Slow Cooker/Crock Pot: Recipes and Techniques

[Wolfert]

Anything you can braise on the stovetop or in the oven, you can do in a slow cooker. Sometimes better! Besides the aforementioned onion confit, I've used mine to make duck confit, chili, congee, braised lamb shanks, beef stew, pozole, etc. etc. The only time it has been less than great is the most recent: I was braising a duck, totally skinned, cut into pieces (including hacking the bones into pieces with meat on them), and overcooked it by several hours. Tastes fabulous, but almost completely dissolved the shreds of meat on the bones. 

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Don't blush, Suzanne. I think you just discovered a great way to make duck rillettes.

How many hours did you go over?

[Suzanne F]

No, really, it was a mistake, however delicious! Cooked about 6 hours -- but this was just naked duck (browned first in clarified butter), chunks of carrot and rutabaga (ditto), peeled whole small onions and large garlic cloves (ditto). With wine, chicken stock, dried thyme, and S&P. And when I say naked, I REALLY mean it: I slipped off the entire skin before cutting up the duck, so just about the only fat was the butter. Did this for several reasons: 1) I didn't want to have to defat later; 2) I don't like to eat duck skin unless it's crisp crisp crisp, and this way it couldn't be; and 3) I need to rebuild my collection of renderable fat for future confit.

But since you mention it, with less liquid and sans vegetables (only keeping the garlic, of course), it could very well be a way of making a "low-fat" version of duck rilletes. If that isn't too much of an oxymoron.

[Gifted Gourmet]

the article from Slate Online

I set out to sample eight different slow cookers, both low- and high-end: four very different Rival Crock-Pots, and the others from West Bend, Farberware, All-Clad, and Cuisinart. I spent approximately 119 hours slow cooking, made more than 15 different dishes from braised lamb shank to rice pudding to pot roast to chicken soup

and the results? Read her findings to see which features make for the "best of the best"!

and note that spending more money on a slow cooker is no guarantee of top notch quality ...

[Toliver]

It's unfortunate that she tested only crock pots.

All crock pots = slow cookers but not all slow cookers = crock pots.

As I've posted before, I use the West Bend Oblong 5-Quart Slow Cooker and it works quite well. The "crock" (separate from the base) can be used on the rangetop, too, which makes it versatile.

Her winning crockpot got some pretty mixed reviews on Amazon.com.

[Sartain]

I guess she hated the Westbend. If I remember correctly Cook's Illustrated actually liked that one. I was going to try it but man that sounded like a mess.

Is there someone out there who've had better experience with the Westbend?

[peter_nyc]

I just purchased the Westbend Versatility 6-qt. So far, it's been great. The only drawback is the silly design of the lid, which can fall into the pot a little too easily. But on the whole it's a solid product.

[andiesenji]

I have several Rival Crockpots and other "slow cookers" including the Cuisinart.

I use them for cooking syrups, candying fruit, making preserves and other things that usually require standing over a stove to monitor them fairly constantly.

with these appliances I can just look in now and again.

The smallest is a 2 quart and the largest is an 8 quart made by Magic Mill.

I have a West Bend but not the one she mentioned. I also have Hamilton Beach, Proctor-Silex, Farberware and Toastmaster. I had a Russell Hobbs but gave it to a friend and neighbor who had broken the insert in her big crockpot and needed one instantly, early on a holiday morning, - the one I had was a gift and I had never used it.

Some of them do "dribble" a bit but I always place them on trays so they don't mess up the counters if they should happen to boil over.

I only plug them into outlets that have integral circuit breakers - fire safety is first with me!

They do the job I want them to do and are relatively easy to clean, except for one old round one, soon to be retired, that does not have a removable insert.

Oh yes, I also have something called a "Chef's Pot" made by Dazey, that doubles as a deep fryer and which has a ceramic insert that "sings" - I think it has a crack in it that doesn't show but it makes a funny innnnnnnnnnggggg noise when it is cooking. We don't use it much, except for keeping stuff such as chili warm out by the barbecue, becaue if it breaks I won't care.

It heats up very rapidly and the heating coils are only in the bottom, not on the sides.

I use one crockpot for melting chocolate when I am going to need a lot, since my old chocolate temperer is no longer reliable - - and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one. ( I ordered one but when it came I didn't like the looks of it and sent it back.)

I simply took the crockpot to my appliance repair man and had him set the rheostat to a lower setting so it will only get so warm and no warmer. I think he charged me $20.00 for this bit of technical work....

