Slow Cookers

[easysurfer]

It's amazing how much broth one gets putting a chicken in the crock pot overnight. Good stuff.

 

[mickj]

We really like onions, potatoes, carrots, and chicken with a bottle of italian dressing in our slow cooker. Delish

 

[W2R]

Try putting a whole chicken in there and leaving it in all day.

I like that idea. One of these days I need to look for a small, highly rated crockpot if such a thing exists. I have never had a crockpot and they sound wonderful.

Even though there is only one of me these days, I could always freeze the leftovers.

 

[haha]

Is the whole US on 120/240 power now? Because my crock pot got pretty hot on low. If it is calibrated on 110, and it gets my power which may be up a bit over 120, I suppose that might explain some overcooking.

Today I browned slices of beefheart, and sautéed onions and carrots and garlic and celery, added some herbs, deglazed the fry pan with a little wine and put that into the crockpot on low for 8 or 9 hours. It is delicious, but drier than I would have expected. I think next time I will either use more wine, or maybe add a small amount of marinara sauce.

Ha

 

[timeasterday]

It's amazing how much broth one gets putting a chicken in the crock pot overnight. Good stuff.

Definitely. Sames goes for making pulled pork. I'll put a large Boston Butt (totally rubbed with spices) and an onion in the crock pot, then pour in just 1/4 cup of beer and 8-10 hours later I'll have the most tender, moist pork ever with a huge amount of broth. I freeze the broth after separating the fat and use it later to flavor soups and other dishes. Now I'm craving pulled pork!

 

[ERD50]

Is the whole US on 120/240 power now? Because my crock pot got pretty hot on low. If it is calibrated on 110, and it gets my power which may be up a bit over 120, I suppose that might explain some overcooking.

Ha

I was curious, and found this:

Cooking For Engineers :: View topic - Crockpot Mod

Slow Cookers Change as published in the Hartford Courant, Sept. 20, 2000

A reader e-mailed the Food desk to comment on a recipe story about crock-pots - or slow cookers, as they are now called - that appeared in the Food section last Wednesday. This man finds that his new crock-pot, a 6-quart Hamilton Beach model, takes less time to cook than his original cooker by the same company.

Through some research, he found that his old model had a temperature setting of 140 degrees for low. The new model is 180 degrees at low. He says food reaches the boiling point in about 4 to 5 hours.

A call to Hamilton Beach Proctor-Silex in Glen Allen, VA., confirmed that the new pots have a higher temperature on low. The change was made to prevent any food contamination and ensure that foods cook to the proper temperature.

Crock-pot cooks should consult the manual that accompanies the cooker and adjust recipes they find elsewhere accordingly. As our e-mailer points out, he has found that a 4-pound pot roast, cooked in his new pot, "is over-done after six hours on low." He compared his experience with the recipe for flank steak with gravy, published in the crock-pot story, which listed cooking times as 8 to 10 hours on "low." This recipe was taken from an older crock-pot cookbook, whose recipes were developed for the older models.

I'm pretty sure that these things are thermostatically controlled at each setting. If that's the case, reasonable voltage variations won't affect the final temperature (would only slightly affect how fast/slow it gets to temperature).

I'm curious enough, that later today I'm going to put 2 cups of water in our slow-cooker (Crock Pot is a Rival Trademark), and plug it into my Kill-a-Watt meter. If it is thermostatically controlled, I will see the current cycle from full to zero as it responds to hitting the target temperature.

The ladies at church struggle with the big heated cooking/serving pans they use there. They burn things as they cycle, if there isn't a lot of juice. I've been thinking about making up a little plug with a heavy-duty series diode in there, which would cut the voltage in half, power would be 1/4. That should make the warming cycle less aggressive.


edit/add: There was some mention in that thread of using some empty tuna cans to raise the pot a bit, which lowered the heat of the food (moves it a bit further from the thermostatically controlled heat).

-ERD50

 

[audreyh1]

Wow.

That Year of Slow Cooking is a pretty good reference web site.

