Slow Cooker/Crock Pot: Recipes and Techniques

[helenjp]

I like to use it for whole chickens cooked with no added liquid at all. I only use a crockpot when I'm in NZ, you'll have to reinvent the dish, as I'm hazy on the details, but the texture of chicken cooked this way means that it's great cold in the next day's lunchbox.

However, since it's simply steaming in its own moisture, it needs judicious seasoning in the first place.

[CaliPoutine]

Someone, I'm not sure who donated this book to the eG heartland gathering last year. I picked it up and its great. I've made the pulled pork and some of the soups( although I'm sure its getting warmer now in NO). It has pretty good reviews on Amazon.

eta:

The main thing you have to watch with a crock pot is to resist the urge to take the lid off unless/until absolutely necessary.

See, I've found this to not be true. The author of the book above, even says it doesnt really hurt to lift the lid and give things a stir. I do that frequently, and I dont notice any loss of taste or texture.

Edited March 9, 2008 by CaliPoutine (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

the only thing I really ever have made in a crock pot are beans ..and I love them in there! all types of beans ...ham hocks and beans ..beans and greens ...greens and ham hocks (no beans are wonderful too) then add cornmeal dumplings at the end of the cooking...and just plain old pinto beans with very little seasoning ..come out so good in a crock pot ...low and slow ...

roasting raw nuts in the crock pot is not a "while you are at work thing" because you do have to stir them ...but talk about tasty! you can add seasonings and make the best spiced nuts ever ..and your house will smell wonderful!

Edited March 9, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Kerry Beal]

..

roasting raw nuts in the crock pot is not a "while you are at work thing" because you do have to stir them ...but talk about tasty!  you can add seasonings and make the best spiced nuts ever ..and your house will smell wonderful!

←

Tell us more, never roasted nuts in the crockpot before.

[Shelby]

I use venison roasts for this, but I know that beef roasts would work just as well. I like to use a package of Lipton dry onion soup mix, a bit of dark beer, a ton of sliced onion rings and some beef broth or beef bullion cubes. Throw all of that in the crock on low--I'm usually gone for around 10 hours. By the time I get home it's fall apart tender. I put it on crusty buns, topped with some onions and cheese and use the juice for an awesome French dip sandwich.

I also like to put a pork roast in with some good BBQ sauce and have BBQ pork sandwiches.

edited to add the beef bullion

Edited March 9, 2008 by Shelby (log)

[C. sapidus]

Rick Bayless has a few crock pot recipes in Mexican Everyday. Here is one that we have made: slow-cooked achiote pork (cochinita pibil). Mexican pulled pork, cooked inside banana leaves and topped with lime-marinated red onions. You can also make it with chicken.

[mizducky]

The main thing you have to watch with a crock pot is to resist the urge to take the lid off unless/until absolutely necessary.

See, I've found this to not be true. The author of the book above, even says it doesnt really hurt to lift the lid and give things a stir. I do that frequently, and I dont notice any loss of taste or texture.

←

Oh I guess I should clarify--no, lifting the lid doesn't harm the taste or texture of the finished dish at all; it just slows the cooking down even more because it takes a good while for the cooker to return to temp after losing heat when the lid was lifted, which can really throw a monkey wrench into one's planned dinner time. Or at least, that's what's happened to me with mine. So I guess my point should be amended accordingly ...

[emilyr]

I've only ever used my slow cooker for savory dishes, but saw a recipe in Family Circle for this applesauce cake cooked in one , and it got me thinking about desserts. I hope I didn't miss this earlier in the thread.

A girl from work is leaving tomorrow (we're having a carry-in) and my cousin brought me a huge grocery bag full of pears from her tree. I thought I'd make a pear crisp or maybe this cake (with pearsauce v. applesauce). Would a crisp work? I'm not sure on how brown the top would get, but the recipe I make doesn't get super crisp anyway.

I'm really just wanting something that will keep the dessert relatively warm till lunch. The cake recipe only takes a few hours, so in theory I could mix the ingredients together and then plug in the cooker at lunch.

[Emily_R]

I don't know about a cake, but from my experience with crockpots, they tend to really keep in the moisture, resulting in lots of condensation and dripping from the lid. I can't imagine that would be very conducive to producing a crisp crisp! I think crisps are delicious at room temp, and would just skip the crockpot all together...

[mig]

a friend with an excellent and worldly palate mentioned a few months ago that she'd just had "one of the best things she'd ever eaten in her life" at a dinner party - and it was (she lowered her voice to a whisper here) "a crock pot recipe!!!!"

not only that, it was a CHILI recipe.

deeply curious, i finally made it. it is a triple-pork home run: ground pork, boneless pork shoulder and a smoked ham hock.

it is extremely good - i am not sure it's one of the best things i've ever eaten, but it's a gold-star recipe that i immediately saved to my archive, served at multiple dinner parties, and cooked for my brother as his Christmas present.

may i present Smoky Slow Cooker Chili, as published by (sotto voce) Cooking Light magazine.

