Some useful information on slow cookers.

In The Gourmet Slow Cooker, Volume II, Regional Comfort-Food Classics, reviewed in another thread, Lynn Alley share some learning from her readers of the first volume.

She used a number of inexpensive cookers in the first go around, and never cooked the same recipe in more than one cooker. Big mistake: some readers couldn't duplicate her successes.

She learned that "different slow cookers cook at different temperatures. One manufacturer's low temperature may not be the same as another's. In general, the low setting should fall between 180F and 200F, and a high setting generally cooks around a hundred degrees higher."

She suggests that you assess your cooking temps by using a kitchen thermometer in the middle of the food, two or three hours into the cooking process.

"So the one caveat I dish out with this book is 'get to know your own slow cooker' and carefully observe how it cooks. Cooking times may vary according to manufacturer, model, and even, I am told, the amount of power coming into your house at any given time or in any given area."

Less expensive models may have hot spots around the edges, while more expensive models make an effort to prevent this from happening. [Not a problem in many recipes, but feel free to stir your food from time to time.] When baking, turn the insert end for end to even halfway through the cooking period.

The size of the pot may make a difference -- a quart and a half size is perfect for single people, four to five quarts work for families, and seven quarts for entertaining. Round are good for soups, beans and grains, but in general the ovals work with the widest range of foods and provide good visibility through the tops.

Regards, Bob

Well, call me a Luddite, but my favorite slow cooker is still the heavy copper or cast iron pot set over a burner at very low heat.

-Paul W.

Luddite.

Thank you. I don't often get such compliments in this forum.

-Paul W.

'Well, call me a Luddite, but my favorite slow cooker is still the heavy copper or cast iron pot set over a burner at very low heat.'

Gee, Paul, your post gave me some wonderful memories, and a realization that in a very real sense my slow cooker is a return to the way my Grandmother Ross cooked food.

She lived in Belleville Wisconsin for all of her 93 years, and during 70 or more of them in the same house with a heavy wood burning, later coal burning, stove. She learned how to bank it at night as a young bride, so that it was available for cooking early in the morning and during the cold Wisconsin winters as the only source of heat (other than deep down blankets and self generated warmth).

Every night she would prepare dinner for the following day -- in rural Wisconsin, dinner was the main meal of the day, eaten at noon time. Always in a heavy Dutch oven, in a variety of dishes -- many of which I've eaten, but none of which were written down or saved, at least as far as I have been able to discover. The meals cooked beautifully in the Dutch oven, and cost nothing extra for fuel.

My slow cooker is serving almost exactly the same role. It uses about the same amount of electricity as a 75 watt light bulb, and tonight it is cooking a wonderful carrot and turnip soup while I sleep. Just like Grandmother's it will switch to a warming mode sometime around 5:00 am, and the soup will be ready for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

I'd love to do the same thing with our heavy Dutch oven or in our heavy copper pan, but controlling the cooking gas when we aren't in the immediate area doesn't make for sound sleep -- and would be more expensive to boot.

I feel very much in touch tonight with my grandmother and her way of preparing much of her food -- and I suppose I'm a sort of Luddite in my own way.

Thanks for some great memories and for putting me in touch with the past in a very real way.

Regards, Bob

We have what was an inexpensive six quart Hamilton Beach that is twenty five years old. It still cranks out dishes today exactly the same as it did in the beginning.

Different crock pots sure have different characteristics, even between models from the same manufacturer.

After all the crock pots were recalled (due to handle cracks) they sent us a new electric portion. Not only was the "warm" setting missing from the new unit but the "low" setting ran at least fifty degrees higher. We tried making beef stew and it came out boiled to the point of chewiness.

We wrote in to complain and for our trouble received: another too-hot electric portion. I'm still pissed about that. They made a defective product (the handles really are about to fall off, can you imagine what would happen if a six quarts of chili and the ceramic insert suddenly crashed to the floor?) and replaced it with a product inferior in both features and performance. Thank goodness I was able wire up the old one, remove it's defective handles (easy to do with a screwdriver), and now we just pick it up from the bottom with hot pads. MMMM, chili!

Walt

I'm with Carl. We have a couple of $10 el cheapo models we bought in the '70s and they're still going strong.

I'm skeptical about the ones with an insert whether the heating is uniform or not.

Thank you for this Bob...I have a cheapy (it was actually free when I bought a meat slicer) round, 4 quart, Procter & Silex. It works pretty well, but I don't think it is big enough, and I do think I would prefer an oval shaped cooker. Great info.

Thanks, Marie.

One point that seems more and more important to me -- these devices have a wide range of temperatures, model to model, and perhaps within models. Alley says that the Low setting is around 180F; I'm getting readings after three hours of cooking around 163F in my machine.

Of course, gas and electric stoves have wide temperature ranges as well -- in all cases, it pays to know your equipment if you want consistent results.

I'm more and more a fan of food thermometers for more accurate cooking. Recipes are very much a general guide, and less the road map I used to believe they were.