I had the wonderful 40 cloves of garlic chicken dish years ago. I think I'll have to try that recipe soon. Using dark meat in the cooker is best since it stands up to the long cooking times better.

Crockpots have changed to cook at higher temps due to food safety concerns by the manufacturers. For me this simply means that the dish is ready an hour or two sooner than the recipe calls for.

Audrey

 

[haha]

I was curious, and found this:

Cooking For Engineers :: View topic - Crockpot Mod



I'm pretty sure that these things are thermostatically controlled at each setting. If that's the case, reasonable voltage variations won't affect the final temperature (would only slightly affect how fast/slow it gets to temperature).

I'm curious enough, that later today I'm going to put 2 cups of water in our slow-cooker (Crock Pot is a Rival Trademark), and plug it into my Kill-a-Watt meter. If it is thermostatically controlled, I will see the current cycle from full to zero as it responds to hitting the target temperature.

The ladies at church struggle with the big heated cooking/serving pans they use there. They burn things as they cycle, if there isn't a lot of juice. I've been thinking about making up a little plug with a heavy-duty series diode in there, which would cut the voltage in half, power would be 1/4. That should make the warming cycle less aggressive.


edit/add: There was some mention in that thread of using some empty tuna cans to raise the pot a bit, which lowered the heat of the food (moves it a bit further from the thermostatically controlled heat).

-ERD50

Thanks ERD. I'm looking forward to your experiemntal findings.

 

[bizlady]

If the meat is dry, it often is overlooked. I like to use the disposable crockpot cooking bags occasionally. Everything goes inside the bag, and the bag tossed when done. Now that is easy! And great for a lazy day..,,

 

[Marita40]

Another great way to do chicken: put chicken parts (no bones) in crock pot and add a jar of salsa. Shred toward the end of cooking. Great for fajitas!

 

[antmary]

My DH was washing our high-end crock pot a couple of days ago - and now we have a "cracked pot." It never did perform very well...the timer broke soon after we purchased it, etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations on your favorite crock pot brand? I started to get the lima beans out of the pantry this morning, and remembered that we don't have a crock pot anymore

 

[FinanceDude]

Here's what Good Huosekeeping had to say:

Best Slow Cookers - Crock Pot - Good Housekeeping

I have the Hamilton Beach 3-in-1, and love it!

 

[ERD50]

Thanks ERD. I'm looking forward to your experiemntal findings.

As I set it up, I read the manual, and that pretty much spells it out.

This one has OFF, 'Keep Warm', 'Low', and 'High' settings. The manual says that both the Low and High will maintain a food temperature of 200F, just the time to get there will be longer on Low. So that tells me it is the same thermostat control for those two settings, just different power applied.

I measured 210 Watts on High; 125W on Low; 85W on Warm. I filled it with boiling water, it's been on a few hours, and I still haven't seen it turn off though and it's at a low simmer. So I'm wondering about the thermostat in this thing. Maybe it needs to be fuller. This thing is pretty old, I can't recall when we bought it.

I suspect the warm setting is just lower power on this one, the thermostat doesn't come into play. I doubt there is a separate 140F thermostat. But a modern one with a thermistor sensor could easily have multiple set points.

Even though this thing is old, the manual does say that it may heat faster than older slow cookers, and you may need to adjust older recipes for less time.

-ERD50

 

[Mmm Rrr]

Slightly off topic, but I've been playing around with "slow cooking" steak following the NYT article on Modernist Cuisine cooking at home. Sear frozen steak quickly (either in a really hot cast iron pan or with a butane torch), put in a thermometer (love mine that has a cord that fits through the oven door) and put steak into a 200 degree oven until up to temp (I take it out at 130 degrees for a nice medium rare). You end up with a nice brown sear and a perfectly uniformly cooked steak.

I have the Modernist Cuisine book, I'm tempted to spring for a Sous Vide Supreme. I am intrigued by people who rig one up with a slow cooker -- there, back on topic!!