I also have three of the giant, original "slow" cookers known as electric roasters which serve the same purpose and which is where the idea of the slow cookers actually began, before West Bend produced the hot plate with a bean pot atop it in 1959 (I have one of these in my collection of "vintage" appliances) known as The Beanery and occasionally seen at yard sales and on ebay.

The electric roasters have come back into fashion and are again seen in many stores after a lapse of many years.

The newer ones do not come with the inner cooking containers that were an integral part of the olds ones, along with a rack to hold them. In the Westinghouse they actually offered a set of 5, one large one and 4 smaller ones. The 4 smaller ones could be stacked 2 and 2 so that an entire meal could be cooked at one time, theorectically.

Rather than just high and low settings, the electric roasters have variable temp thermostats that can be set to any temperature and they are very good at keeping the temperature even.

I cook large batches of candied ginger in these big cookers. It makes it very easy.

[designchick88]

I have the Rival Crock-Pot 4-Quart Round Slow Cooker, which was rated #2 on her list. (I have another larger one, almost identical to this, that can hold a whole chicken, but I rarely use it - with just 2 people, the 4-quart is fine most of the time. The large one was a wedding gift and I've never had the heart to get rid of it.) The pot works fine. Never had a problem with it. Frankly I had never really thought about it - I guess that means it was working well. The funny thing was that I had actually considered upgrading to a crock-pot with a timer but seeing those reviews, I think I'll just stick to the one I have. I can't see spending $100 on a slow cooker, we don't use it that often, and I already have 2.

[Cusina]

I bought my rival oval slow cooker at Wal Mart for I think, a whopping $5. The lid does jiggle a bit if you don't get the seal right, but it's fine. For the cost, I'd say it is downright amazing.

[Blondelle]

I was an avid follower of the braising class and thread, and I've just realized that with all the cooking vessels that were compared, no one tested the recipes in a slow cooker. I've never used one before, and was never interested as all those cutesy designs, and flowers turned me off. I've always thought of slow cooking as white trash cooking...lol! Now All-Clad has come out with one, which I guess makes slow cooking respectable to me ;-). I've just won one of Ebay. Has anyone tried the same recipe in Le Creuset and a slow cooker? I just can't stay home in the afternoon for all the hours it takes to braise in the Le Creuest. And when I get home at night I'm too tired or hungry to start a multi hour braise, so the slow cooker looked like a good solution. I was just wondering how it compared in terms of quality of the finished product to a braise made in LC.

[fifi]

You ask a good question. I have a larger slow cooker and a smaller one. I also have all of the LC one could want. I alternate between the two . . . LC in the oven and slow cooker. I also have some clay pots now that I am just beginning to experiment with. As far as final results, I think the slow cookers can compete. And I use them often. I typically use them if I am going off for the day and don't want to be bothered. A LC in the oven will give you the desired results a little faster. (That is relative BTW as nothing good happens real fast.) Anyway, if you are into braising, either will serve.

One dissenting note. I am beginning to think that clay pot cooking raises things to a whole new level but that may be slicing hairs. All methods make for good results.

[TJHarris]

I kind of hate to admit it but, I have become a bit of a slow cooker fan for some dishes. I think that the biggest advantage comes in not having to fire up the oven and heat up the house.

[helenjp]

Using the oven is an expensive business in Japan, and I believe that's been so for most of humanity for most of history (so Tokyo Electric Power Company is just keeping us true to our roots with their punitive charges!). Nuthin wrong with stove-top/slow-cooking methods, unless you think that the characteristics of oven-baked food are the *only* ones admissible. Slow-cooked or stewed foods, in all their glories, have different textures...if you can't make a tasty meal using these techniques, get out your slates and start studying, don't blame the problem on the tools! (Boy am I in a bad mood today!)

When in New Zealand, I use an oval slow-cooker with a heavy ceramic insert. In Although it cooks whole chickens without water in a very tasty way, it's pointless to think of it as a variation on roast chicken. Chicken pieces with frozen veges, a pack of soup, and water isn't going to take you far either - toss out those slow-cooker manufacturer publications, and look at middle eastern and north african cooking methods, for a start...

In Japan, I use my rice-cooker to cook rice-stuffed squid and a few other dishes - it cooks a bit hotter than a slow-cooker.

However, clay-pot cooking has a lot going for it too. It must be into it's nth fad in 2-3 decades by now, which ought to tell us something.

(exits, stomping moodily, to left...)