Smoky Slow Cooker Chili

[kayb]

I used to cook a lot of pot roasts and pork roasts in my slow cooker, but I've come to believe that they just taste better in the oven. What I DO use my slow cooker for is lots and lots of soups and stews. My red beans (for red beans and rice), white bean and sausage soup, black bean soup, Caribbean Sunday beans, anything that calls for a dried legume, generally get cooked in the crockpot, albeit that means a little advance planning. I put beans on to soak the night before, and saute all my aromatics and meat and put them in the fridge. Next morning, I put the beans in the crockpot, add the aromatics, add any liquids, tomatos, other seasonings, etc., and leave for work. When I get home, it's bread and a salad prep, and dinner's ready, not to mention lunch for the next day.

Oh, and I do posole in the crock pot, too, adding the canned hominy after I get home.

[legalsec]

I've only recently begun to use a crockpot and I adore it. But my recipe collection is miniscule and in definite need of expansion

So for all you who have lived to love your crockpot/slow cooker (and even if you don't) would you care to share what's been in your crockpot that has made you smile with delight.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I am not ashamed to admit that cream soups have been known to fall into my crockpot on occasion.

Thanks to all who respond.

[Darienne]

I would like some crockpot recipes.

I have three and they are used for candying everything I candy, and for large potluck kinds of meals and they keep everything warm. And for Chinese feasts where they hold the Hot and Sour soup.

Never cooked a single recipe in one yet.

[andiesenji]

I've cooked a lot of crockpot recipes, mostly when I was working, had a very long commute (70 miles each way) and was not partial to having to fix a meal when I arrived home, fatigued from the drive.

I still use them but not as much as I used to but they are terrific during the summer when I don't want to use the oven so much and heat up the kitchen.

I use several cookbooks - the "Not Your Mother's" cookbooks.

I also refer to a couple of web sites, most notably, http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

and http://www.my-crockpot-recipes.com/Crockpot-Cheese-Recipes.htm

Although there are a lot of crockpot recipes on the second site, I have been working my through the cheese recipes. I'm trying to use up the large amount of cheeses I received as holiday presents.

[Special K]

I experimented with slow-cooking a frozen roast last week. Other than the fact that I was too chicken to use the low setting and left it on high for too long so that it was a bit overdone to my taste, it worked a treat. I'm going to do it again this weekend - on low. So convenient, to just be able to take it out of the freezer, sear the outside and plunk it in there with some seasonings!

[mgaretz]

There are a few on my blog - markiscooking.com

My favorite is the Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht, but there's a couple of Chili Colorado recipes, a lamb with mushroom dish, and a beef sukiyaki dish.

I also use it to make beef stew and corned beef with cabbage. For the latter, I rinse all the goo off the corned beef, trim the fat off and then soak it it cool water in the fridge overnight (in the slow cooker pot). This gets rid of a lot of the saltiness. In the morning I pour off the water and add fresh water to just cover the beef. I also add carrots and the spice packet that comes with the beef (put the spice in around the edges of the beef before adding the water). Cook on low to medium for 8-10 hours. 1 hour before serving, add the cabbage to the pot.

Let me know if you want the stew recipe.

[kayb]

Legalsec, here's my red beans and rice, a family favorite:

Soak a pound of small red beans overnight; drain, rinse, and put them in the crockpot, adding enough water just to come to the top of the beans. Saute a pound of andouille sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick, along with a medium diced onion, 4 cloves of minced garlic, a cup of diced ham (or the meat pulled from a couple of boiled hamhocks)until the onion is soft and the meat browned a little, and add that to the pot. Add a 15-oz can of diced tomatos, a 10-oz can of diced tomatos and green chiles, a couple of tablespoons of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of Lawry's seasoned salt, cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste, and a couple of bay leaves. Stir it up a bit to combine the ingredients, and cook it on low all day. When you get home, kick it up to high and add two teaspoons of gumbo file powder, a half-pound of raw popcorn shrimp (if you want), and let it cook while you cook the rice, bake some cornbread, and sit down and relax with a cold beer. By the time the cornbread and rice are done, it's ready.

Another favorite is white bean and sausage soup -- a pound of navy beans, soaked overnight; smoked sausage, cut in slices and browned; onions, garlic and carrots, diced and sauteed until the onion is soft; a 15-oz. can of diced tomatos; a teaspoon of dried basil, a teaspoon of dried oregano. Cook on low all day. It may want a little more salt when you get home, depending on how salty the smoked sausage is.

