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The slow cooker is an electric cooker that uses the slow cooking method and is becoming popular for working families. It features a removable pot insert, and prices and sizes vary. Some meals require pre-cooking, and some slow cookers have sectioned inserts to cook multiple things at once.
The slow cooker or crockpot is a large electric cooker that cooks food in the slow cooking method. A meal cooked in a slow cooker can take anywhere from one to 12 hours to complete. Many quick cook and slow cook features allow you to precisely measure when you want a meal to be ready. The slow cooker is fast becoming one of the modern day conveniences for working families, as dinner can be made in the morning before work or school, so it’s ready when the family gets home for the night.
The slow cooker usually features a pot insert that can be removed for easy cleaning and is dishwasher safe. Price and size vary, and you may want to look at the manufacturer’s directions to decide which size best fits your family’s meal needs. It’s always best to err a bit on the side of buying a larger slow cooker, as that can mean you can prepare larger or smaller meals as needed.
Prices for the slow cooker differ, but you can usually find a good one for under $50 US dollars (USD). Once you buy your slow cooker, you can be out and about with many different meals. Many of these require minimal prep time in the morning—just combine the ingredients and set the slow cooker for the appropriate cooking time. It’s a good idea to keep the manual for your slow cooker handy, as cooking times can vary slightly by model.
Not all meals can be prepared in the slow cooker without pre-cooking. Many stews that include meat require flouring and browning the meat before placing it in the slow cooker. If time is short before work, this can be a problem. You can save some time by chopping up the veg the night before using the slow cooker, but it’s not a good idea to brown the meat and put it back in the fridge.
Some meals that may require pre-cooking of meat include: beef stew, chicken cacciatore, Swiss steak, Salisbury steak, and sometimes even pot roasts. Most cuts of meat such as steaks or pork chops require pre-browning to retain flavor and present a desirable color. If you’re making pot roast, however, you can usually skip the browning process.
Some slow cookers have pans with sectioned inserts so you can cook more than one thing at once. While many manufacturers claim that any dissected food will not take on any other flavors, this is rarely the case. The slow cooker’s constant production of steam will add flavor to other foods. This may not be a bad thing if the foods taste similar or have complementary flavors.
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