[godito]

I've done BBQ pulled pork (exact same recipe) for sandwiches as a braise and in the slow cooker. Funny story, we used the slow cooker because we had to go to class and we wanted just wanted to leave the cooker going for when we came back. Well, my friend's landlord was a sweet old lady (92 years old) and had never even heard of a slow cooker. She was affraid the house would catch on fire, so she didn't let him use it. We ended up doing the pulled pork at my place.

Anyway, we had more control over the braise because we were there to adjust it as we saw fit. Plus it feels better, I guess. More hands on, plus you have the pan and you get to brown the meat and the veggies. I don't know, I just liked the end result better.

However, the slow cooker wins hands down in convenience. It's slower, but that can mean smoother cooking, and you can just forget about it for several hours. I think, if you're looking for the pleasure of cooking, braising is the way to go. I mean, even the flavor of the sloow cooker pulled pork was about the same because of the bbq sauce we used. But the craft gives pleasure... and that's what I like about cooking

[rooftop1000]

I use mine for ... Pork butt in the winter 1 bottle durkees hot sauce and a hand full of brown sugar.....sauerbratten.....and chili sometimes.... BUT the coolest is to take a whole deli pastrami and some pickle juice(commercial) and let that go all day....oh man is that moist and tender

tracey

its great for serving at paries too

Edited May 28, 2005 by rooftop1000 (log)

[Wolfert]

I sometimes use a slow cooker for duck confit and stock.

Many carefully seasoned stews cooked in the crockpotr never seem to deliver the deep flavors of oven or stove top braises. It all ends up tasteless and monotonous, no matter the flavoring.

[helenjp]

carefully seasoned stews

...I agree, and was too grumpy to finish my sentence in my first post - braising yes, stews no. I suspect slow cookers just don't deliver enough heat. Perhaps the "bed of sauteed vegetables" approach works because the meat juices permeate the vegetables directly and undiluted, or perhaps it's just easier for the slow cooker to reach a decent heat for a longer period?

What about the opposite approach, freshening up a slow-cooked dish with a quickly fried mix of flavorful vegetables/herbs, or fresh herbs/lemon juice/ tomatoes/spices etc just before serving? Slow cookers are just too convenient to give up on!

Slow cookers make wonderful "simmered" fish dishes - creamy texture without the fish breaking up.

Could be just a case of rose-tinted spectacles, but I actually look forward to getting back to NZ and hauling out the slow cooker! I think of them more as slow-steamers than slow-stew machines.

[andiesenji]

I have several crockpot or slow cookers from the very cheap to the fairly expensive and use them often.

There are several excellent cookbooks on the subject but there is also a vast resource of recipes on the internet. Crockpot recipes! and more crockpot recipes

I actually do some advance work on some things, just to develop the flavor tha Paula notes is often lacking. Also with very fatty meats, doing some rapid pre-cooking and fat removal makes for a better end result.

In my freezer I have several "pre-cooked" small roasts - seasoned, wrapped in foil and cooked in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes to develop flavor and carmelization.

These are cooled rapidly, sealed in a ziploc bag or a vacuum bag and frozen -identified by meat type, seasoning and date.

When I am going to use them in the crockpot I take them out of the freezer the night before and leave them in the refrigerator. In the morning the foil-wrapped package goes onto a sheet pan and into the oven for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size.

In the meantime I have already added the prepped vegetables (usually done the prior evening) and other ingredients to the crockpot and turned it on high.

I then remove the foil and add the meat, either whole or in pieces to the crockpot, cover, making sure there is some room between the top of the food and the lid and that the lid fits fairly tightly.

If I have some time, I leave it on high until I am ready to leave for work, then reduce to low (I leave my keys next to the cooker so I will remember) and go off to work.

Chicken or turkey can be browned in a skilled the evening prior and held in the fridge overnight to give additional flavor to the dish.

It is also ideal for preparing braciola which can be prepared and browned the evening before then placed into the crockpot to cook all day. This recipe works beautifully. in the crockpot.

[jayt90]

The large oval Rival that I got recently seems to heat with a collar of coils around the side. If my stew or braise is small, barely reaching the middle of the side, it seems to overheat, and reach simmering point too soon, even on the lowest setting. If the liquid comes all the way up, it works as expected.

I haven't had it (Rival) very long, but I think I have much better control with LC or earthenware, but of course I can't leave the house for a long period...

[mixmaster b]

Here are the things I've noticed make a braise from the crock pot work:

- Use a typical (cheap) braising cut so you get lots of body in the sauce. You can ruin a lean roast in the crock pot. Good bets are pork shoulder roasts, beef short ribs, etc.