[MSRadell]

For those looking for recipes, here's a website as a good place to start: Slow and simple. It is quite a few interesting ideas and will definitely be a starting place to create your own!

Edited February 6, 2010 by MSRadell (log)

[Katie Meadow]

These were very popular in the 1970s. I've actually inherited three of them in my day, and though I've made a good faith effort to use them I've always wound up throwing them away. Basically, they are electric braising devices. They braise and braise and braise all day long. This has the effect of giving you extremely tender slow-cooked stuff. But most of it to me tastes overcooked (it is possible to overcook even when braising). You can of course test periodically for doneness, and you can add different ingredients at different times, but then you lose the benefit of set-and-forget cooking.

This is pretty much my perception of crockpot cookery. Or crackpot crockery, which is even harder to say. However, in cleaning out my kitchen this weekend I discovered that I owned one. It is so endearingly 70's I'm going to see if there is any reason to hang on to it. I don't even remember when or why we acquired it, but it has that nostalgic beige/orange/brown color scheme, and the simplest of controls: off, high and low. The only indication of maker is "Rival."

Forgive me if I am repeating much or any of this thread; I don't have the heart to read 12 pages. I stopped reading after the above on the first page.

What should I do with this sucker? Most all of the stews or braises or beans I eat are happily made in one or another cast iron enamel job. Most entail rendering or searing or browning of meat, onion, garlic, whatever, and so I can just use one pot for everything and lose no flavor. I'm not looking for a major change in lifestyle; I love my pots and I love my Viking stove. I'm just trying to figure out if there is a good reason to experiment with the crock-pot or if I should just give it away to my daughter or my nephew, if either of them wants it.

One thing I do remember from my years in New Mexico in the 60's and 70's is that most everyone who made posole (including people who grew up there) used a crockpot. The red chile sauce was made separately and added at some point, and the pork was also added at some point, although I don't know if it was seared first. It made sense, since posole can take hours to become popped and tender. The way I make posole now, I could see using the crockpot for the first few hours of cooking if it saved substantially on energy. Now I just cook it in two stages on the stove.

What about duck confit? I've never made it, but I'm curious. Since the crisping of the skin takes place in the half hour before serving and the initial slow-cooking is basically just a poaching in fat, would this crockpot be useful? How slowly should the duck be cooked in the fat? Should you see bubbles? If anyone out there uses a crockpot for duck confit I would be interested to hear your technique. Thanks!

Edited November 8, 2010 by Katie Meadow (log)

[andiesenji]

Katie, do try looking at A Year of SlowCooking

here

Scroll down nearly to the bottom of the page and check out the Best Brussels Sprouts ever.

I made the recipe and they are wonderful. I do like the little cabbages, but these are better than any I have prepared in the past and I have been handling them for many years.

Edited November 8, 2010 by heidih
Fix link (log)

[Corinna]

Tacos de Lengua

1 1-lb (or so) beef tongue

5 small cloves garlic (or 3 large ones), smashed & chopped

1 onion, quartered

salt & pepper to taste

I have a beef tongue in my freezer that I'd love to try this out with, but I'm sure it's bigger than 1 lb. Should I just cook it longer?

[BadRabbit]

Pretty much any braised dish or stew could be adjusted for the slow cooker. Osso Bucco, short ribs, Beef Daube Provencal or Coq au Vin would all be easy to adapt to longer cooking times. I would just use a classic recipe and cook them in a crock pot on low for 6-8 hours instead of cooking traditionally. If you have a programmable, I'd set it to kick over to warm after 6.

The only trick would be to hold off on potatoes and carrots until the last hour of cooking.

ETA: You also need to do any initial browning of ingredients traditionally before you put things in the crock. Dumping raw lardons into a crockpot while trying to make Coq au Vin would not yield the same results as cooking traditionally.

Edited April 11, 2011 by BadRabbit (log)

[Paul Bacino]

I picked up some wonderful Ox Tail this weekend, that I plan to make in a Osso Bucco style

[Beebs]

I like this website a lot: A Year of Slow Cooking

[OliverB]

check your bookstore or library or poke around on Amazon. There are quite some slow cooker books out there that have very nice recipes, not a one using any canned campbell or other such things in them. I recently made a corned beef in mine, worked like a charm. Also make beans in it.

check out a couple books called Not your mother's slow cooker or something like that, they're full of nice recipes.

I don't use mine often enough actually, every time I do I'm quite happy that I prepped dinner somewhere after lunch and could go run errands, drive the kids around to activities, and come home to a pretty much ready dinner.