Any tips/ recipes for a slow-cooker?

Beef ribs with BBQ sauce. For 6 to 10 hours. Comes out soft and flaky. You can eat all of the meat and sinew.

For people who have a busy life, a slow-cooker is ideal. It’s an easy way to make a healthy meal cheaply. Any leftovers can be stored in the freezer.

Slow-cookers are cheap, so my recommendation is to purchase a new one.

As for crock pot recipes, they are a dime a dozen on the internet. Just find any site and search for recipes that contain the ingredients that you prefer. Most are easy to tweak according to your tastes.

The beauty of slow cookers is you pretty much set in and forget it. 6–8 hours is all you need more even boot leather meats. I like to turn on the cooker to high with nothing in it and sear the meat. Add water, beef stock, beer wine or whatever liquids tickle your taste buds. Poultry will take half the cooking time. If you are making a stew add the carrots 60–70 before you are wanting to serve and the rest of softer veggies at around 45 mins.

Also if you are fat conscious trim off most but not all the fat as that will add flavor you are wanting. Then decide if you are cooking the meats whole or cubed. Cubed meats will need less cooking time 4–5 hours should do it for cubed. The 6–8 hours range will give you Pot Roast cut with a fork tender any longer and you will have beef oatmeal.

My secy gave me this recipe. 3 lbs of beef roast whole, I adjusted the rest of the recipe of ½ jar of whole large garlic dill pickles and ⅓ the juice, 3 cloves of garlic, not a lot but a few diced 1” wide slices of red and green pepper…grind in some whole black pepper and sea salt…turn that bad boy to low and DO NOT touch for 7 hours. Take off the lid add liquids if need be and shred the entire contents to bits and serve on a large roll of your choice! YUM!

I love using mine, especially in winter. It’s programmable, so I can set it to have my meal ready whenever I want it. My favorite recipes are beef stew, chicken, and corned beef/cabbage.

I recommend buying second hand, where you should be able to get one in good shape for anywhere from $3 – $8, depending on size. And the size can be important – if you want to cook ribs you’ll probably need a larger one. The traditional, round, pot can be kind of tiresome if you’re cooking meat with bones in it, as it may not fit well. Ideally, you don’t want the food squeezed up against the side. Buy cheap because you may decide you bought the wrong size for you.

I have several, and my favorite has a low side that can be set to either 8 or 10 hours and a high side that can cook 6 or 8 hours (more or less) then it automatically turns down to low until I shut it off. Perfect for start-in-the-morning meals.

As @Pied_Pfeffer says, recipes are all over the internet. Choose the dish you want or, better yet, buy what’s cheap at the grocery and find a recipe to make a meal.

Last tip. They make liners for them that are similar to brown-n-bags that eliminate clean-up completely.

Another suggestion is bigger is not always better. Buy a cooker size that fits who you cook for as the smaller cookers are great for making AND storing any leftovers in the fridge with less dishes to wash and the whole reason you one pot slow cook! Just let the leftovers cool to close to room temp before popping in the fridge as tossing hot leftovers in the fridge is not a good idea.

I love greens in the slow cooker. Half a pound of benton’s bacon, four large copped carrots, 1 can of black eyed peas, 3–4 chopped cloves of garlic and pre-boiled collards. (boil the collards down for about 20 min first) Set in the slow cooker for around 6 hours.

I don’t have this exact model, but if you like your slow cooker you might consider a small, hand held, vacuum sealer^{45349594235-sku}FSFRSH0051@ADL4P00-adType^PLA-devicec-adid^55532708770. I have one (discontinued) from Handi-vac and I love it. Make a big batch in the slow cooker, let it cool, then portion it out to freeze. Perfect for take-your lunch or fast, home cooked meal.

Yes, with a slow cooker and a vacuum sealer you can take advantage of that whole pork loin at $1.78 a pound and manage to consume it all, safely.

Yes, you can get one secondhand. I would look on Craigslist.

One of the things I love from the crock pot is split oea soup with a real ham bone or ham hocks and dried split peas.

You can pick up a slow cooker at Good Will for $3–4 bucks.

I would suggest buying a new slow cooker, because they’re pretty inexpensive. I would never buy a second hand appliance because you’ll never know for sure if it’s going to work, or if it has been repaired (badly) or is in need of repair, until it’s too late.