- Brown the heck out of the meat before you put in in the pot. I usually brown the meat in cast iron and deglaze the pan with some wine and/or brandy and add that to the crock pot. Water or stock is fine as well, though the best results I've gad from the crock pot have been with red wine.

- Use whole herbs and spices wrapped up in cheesecloth and tied. I notice that chopped or ground herbs loose their flavor after a while.

- Don't use too much liquid--fill the pot up so that about 1/3 or 1/2 of the roast is exposed.

- You can add veggies like new potatoes, small carrots, pearl onions, or shallots. Add them to the bottom of the pot before you add the meat.

- When the cooking is finished remove the meat, strain the sauce, and reduce it a bit on the top of the stove. Add a nice chunk of butter at the end. Fish all the meat and vegies out of the pot and arrange on a platter or plates, then spoon the sauce over all.

I normally do all the prep work the night before and put the ceramic pot in the fridge overnight. The next morning it goes on low for the day. If I have time I will let it cool, and refigerate the whole thing overnight again. That way the fat comes to the top and is easily removed, plus the extra day allows all the flavors to combine even more.

As for recipes, there is a great shortribs in red wine recipe on epicurious that is easy to convert. There were a bunch of Bittman reciped on the NYT site, and those looked great, but that was a while back. Also pork shoulder in Herndez green chili sauce, as instucted by Jaymes inthis threadis so good and ridiculously easy.

I also use it for beans (just cook in unsalted water until they are almsot done, then strain and finish on the stove or use in salads, soups, etc.) and for large batches of carmelized onions.

Happy crocking.

[Blondelle]

Anyone get a chance to play with All-Clad's Slow Cooker yet? How do you like it compared to the less expensive ones on the market? What did you cook in it? Any comments on it?

[SethG]

You mean this, right?

I don't own this product, but my reaction is "why?" Why would you pay twice the price of a Rival (or more) for an All-Clad slow cooker that appears to work exactly the same way as all the other slow cookers?

The slow cooker is a simple device. I'd buy a Rival-- the brand is time-tested and reliable. I own one and I'm happy with it.

[Chris Amirault]

I don't own this product, but my reaction is "why?"  Why would you pay twice the price of a Rival (or more) for an All-Clad slow cooker that appears to work exactly the same way as all the other slow cookers?

The slow cooker is a simple device.  I'd buy a Rival-- the brand is time-tested and reliable.  I own one and I'm happy with it.

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I agree with Seth -- and I'll add that a trip to yard sales, Savers, or the Salvation Army would be likely to turn up a sturdy old model for $5....

[MicBacchus]

I've looked at this one too. The salesperson said it's programmable for up to twenty-something hours; the others are just for 8-10. I leave at 6 AM, and we don't eat until around 7 PM. That looked like it would be ideal for me but the pricetag --- aarrrgh!!

[fiftydollars]

I sometimes  use a slow cooker for duck confit and stock.

Many carefully seasoned  stews cooked in the crockpotr never seem to deliver the deep flavors of oven or stove top braises. It all ends up tasteless and monotonous, no matter the flavoring.

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I cannot quite understand how my crockpot can magically make different foods taste a whole lot the same. But I have managed to make chicken taste like beef with ease and convenience.

A while back I bought a fancy-pants slow cooker and I disastrously tried a coq au vin that tasted remarkably similar to the horrendous boeuf bourguignon that followed it.

Now, let's not necessarily get into exactly why it wasn't a good idea to try either of these recipes in this device. And I agree that these dishes have enough similarity to make this a very bad example of the magical qualities I allege. But I have made both of these recipes before and they are certainly not the same. There is just something about the slow cooker that gave both dishes a unique quality that I later started detecting in almost everything that went in there.

I couldn't finish either stew, but I have difficulty throwing away food, so I sealed them up and froze them for posterity. (I find it's a good way for me to express my penchant for procrastination with food and non-renewable resources... why throw away today what I can keep and throw away tomorrow? ...or next year when I finally concede that what was bland and ill-colored when it was freshly-prepared will not improve with an investment of time and electricity) Now, as far as recipes go, freezing bland, mediocre food is generally a fail-safe way of pushing it to the very limits of edibility, and this was no exception. The stews became painfully worse and I believe they have haunted my slow cooker. Somehow every thing I have cooked in them since has, at the very least, had flavors reminiscent of the red wine stews.