Crockpot for the 9-5 worker; worth it?

I hate mine. All I use it for is steel-cut oatmeal and I have to be here in order to prevent the bloody stuff from boiling over.

I used to use it a lot when I was in school, and I have tried to use it some recently. However, like you I find that it needs fewer hours than I am generally going to be gone. However, one possibility is to use it on the weekend to produce a food that can be refrigerated or frozen in smaller quantities. Thus you just need to reheat the food when you get home from work. If you do this with a variety of recipes you can have a different dinner every night.

I love my Crock Pot.

Throw a bunch of stuff in it and boom.
Dinner is ready when you get home.

Meat, soup, veggies. Dump it all in. Good to go.

In my experience veggies don’t do as well in the crockpot for long periods of time, they all become real mushy. I mean give it a shot, but if I were a vegan using a crockpot, I would lean more towards making a soup that can be left all day than making an actual recipe. In my experiences the time can be varied significantly with crockpots, you can usually leave a meat dish on low for 6+ hours with no ill effects, but that’s often because the recipes I use involve cuts of meat that take a long time to cook, whereas veggies do not have this feature.

Is there any difference between a crock pot and leaving something on the stove at a low temperature?

We got one as a gift years ago from a relative who was forever giving us things meant to change our lifestyle instead of fitting with it. For us it was a great idea that never worked out. The tricky part is doing anything before leaving for work in the morning beyond the minimum necessary to fly out the door. For people who get up two hours early and have a leisurely sit-down breakfast with the newspaper, it might work. We gave ours to our son to use in his candlemaking hobby.

I use mine primarily to make Barbacoa, which is certainly not a vegetarian dish. You put three pounds of chuck roast in the thing, cover it with water, set it on low and leave it over night. The next day you shred the meat with a fork and serve it in corn tortillas with Pico de Gallo. However, since I live in South Texas where Barbacoa is a common Sunday breakfast, I use it fairly often.

You can find recipes that work acceptably well in 8-hour crockpots. Chili and soups can work very well; things that are vegetable-heavy or which involve pasta, not so much.

@JLeslie: in theory, no. In practice, the crock pot thermostat is probably more reliable and safer than an unattended stove burner.

@Jeruba: my trick is to do the prep work the night before, so that the morning’s work is basically just putting things in the crock pot and turning it on.

No this is an awesome idea. You can cook it real slow so it won’t be cooked to death. And they are fairly safe to leave on all day. I like getting those bags of 16 bean soup, and using that as a base. I wait until the beans are about half done, and then throw in, everything else, including spices. Garlic, brussel sprouts, onions, small potatoes, small pear tomatoes. etc/ You might be able to put all that in just once in the beginning and have it be ok by the end of the day.

I’m pretty sure I am too paranoid about fire to leave something on like that all day without me being in the house along with it. I realize I have never heard of a house fire from a crock pot, but still it would go against my nature.

I have seen people bring crock pots full of food for pot luck dinners and they just plug it right in at the hosts house, I love that idea, bringing a hot dish without inconviencing the host in any way.

One thing I have learned to my dismay is that some crockpots use higher temperatures than others.

Technically, the only company who can market their product using the name crockpot is the company who originated it, namely Rival Corp. Al others must use another term, usually “slow cooker”

And Rival Crockpot is the only one I will buy as they are the ones with the consistently lower but safe temps.

They also have one with a pretty advanced timer which allows for extra “hold time” at the end of cooking so things don’t overcook and get mushy.

When I have used other brands of slow cookers I ended up with stuff burnt from sticking to the bottom or sides even with lots of liquid (like spaghetti sauce)

That’s just my two cents fwiw.

Get the newer Rival model with the variable timer. Also cutting the vegs into larger pieces will help.

Ohh timer, good idea, and they are relatively safe, I will take full responsibility if your place burns down, really, hears my card.

I got very enthusiastic abotu the idea of coming home to a cooked supper, but I soon found that there gets to be much of a muchness about the texture of whatever you cook, so now I just have a big round doorstop with a plug attached.

The people who said chili were pretty much on the mark. Stews and chili work best, I think. You want to do a sturdy chili that can take 9 – 10 hours on low and still be awesome. My vegetarian friend really likes to make taco soup (a veggie version) on the stove all day. She doesn’t use a crock, but it’s the same thing. It ends up basically like a chili and is great.

