving the workload away from tea time, just pop whatever in during the morning/at breaky, get on with your day, instant tea whenever your ready later, marvelous invention! Just remember to brown your meat off before putting it in!

use it all through the winter, gathers dust in the summer.

i use mine more in the winbter aswell, it is great though!

Oh good, sounds hopeful! Mine has 3 heat settings - low/med/high. Med is the "standard" one, but if I did stuff on high, would meat still come out tender?

I used mine for the 1st time last night. dh was withering because i'd neglected to pay attention as to how slow a slow cooker actually is. dinner was ready at 1 am.

Yes it will. If I'm running late and don't put it on until lunchtime, it goes on high for about five hours. I find four hours isn't enough for a family sized joint, but after five it will be tender.

pmsl Sansoucci.

lol sansouci

Can you do whole joints in them then?

rofl sansouci

dh, dd & ds all had left-over ratatouille & fish fingers for dinner... again.

Yes puff, you can - that's what I normally do. Cheap cuts are fab - they just fall off the bone. We like (bone-in) shoulder of lamb best. Verrrrrrrrrrrry cheap and tasty. Stick it in with all the veg and potatoes you need and 1/2 pint of stock (or even better, wine) and switch on.

Great - thanks Aero .

mine gathered dust - tried to boot sale it and couldn't get rid - ds1 grew up and took it to his new gaff!

i only got 3 recipes with my slow-cooker (which is also a rice cooker & veg steamer). anyone have any good recipes they'd like to share? now that i've sussed how long it takes to make a meal.

I do stew in mine, also cook the meat for meat and potato pie in it and do a sausage casserole in it. And thats pretty much it. Should be more adventurous because its great to be able to leave it to get on with cooking on its own. Might try and translate Delia's pot roast briskett into it. Mine is a cheapo one with only one heat setting. Delia says cook for 3 hours at 170 (I think) what would that translate to?

sansouci - there seems to be quite a lot on the web, if you search for slow cooker recipes or crockpot recipes.

Made a stew yesterday and was v impressed - I need to cut potatoes up smaller though next time.

Minew is on atm, beef stew...... yummy!!