Recommend a slow cooker where you can set the temperature

[TheBerry]

I bought a Crock-Pot Sizzle and Stew slow cooker 6.5L after reading good reviews.

I just made a beef stew in it that I frequently slow cook in the oven and… it was kinda bad. I normally cook it for about 6 hours in the oven on 90C or even less and it’s always perfect with thick sauce and incredibly tender meat.

After 6+ hours in the slow cooker on low the meat had kinda a dry consistency and the sauce was quite watery still. Plus it had an odd flavour to it that it’s never had before.

I did notice that even on low the stew was bubbling a bit towards the end so I wonder whether the temperature is just too high??

I was thinking I need to return it and get a slow cooker where I can actually set a specific temperature like 80C or 90C.

Any recommendations? Or any other tips?? Am I doing something wrong?

Does need to be at least 6.5L really and I wasn’t looking to spend hundreds but I guess I could if that’s the only option.

I'd be cooking a beef stew at high / medium and cooking for a total of 8+ hours. So putting on when going out to work at about 9am and eating about 7.30-8pm. Low is too low for a cook from scratch, especially for red meat, but fine for keeping warm if all cooked through and waiting to serve.

The bubbling was probably the stew coming up to a reasonable temperature.

Neither of the slow cookers I have owned had anything other than low / med / high temperature settings and it's been fine.

I sometimes put a piece of foil over the stew to keep the fluid in the stew, rather than as condensation on the lid.

Can't comment about the strange taste - ? maybe was a post production taste of plastic ?
edited for spelling

I checked the temperature today with a thermometer and it was 94C so maybe too hot 🤷🏻‍♀️

But I’ll try your suggestion and cook on high for 8 hours and see what happens! Thanks!

Good luck!

I've only seen low/high/keep warm options,

My method is dump everything in it raw. 2 hrs on high then switch to low for at least 4 more hours but could be up to 8 dependent on when I remember to turn it off. The longer the better generally.

Liquid is an issue in a slow cooker because it doesn't evaporate off, so you do end up with as much at the end as you started with. I get around that by sticking a couple of sheets of kitchen roll under the lid for the last couple of hours. It soaks up the steam so it doesn't condense and drip back into the sauce.