Do you like your slow cooker?

[TwoBees]

And do you use it often? I recently gave my large 6-qt one to a friend, and I'm considering buying a smaller, 3.5 or 4-qt one. I have never been very successful at slow cooker cooking, and DH has only liked a few meals (to be fair, I haven't made all that many). I just have this vision that using a slow cooker will make my life immensly easier, because I am out of the house for 12 hours a day. But the only slow cookers I have seen that are both small AND have a programmable timer are $50+ (Cuisinart). Should I take the plunge and give it another try? Or give up on slow cooking?

(FWIW, I gave away the large cooker because it was simply too large for 2 of us--DH only likes to eat leftovers once or twice, and I was tired of eating all the extras myself.)

[niccig]

I did only after I bought the Test Kitchen's slow cooker recipe book. Every meal prior to then tasted awful and I thought I had a big paperweight. Their recipe are for a 6qt cooker, and I will make enough for 2 meals and then freeze half the meal. I mostly made their curries, stews and soups. I would make 2 recipes a week to build a stash of meals in the freezer. Prep is a bit longer as they'll have you brown the aromatics in skillet or in microwave for flavour or they'll have an extra step at end. I used my food processor to chop all the vegetables.

Most recipes can't be cooked for 12 hours though, that's way too long, especially for chicken. I ended up making 1 meal on weekend and 1 meal during the week when home to do so. We would eat it that night, I would freeze the other half and pull it out sometime in the next 4 weeks or so. It was wonderful in middle of my school semester when really busy to know dinner just needed to be heated up. I've run out of meals this last 3 weeks, but haven't had time to head to Costco for bulk meat grocery trip to make more, so dinner is back to being a pain again.

[twowhat?]

I don't. We have a 6 qt one and it just takes up space and collects dust - I've never been pleased enough with anything I've made in it to want to make it again. And cooking anything for 10 hours was guaranteed to result in mealy meat.

I've had much better luck with much tastier stews in my Le Creuset dutch oven. I have a couple recipes that work really well by chopping the veggies in advance, then in the evening when I get home from work I start it up and let it simmer all evening, then I turn it off before bed - leave the lid on! - then in the morning it's all ready to take for lunch and put the rest in the fridge for dinner.

Or if you're more paranoid about food safety, put it in the fridge before bed but I never do so long as the lid stays put.

eta: niccig I need to check out that book! I know part of my problem is that most recipes are written for a 4 qt cooker!

[TwinFoxes]

I don't love my slow cooker, but I like it, and use it fairly often. Some recipes are better than others. I try to cook my food for as little time as possible, which is fine for me because I'm home all day. The recipes that call for 10 hours on slow are just overkill (and overcooked!) in my opinion. I have about 6 recipes that I regular cook that turn out well.

(let's see if we can get twoboos and twin mom to respond too...we can confuse everyone. )

[roseyloxs]

My parents have a multi-size slow cooker. It came with 3 bowls (2, 4, and 6 qts). I don't remember the brand but they are big fans of being able to choose a smaller size when its just the 2 of them. I don't think it has a timer but could you possibly just use a timer on the outlet (like you would with christmas lights).

I like my slow cooker a lot, its a European brand so I won't bother recommending it. I try to make one slow cooker meal a week to give myself a break and its been working out very nicely.

[acmom]

I don't love my slow cooker, but I like it, and use it fairly often. Some recipes are better than others. I try to cook my food for as little time as possible, which is fine for me because I'm home all day. The recipes that call for 10 hours on slow are just overkill (and overcooked!) in my opinion. I have about 6 recipes that I regular cook that turn out well.

(let's see if we can get twoboos and twin mom to respond too...we can confuse everyone. )

I agree it takes some trial and error with the right recipes, as well as the right amount of time for cooking before it becomes overcooked. I have found that some slow cooker recipes just aren't our taste (too heavy) and others look great but don't taste so great when I try them. I am finally getting the hang of which recipes we might like in the slow cooker and how much time they need.

The recipes we have had the most success with are pulled or shredded meats (like pulled BBQ pork, chicken santa fe, a shredded lemon chicken) and chili variations (chicken, turkey, beef). Beans (kidney, black etc.) , tomatoes, peppers and corn seem to hold up well, but a lot of the veggies just get really mushy, which we don't like. I tend to make the meat in the slow cooker and then serve with separate veggies or salad.

[TwoBees]

Hrm. Do you think I might be better off getting an inexpensive manual 4-qt cooker and just cooking on low for 12 hours, rather than a programmable one that automatically switches to warm? Or get an inexpensive one and try to make the meals on the days that I am home?

[Binkandabee]

If you are going to be gone for 12 hours, you absolutely need a programmable slow cooker. I have the 6 Quart Set and Forget programmable one by Hamilton Beach that I love and gets rave reviews on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach...7106490&sr=1-4

I don't see that they have a 4 quart option, but I did find this 4.5 quart one by the same company that also gets good reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach...7106524&sr=1-2

Before I bought my Hamilton Beach, I had a Rival Smart Pot and it cooked the food way too hot. Even on low the liquid would boil, so everything was always over cooked. That doesn't happen anymore with the Hamilton Beach.

For me, I use the slow cooker all the time. It's the only way I can assure that we have healthy, home cooked meals routinely. I could cook something "better" using the oven or stove top, sure, but I can't do that routinely during the week with our hectic schedules. So some days our options are a meal in the slow cooker or fast food. Between those two choices, we almost always choose the slow cooker.

[wendibird22]

We have one and we use it frequently in the fall and winter. But we only use it on weekends or vacation days. DH and I are too nervous to leave it plugged in all day when we are gone (like leaving the coffee pot running). Kind of defeats the purpose, I know.

We have a couple "fix it and forget it" recipe books and use them quite a bit. We mostly do stews, soups, chilis. We haven't had much luck with recipes that call for whole pieces of meat (like chicken breasts) because it tends to get dried out or burnt on the edges. We have a lot more success with "soupy" things that have chopped up meat.

[wellyes]

I never used my non-programmable one. If you are away for long periods it's DEFINITELY worth paying for one that is more than just a glorified heating unit!