 

[ERD50]

Slightly off topic, but I've been playing around with "slow cooking" steak following the NYT article on Modernist Cuisine cooking at home. Sear frozen steak quickly (either in a really hot cast iron pan or with a butane torch), put in a thermometer (love mine that has a cord that fits through the oven door) and put steak into a 200 degree oven until up to temp (I take it out at 130 degrees for a nice medium rare). You end up with a nice brown sear and a perfectly uniformly cooked steak.

I've done something like that, but I reversed it, and started with steaks out at room temp for a while (from the fridge). The theory (which seems to work in practice), is with the low oven, you are slowly bringing the whole steak to rare/med~rare through and through. No deep red in the middle, and no gray band on the outside. By the time the temp is up inside, the outside of the steak is dry, so the searing is really searing - no steam/stewing. But sear it just till it gets browned, you don;t want to cook the inside much more.

I have the Modernist Cuisine book, I'm tempted to spring for a Sous Vide Supreme. I am intrigued by people who rig one up with a slow cooker -- there, back on topic!!

I've thought about that too. Some of the automated mashing systems for beer brewing could double for this use.

-ERD50

 

[sengsational]

I have also done turkey breasts this way. No water.

+1 Toss some Lipton onion soup (dry packet) on it, set it and forget it!

 

[Mulligan]

This thread caused me to wipe the dust off my crock pot. Dumped chicken breasts, with sliced potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth

 

[Mulligan]

This thread caused me to wipe the dust off my crock pot. Dumped chicken breasts, with sliced potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth

Sometimes I hate my Ipad.. with tomato sauce and seasonings. Very good, I need to do this more often.

 

[TromboneAl]

I concluded that my standard Rival crockpot is not thermostatically controlled. It has no way of sensing the temp in the detachable pot. Works great, though.

 

[ERD50]

I concluded that my standard Rival crockpot is not thermostatically controlled. It has no way of sensing the temp in the detachable pot. Works great, though.

Your conclusion may not be correct. True, the removable pot has no sensor, but a system like this can have a thermostat that senses the surrounding area - this would be a 'loosely coupled' system. The designers may find that keeping the surrounding area at say, 230F will maintain 200F in the pot under typical conditions, close enough.

But I got curious and took ours apart (recall that I said I never saw it turn off, even hours after adding boiling water). There does not appear to be any thermostat. I think they rely on the fact that boiling absorbs so much energy, that a pretty wide range of heat will bring to just under a boil, but won't get an active boil going.

-ERD50

 

[donheff]

Sorry to be so late to the meal -- I have been away. I use large casseroles, dutch ovens, and pans and either braise on the stovetop at simmer or slow cook in a low oven (225) for hours with excellent results. I bought "The Best Slow & Easy Recipes" from Cook's Illustrated. It has some great recipes and a lot of technical advice about what works and doesn't work with each style of cooking.

 

[Lancelot]

I'm not much of a cook but crock pots can make even me look acomplished
I throw in a beef roast, can of mushroom soup, potatos, carrots, onions (veggies on top) and about eight hours later... Yummmy!

 

[jclarksnakes]

Brown pork chops in a skillet with a little olive oil, put chops and skillet juices into crockpot with one large chopped onion and a can of Campbells cream of mushroom soup, add whatever spices you like and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 or 4 hours. Delicious served over rice or noodles or beans.

 

[Moscyn]

I've been using slow cooker for more than 20 years. It is one of my favorite way to cook a meal - needs so little attention and yet produces such great and tasty food. My favorite (like some of you in the thread have mentioned) is to throw the whole chicken in together with some seasoning, herbs and mushrooms. No water needed but up to you if you want some it soupy. I leave it in the cooker for 4 hours and it is so yummy. Boiling soup, beef roast and braising stuff too. Endless things you can use with a slow cooker!

 

[easysurfer]

All this slow cooker discussion got me hungry.

So, I ended up cashing in my Sears/Kmart rewards points before they expire towards a brand new crock pot.