Comments on: The slow cooker: Uncluttered kitchen cooking

By: julie

julie — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:49:00 +0000

Can I use a normal oven for slow cooking?

By: Mander

Mander — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:51:23 +0000

We just bought a new house and don’t have a stove yet, so we’ve been cooking on one of those electric hot plates plus the crock pot. You can make just about anything in the crock pot–even bread, I’ve been told–and it is a lot more effective than the hot plate. I make lots of stew, chili, soup, curry, and pot roast in mine. We don’t own a dutch oven, and while I plan to buy one at some point, for now I’ll stick with the crock pot.

By: Mary Rex

Mary Rex — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:37:12 +0000

Oh, and put it on low. I am sure that the crockpot saves energy, especially in the summer. I have a cast iron dutch oven that I love also in the winter when I want to warm up the house. Last year during a 4 day power outage I used mine to cook over a fire in the fireplace.

By: Mary Rex

Mary Rex — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:25:35 +0000

I just ran home at lunch and threw a bunch of stuff in my crockpot. Recipes using chicken parts do well in just 4 hours. I filled the pot about 2/3 full with yukon gold potatoes & zucchini cut in large chunks, green beans, onions and tomatoes chopped, a bay leaf, some seasoned salt and about a cup of tomato sauce, and 1/2 cup of water. I browned 6 skinless chicken thighs and put them on top with some more seasoned salt. Everyone raved about it last time. I love my crockpot.

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:55:38 +0000

I would definitely second the recommendation of “Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.” There’s a ton of healthy and sophisticated recipes, and they’re honest-to-pete vegetarian (no chicken broth here!).

Crockpots are a summer life-saver when you don’t have AC at home. One of my good friends actually sets up her crockpot on the front porch so that it doesn’t heat up the house too much, and I like that I can move it as far away from the bedroom as possible so that I can still get to sleep at night. (After two years of doing this, she has yet to have anybody steal her dinner).

By: Trippy

Trippy — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:10:57 +0000

Try this blog for tons of crockpot recipes:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

By: bobbquackenbush

bobbquackenbush — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:17:43 +0000

Use a slow cooker to make homemade stocks! Just use your favorite recipe, and use the crock for the stock instead of on the stove burner method. Even a small slow cooker can make a pint of stock a day. Best $20.00 I’ve spent in the kitchen in years.

By: John

John — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:09:56 +0000

Our slow cooker doesn’t use any crockery. It has a metal non-stick dish that sits on a hot-plate kinda thing. We can use it to brown meat and then transfer it onto the hot plate to slow cook.

It’s probably not as efficient as a crockery-based cooker, but it’s nice to not have to dirty extra pans.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:44:04 +0000

I’d love to use a slowcooker when I am at work but am so nervous about leaving it on all day with no one home. Is it really OK?

By: Jessi

Jessi — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:53:17 +0000

answering my own question: the government says it's safe to cook meat in a slow cooker. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Focus_On_Slow_Cooker_Safety/index.asp

By: Jessi

Jessi — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:36:02 +0000

I’m a renter with a tiny funky kitchen with no oven, and no room for one. My slowcooker is my friend! I use it a lot to cook big batches of beans and lentils to stock my freezer with. I want to cook more actual soups, stews and casseroles with it, though. I’m a little nervous of cooking meat in it. Are there guidelines somewhere about what setting and how much time you need to cook the meat safely?

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:53:22 +0000

I recommend Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker for vegetarians, those looking for healthy food, and those just wanting to get away from ‘cream-of’-based cooking.

By: jen

jen — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:12:37 +0000

My mother-in-law just introduced me to crock-pot liners. I didn’t even have to wipe out the pot when I was finished cooking. I just removed the bag, put the roast and vegetables on a plate, and threw away the liner…it was so easy!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:34:48 +0000

Porkaholic,

I do own a clock. What I don’t own is a remote control for my crockpot which would let me turn it off while I am still at work! Hence, for those of us with work days longer than our crockpot recipe, a timer is essential.

By: Porkaholic

Porkaholic — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:09:34 +0000

I love my slowcooker and use it almost weekly. I don’t really see why you need any features other than low-high-off. Do you people not own clocks?

By: Kaylee

Kaylee — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:44:13 +0000

One more must-have feature for crockpots: a timer. Since my work day is 11 hours (including commute) and most crockpot recipes are only 4-7 hours, the timer is essential. Kimberly’s suggestion of a lamp timer is an excellent “add-on” if your crockpot doesn’t have the timer built in.

Allrecipes.com is a great place for slow cooker recipes and any other recipe you might want.

By: Jasi

Jasi — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:47:43 +0000

@Sidney: Totally agree with you. Slowcookers rock, if you have good recipes. And there’s no sense in getting cookbooks. It’s just more clutter.
@cevec: Try hacking veggie Indian recipes. An awful lot of them could be slowcooked with some preparation. And they’re super delicious. I’ve done a great Saag Paneer in my crockpot. Give it a go.
@Melissa A.: Hated FIaFI cookbooks. Found the recipes too “Ketchup and Campbells” for me. Need something for a more sophisticated palate.

Good article. But please don’t push buying a ton of books as an uncluttering solution.

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:33:32 +0000

I want to put in a vote here for a Chambers stove. These stoves aren’t made any more but you can find them all over the place - online at various prices or in people’s houses for very cheap. They were manufactured from the 1920s or 1930s into the 1960s. They cook on retained heat — in other words, you turn on the heat for half an hour, then turn it off and the food in the oven keeps on cooking. It can’t burn because the heat is not actually on, and it uses almost no energy because it’s only on for half an hour. In the top is a “well,” which is like a slow cooker embedded in the stove. You can cook stews, veggies, beans, porridge, etc. in the well, during the day or overnight. You can also cook these things in the oven, using slightly more energy, as well as chickens, etc. It’s like an energy-efficient slow cooker. People who have Chambers stoves tend to be fanatically devoted to them, they are so easy and convenient.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:53:30 +0000

I love my slow cooker. I have used at least once a week for the last five years, when the weather in SoCal stays down in the low 70s. The only items I would add are a on/off timer and a ‘keep warm’ function. I used a simple lamp timer to turn it on, for those days that I am gone longer than the 8-10 hours on low called for on the recipies. My new crock pot has a timer as well as a ‘keep warm’ function, for after the cooking is finished - this is great, because even the best recipies can dry out when cooked for too long.

I had a dutch oven for a while, but I found that what I required was a good chili pot with higher sides: in with the chili, out with the dutch oven. In the end, my preference for a crock pot was largely an issue of not wishing to burn down the house while I was at work.

By: derPlau

derPlau — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:49:27 +0000

Although it seems intuitive that a slow cooker is more energy efficient than an oven, it’s not necessarily true: the slow cooker is on all the time, while an oven is effectively off much of the time once it’s up to temperature. See some back-of-the-envelope calculations here.

As to whether a crockpot is “better” at slow cooking than a dutch oven in an oven, that’s a pretty subjective evaluation; I much prefer my dutch oven (a $25 cast-iron one bought at Target several years ago) to a crockpot I used to have.

And if your priority is on reducing clutter, the greater flexibility of the dutch oven solution would seem to win hands-down: yes, it takes up approximately the same amount of space as a crockpot, but I’ll bet you can also use it in place of at least one other pot you’ve got,.