Here’s a List of Good and Inexpensive Slow Cookers with some tips for using them.

I’ve read lots of slow cooker recipes and a lot of times one of the most important things to do is to put the ingredients in the pot in the order that the recipes lists them. It has to do with which items cook at different rates, and which juices need to flow downhill onto the other ingredients. If you do it backwards, the flavor and texture won’t be as good. If the recipe lists an order, follow the order. Another tip is browning, or searing, the meat in a pan before adding it to the slow cooker, because the slow cooker won’t brown your meat and give you that added flavor boost.

Now, here are some recipes:

Beef Stew

Cubed Beef and Bean Chili with Bacon

Ground Beef and Bean Chili with Chipotle

White Bean and Chicken Chili with Corn

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

Sweet Potato, Quinoa, and Black Bean Chili

Beef Stroganoff

Pulled Pork with Root Beer and Barbecue Sauce

Pulled Pork with Bourbon-Peach Barbecue Sauce

Jambalaya

Gumbo

Minestrone Soup

Split Pea Soup with Ham

Tomato Soup

Potato Leek Soup

Macaroni and Cheese

Enchiladas

Lasagna

Baked Potatoes

Corn on the Cob

Orange Chicken

Chicken Curry

Cranberry and Apple Stuffed Pork Loin

Bourbon Baked Beans with Bacon

Apple Sauce

Cranberry Sauce

Queso Dip

Chocolate Lava Cake

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Spiced Cider

Enjoy : )

Stumbled across these recipes this today.

And lemme tell ya, when a pachyderm stumbles, it’s not a pretty sight.

I agree with @Kardamom about buying a new slow cooker. If you’re going to cook anything on low, and meals cooked overnight or while you’re at work will be cooked on low, you really need to know that it will hit the right temperature. Otherwise, your food is in great danger of being a feeding ground for bacteria. Additionally, you won’t ever get the food cooked right or in the expected amount of time.

I speak from experience. I had a used slow cooker that I could only use on high, which was like a medium. No recipe worked right. But my new one (I got it as a Christmas gift) works great every time.

This is very close to what I have in the crockpot right now. Everyone who I have ever served it to, babies, toddlers and picky people included, have loved it. You can switch up the meat, too. It’s a very forgiving recipe. I cook on low all day and whip up some rice or veggies when I get home from work. Voila… dinner!

Thank you so much for this thread. Slow cookers just hit the market here and I’m wanting one. I would love to set it going before I leave for work at 7.15 and have dinner done when I get home at 17.30. Kiddo is getting more accepting of food that isn’t strictly ‘children’s food’ and he is starting to empty my cupboards and fridge at an alarming rate. Growing like a weed and he needs good food to grow on, but my stupid schedule doesn’t leave much time for shopping or cooking.

This is my ‘go-to’ Crockpot. 2 low settings, 2 high settings and it automatically keeps the food warm until you get home.

Because I also own a business that offers food I own 10–12 slow cookers at this time. All were second hand, and I can only ever remember taking one out of service because the temperature wouldn’t hold. I have 3–4 different sizes and various features. If you buy a random cooker at a reasonable price, you can later purchase a new one with the features that suit you. You can get cookers that have 2 compartments, lid-lock, start delay, programmable cooking, etc. etc.
In my opinion, if you get much good out of a slow cooker, you’ll want more than one size. Oval for larger entrees, and round for soups and stews, covers my usage, but I have a smaller one suitable for dip.

That’s great feedback @ibstubro. It sounds like my low-temp crockpot was more an anomaly than the average used one.

We have the one that has clips to hold the lid in place, so it’s great for bringing to potlucks.

Yes, I have one with the clips on the lid, too, @Cupcake ($5). I try to use it sparingly because the rubber gasket looks fragile to me.

Another good thing about my ‘go-to’ pot is that I can easily buy lids second-hand for $1–2. Even a regular, one-piece, all glass replacement lid will run $15+ from the manufacturer. Some of my Crock Pots (I tend to stick with that brand) I’ve bought for $1–2 without a lid and put into service with a $1–2 lid, i.e. $2 Crock Pot, like new.

I find a lot of the programmable features sound good in theory, annoy most users in practice.