I have a crock pot and have successfully used it to make chilli, pot roast, and various other things. I am quite fond of it. As far as leaving it unattended I don't think it's any more dangerous than leaving other electrical appliances unattended. Usually I do my crock pot cooking when I'm going to be around to periodically stir the stuff I'm making, but it's not fear of things catching fire so much as fear of an inhomogenous chili.
I have not wanted one, but I think it might be great for slow-cooking meats. Vegetables do not fare well in that environment except to add flavor to a meat or broth, and vegetable broth alone doesn't take hours to make.
Would it do dry beans well? That's the only thing that cooks best really slowly that I eat.
We have one (a gift) but we've only used it a few times. It works, but we don't often make that kind of food, or if we do it'd be better with a pressure cooker (to speed it up) than a crockpot. If any knifecrimeian wants one, they can have ours.
The main drawback of crockpots I have used is that they don't do potatoes. I'm not sure why, but although every other vegetable and legume known to culinary science will eventually surrender, give up the ghost, or otherwise become one with the largely overcooked mess in your pot, your actual spud remains at the end of the day as crunchy as it was at the beginning.
This is a problem if you don't have any other way of cooking starch, because they're rubbish for rice and grains as well, so you really can't do an entire meal in them unless you really like raw potatoes or overcooked grains.
AWB is right that they're fine for meat stews. Mrs y originally seduced me with a chicken stew in a crockpot in her bedsit. But she did need to buy some flatbread to go with.
Crackpots? Crackpots!? Doesn't everybody hate crackpots? Especially on the web. Why even bother asking?
What was that?
Oh. That's different. Nevermind.
One of the problems with doing meat in a crock pot is that if you want it to taste as good as it can, you still have to brown the meat on the stove first. That said, the amount of flavor you lose by not pre-browning is balanced out by the convenience of just throwing everything in and then leaving it unattended. Pot roast, beef stews, beans, occasionally a stew with chicken or pork. Works best for beef dishes, though.
2: The Rancho Gordo bean supremacists do not like crock pots for beans, although I don't remember why. (I have a cool Egyptian clay pot from Bram Cookware for beans, but to be honest it's not wildly better than any old pot.)
I have one and I like it; I would caution that it's easy to talk yourself into one that's too big, and there are times when I don't use it because it just doesn't make sense for a recipe sized for our household. If you have a smaller one, or even a couple of smaller ones, that probably works better.
This is a problem if you don't have any other way of cooking starch
What, like a saucepan?
7: I haven't read the Rancho Gordo people's take on it, but I have found it easy to overcook their beans in a crock pot. If you're going for intact, perfectly cooked beans, a crockpot can be hard, especially if your beans are super fresh. If you're going to have them mushed up anyway, like in some soups or in refried beans, the crockpot is awesome.
Last night I made some Lila beans with cilantro stems and carrots in the broth, which I then used to make quinoa. Fucking delicious.
What, like a saucepan?
I picture the archetype of crockpot cookery as being in a cheap bedsit where even a saucepan may be problematic.
I find mine reasonably useful for beef stews, but since I do super-simple cooking anyway I don't find that it saves much time, just shifts prep and cooking time to the morning.
Oh, it makes for really really good chili. But none of the things you can make in it seem very appealing at this time of year.
12: In that environment, I would fear that everything I own would smell like Swiss steak for all time.
just shifts prep and cooking time to the morning.
This is really what I need. For various reasons it's best if we can get dinner on the table within 10 minutes of walking in the door.
If you're going to have them mushed up anyway, like in some soups or in refried beans, the crockpot is awesome.
I loved mine for making chickpeas for hummus, for this exact reason.
Heebie, I think if you're working all day and have young kids (nb: a situation I have never been in), a crock pot is a very useful, sensible thing to have. I used mine fairly frequently for a variety of things (om nom pulled pork! was a favorite).
just shifts prep and cooking time to the morning.
Or, to a time most convenient for you. I sometimes used mine to cook things overnight, esp. if it was a dish that tastes better after a rest (like many stews).
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And here's a silly game for everybody to play if they haven't already. My own uninspired list is here.
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Could you make stock in a super big crockpot, I wonder.
20: I think the initial boil phase is an issue with making stock in a crockpot. But I am sure someone has done it.
I've made turkey-carcass stock in a crockpot -- throw in the broken-up carcass and some random vegetables, and leave it for eight hours. Probably not the best stock it could have been, but not terrible.
I'm a big fan of crockpot cooking-- so far, I don't worry about leaving it on unsupervised all day. I typically do roasts and other large chunks of low quality, should cook for a long time meats.