What about using an appliance timer so that it came be turned on when you want without you being there?

That’s basically part of what the new crockpot with the timer does.

@pdworkin

I understand what you’re saying about mushy but there are plenty of recipes around that avoid that.

You should invest in a good book on crockpot cooking. The better ones,in addition to the recipes, also have lots if tips and explanations of techniques particular to crockpots. I was amazed at how much I learned.

There are also a slew of websites devoted to crockpot cookery. Somewhere in my jumble of bookmarks I have some particularly useful ones.

Just for starters there is one really great recipe that doesn’t come out mushy. It uses a whole chicken. Just google “sticky chicken”. There are several variants.

@Buttonstc Thanks. I will check that out, and try again. It still sounds nice to come home to a cooked dinner after a long day. GA for that.

Btw: I assume that in your previous tries you did not put any rice or any type of pasta along with everything else did you?

I just followed recipes that I found on line, or that came with the crockpot.

Hmmmm

That’s interesting. Well obviously those items are a big no-no for cpots. Personally I’ve never been much for following recipes to the letter and I find that the less liquid the better the end result. But there are just two caveats. Obviously exceptions would be for soup or stew. And I wouldn’t try reducing liquid unless it’s a Rival with it’s low stable temp.

Generally cpots really shine with meats and the cheaper cuts usually.

I’ll put one of my fav recipes which everyone that’s eaten it loves. It’s just not overly precise and seasoning amounts can be adjusted for your personal.

Get a pork butt 3–6 pounds as long as it fits into your cpot. Slice 6–9 garlic cloves lengthwise into slivers. With a paring knife make deep slits into the meat and put piece of garlic into each.

Take 3 or more onions and slice slice. Cover bottom of cpot with layer of onion slices.

Rub meat all over with pepper do the same with 2–3 packets of Goya Sazon seasoning.

Cut one orange and one lime into quarters or eighhs. Place meat into crock and cover with the onion slices. As long as there is room left it’s impossible to use too many
onions. :). Place orange and lime pieces on top, cover and cook on low 8–10 hrs.

That’s it. Simple and delicious.

The recipes that came with my crack crockpot called for lots of prep., lots of meat, lots of fat, and lots of extra pots and pans. I also had a problem with online recipes since most of them don’t mention the size of the crockpot. Mine is 3.5 quarts.

Good one Gail

Heh heh. Crackpot

Yeah they aren’t for everyone. I guess it suits me cuz I don’t really follow recipes (except in baking where it’s crucial) and I guess more flavor can be achieved if you brown the meat first but I just make up for it with lots of seasoning.

Ok, I must be the odd one out on this one. I love my crockpot and use it often. I use a timer on mine (like the kind you use to turn lights on when you aren’t home) so that I can set it to start an hour or 2 after I leave if the cook time is shorter then my work day. I do the prep the night before so the contents are cold to begin with so it doesn’t hurt to sit out for a short time before beginning to cook. I have many recipes that are family favorites I’d say I more often use it on a Monday since I have more time on Sunday to prepare something. It’s a great feeling to know I’m coming home to a meal that is ready to eat and I don’t have to deal with preparing something after a busy day.

@daisy

Join me, won’t you. We can both be odd together. :)

BTW. guess what ATK featured today? Yup, two great recipes; one for beef stew and the other for short ribs. They also did a comparison review of various crockpots and the winner was one which could time for delayed start as well as a keep warm setting at the end.

ATK=Americas Test Kitchen

It’s always on PBS and the day and time varies according to location. Check your local listings and you may be able to still catch it on Sun. for anyone interested.

@Buttonstc: What if you (I) don’t eat meat, foul and most fish? Anything worth checking out?

It is one of the best ways to cook any kind of beans (except string beans)

I can’t offhand think of any other long cooking vegetarian dishes.

The two main advantages of a cpot are energy saving and convenience for when you’re gone all day.

But in all honesty if I were totally veggie and buying a new appliance, it would be one of the modern pressure cookers. But if I had a crockpot it would come in handy for beans, potatoes, applesauce and the like.

Even tho I haven’t done it evidently you can also bake cakes. There are some folks who use one every day. I’ll try to hunt up the blog of a woman who did it every day for a year. Interesting.

Just put crockpot 365 into Goog to get to her blog.