I haven't encountered the "potatoes don't cook" issue that chris y experienced; for me they cook well and are fork tender at the end of the 8-10 hour cook time. (I do quarter them before tossing them in.)
I use it about monthly; it makes a lot of food at once and we're only feeding 2 people, so it creates a meal plus a few meals of leftovers. And it encourages eating a lot of meat & potatoes, while I prefer including more fresh veggies (which would lose all their character over the cook time), particularly in summer.
Speaking of summer: the crockpot is absolutely wonderful for making a dinner that you don't have to stand over and stir, and you don't have to heat the oven. But the foods that I tend to make with the crockpot are heavy, winter-like fare. I love the smell of something good as I walk in the door...
I make fried eggs in our crockpot.
24: The trick there is not to crack the eggs first. That way, they fry inside the shell.
Everyone knows to cook their eggs in styrofoam cups.
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I'm finally reading Independent People and was excited to get to a part where Asta Sollilja doesn't even notice that the inner sole of her shoe has come loose because I have a book on how to knit traditional Icelandic insoles (in garter intarsia) and actually knew exactly what was meant. I doubt this will add to anyone else's appreciation of the book, but the Amazon preview shows several insole examples.
I've added one of the pages from the knitting book to the flickr stream because the outrageous cat picture is the reason I bought the book, though it has nothing to do with anything else.
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2, 7: Whatever the Rancho Gordo bean supremacists might say, I've had very happy results cooking (Rancho Gordo!) dried beans in my crock pot. Throw them in in the morning on the way out the door, come home to creamy, beanie goodness. I think it was the Bolita that made me so, so happy cooked that way. I've also thrown broth in with raw veggies and dry beans and come home to happy soup. (Maybe if my alternative cooking method weren't "bring to a simmer on stove and forget for several hours until the water has boiled off and the smell off burning beans get your attention," I'd find the crockpot lacking?)
I do steelcut oatmeal overnight in mine sometimes, too -- oats and water in before bed, oatmeal waiting when I awake.
Now reading 10... My crockpot has 2 temperature settings, and I generally leave it on low due to irrational fear that leaving it on high will burn the whole house down. Whether that makes a difference or I'm just not a connoisseur enough to know better is unclear.
I do steelcut oatmeal overnight in mine sometimes, too -- oats and water in before bed, oatmeal waiting when I awake.
Intriguing.
31: You do have to use more water than you would for stove top prep or it gets crusty and gross.
33: I haven't tried out of (irrational?) fear that the milk would turn.
I have one and I like it. I don't except great food out of it, but I can get decent cheap food conveniently.
I'm not sure how you could get a fire under normal operation. At worst, you'd end up with dried up junk instead of edible food. Temperatures are much lower than an oven, and if you leave something in the oven too long you burnt food, not a fire.
Maybe a wiring defect could cause a fire, but that's true for pretty much anything.
Can one make ... crockpot congee? Crockpot rice pudding?
37: All the more reason Urple should test it out and report back.
I make my steel cut oats the night before too, sans crockpot. You saute the oats in a little butter, add in water, bring to a boil, turn off the heat, cover, and leave till the morning.
Oh, and a pinch of salt. Somewhere in that process.
Just what Di says. Dried beans in the crockpot (I tend to soak during the day and turn them on before bed) or steel cut oatmeal for the next morning. I do half-milk, half-water, lots of spices, raisins and walnuts. Smells good when you wake up.
You know what's great for oatmeal? (Or quinoa or millet or kasha or anything vaguely similar...) A rice cooker.
Could probably cook beans in one too, now that I think of it...
Hmm, I wonder if you could do stock in a large rice cooker. After all, mine does go through an initial boiling phase, which would answer the objection in 21.
OTOH you'd also want something that stops boiling while there's still water left.
Halford I'm sure goes for the flint cut oats.
Nothing whets your appetite like a morning spent knapping oats.
50: It's like $2.50 for a giant bowl of bubbling hot rice porridge that is weirdly full of flavor. The veg kind has big beans in it. Cantonese restaurants usually serve it.
Wow, I've seen that word many times and always thought it was the same thing as "conger".
I have had good congee in NYC and Seattle. Not sure how available it is in other cities. I met with a new colleague in my new tiny rural town, and we spent about 15 minutes just talking about all the Cantonese food we wish we could get our hands on. I could probably learn how to make it. IN FACT, I will try it tonight.
I do steel cut oats in my Tiger rice cooker. I put them on before I shower.
I have had good congee in NYC and Seattle. Not sure how available it is in other cities.
I would be shocked if there were a place with any Chinese population where you couldn't find it. (Although they may call it jook instead.) It's a pretty legitimately pan-Asian dish.
Halford I'm sure goes for the flint cut oats.
I'm pretty sure oats are not paleo no matter how you cut them.
57: What if you cut them with bison teeth? And then digested them in a bison's stomach? And then ate the bison?
58: Maybe that would count, although since bison are grazers I think their teeth probably grind more than cut.
IN FACT, I will try it tonight.
To eat it tomorrow? You need to cook that shit a while.
Maybe I won't, but only because I cooked yesterday and have lots of leftover roasted aloo gobi and lila beans with quinoa.
I love congee. Also pongol. I greatly enjoy smooshy grains and legumes.
Yeah. I don't think I've ever met a porridge I didn't like.
My uncle was once robbed by a porridge.
re: 19
Funnily enough, Chris, one of those (the Miles Davis) would be on the verge of making mine, too. Although I can think of about 10 ironed-on can't-choose-between-them songs/tunes for that slot -- which probably says something about my taste in melancholic music.
Rice pudding - yes, that works.
We have one and use it regularly if not particularly frequently. I chucked a really cheap bit of pork in it yesterday - rubbed some spices and a dash of Worcestershire sauce over it, and put it in on high for about 6 hours. Lovely falling-apart meat at the end of it, without having to have the oven on in the heat.
I like a meat-and-tomatoey curry in it too, but that does require a bit of cooking first. Bolognese type sauce is easy to chuck in in the morning. Soups are good.
We had oatmeal at an orchard once. But I kind of got stuck aiming for some high-hanging fruit and had to eat my porridge in a pear tree.
It's like $2.50 for a giant bowl of bubbling hot rice porridge that is weirdly full of flavor.
When I've had it it's been made with a rich chicken stock.
re: 19
If you're feeling more ambitious you can list your personal most significant albums.
I had a great congee for breakfast at our fancy honeymoon landing-pad hotel in Bangkok. It was about three-quarters MSG by volume. By the time we got to Suvarnabhumi Airport for our first trip into the hinterlands, I was tripping balls. I think I might have walked through gunfire if it had come to that.
We have someone who gives us venison, harvested because they are destroying his corn crop. The cuts we get tend to be largish roasts with bones in them -- our bigger crockpot is ideal. Chuck the meat in with some good beer, a few flavorful vege and seasonings, come home to a house smelling like heaven. Make up a starch and fresh vege side and you have dinner.
Loves it.
65: Did he give it a decoy wallet?
69: Stanley kidnapped your daughter?
All these damn foodies.
Crockpots are awesome for working parents (or even nonworking parents), which is what you are, Heebie. Get one. They are not a fire hazard; leave the damn thing on the counter rather than wrapped in a sheet or something and you'll be fine.
Re beans, I have seen recipes for uncooked beans but have never had luck with that myself. If you soak the night before you are fine, of course. I've taken to soaking a lot of beans, boiling them in a regular pot for an hour while I'm doing something else, and then freezing them in quart containers--one can throw that into a crock pot no problem. I've also done okay with potatoes, though it's true that they take WAY longer to cook than you would expect: the trick is to slice them fairly thin, put them *under* the meat, use liquid, and leave them all day.
The real problem with crockpots is that most of the recipes for them are appalling and use a lot of gross pre-packed ingredients. But that is changing. "The Gourmet Slow Cooker" is a really good recipe book for "real" food from a crockpot. It does often call for extra steps prior to the crock pot (browning, pureeing, etc), but you can skip those (I do) if you're willing to accept an uglier result that'll still taste pretty good. Plus it actually has recipes for weird things like cake and cookies in the crockpot (really!).
They aren't a fire hazard, but you might want to run it on a day you're home at first. My old one had a cheap lid, and so after a while any liquid boiled off and anything in it just ended up blackened. But I use its replacement all the time to make chili and other stews.
recipes for uncooked beans
Is this a typo, or a kind of bean dish I don't know about?
79: I think that she means crockpot recipes where you put the uncooked (and maybe unsoaked?) beans in the crockpot and then cook them as opposed to recipes where you have to put already cooked beans into your stew or whatever.
I've got some decent crockpot recipes saved on Pinterest. The key, I've found, is to pay close attention to whether the recipe specifies (or assumes) a 4 qt cooker or a 6 qt cooker.
I was looking at Wonderbags">http://nb-wonderbag.com/">Wonderbags the other day. Doesn't seem like that would be a fire risk.
Bollocks, what did I do? http://nb-wonderbag.com/