What's the deal with a crockpot?

[Anonymous]

My dinner is cooking in the Crockpot as I write - chicken cacciatore. This recipe took about 10 minutes of prep and tastes fantastic. Get "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger. I also adapt normal stew and casserole recipes for my crockpot.

[Anonymous]

Is it worth it for me to get a crockpot if my family is vegetarian?

[Anonymous]

I mostly use mine for homemade meatballs and sauce. It's an old (delicious) family recipe which makes a lot of meatballs - can usually get quite a few meals out of them between subs, spaghetti and meatballs, ziti bakes, and pizza.

You can also use crockpots for pot roasts and pulled pork or beef - I've never done it but I remember my mom making those.

I'd like to do more with my crockpot as well - I'm sure there are recipes online. I think you can do just about anything with a crockpot, but there may be some adaptations or limitations to be sure the food cooks throughly and doesn't turn to mush in the process.

I did attempt to make barbacoa with my crockpot but it got dried out - will have to attempt it again soon.

[Anonymous]

I had no idea how great a crockpot was, until my DH got us one. I'd never seen one growing up.

Pulled pork BBQ works really well in the crockpot. I use the McCormick packet of seasoning you can get in the grocery store spice aisle- the packet says "McCormick Slow Cookers- Pulled Pork bbq." Add the pork, and the spices prepared as directed to make a BBQ sauce. In 4-8 hours, it is amazing pulled pork bbq. Very, very easy, and great with creamy coleslaw on buns.

I have NOT used the freezer packages a PP mentioned. It is really very easy to put the items in the crockpot- the most you need to do is chop vegetables and brown the meat a little before you put it in.

You do, however, need a good recipe. Some things I've made have turned out a lot better than others. Look at some of the recipes on www.crockpot.com.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another crockpot and cooking newbie here...What are the "cheaper cuts of meat" everyone refers to? I dont' know because we cook three types of meat: boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pork chops and ground beef

Thanks for the help!

There are two ways to end up with tender meat. Everyone knows the first, which is to buy a tender piece of meat like a well-marbled steak. This allows you to have a tender, juicy steak at medium-rare, which is maybe 130 degrees.

The second is by getting meat with a lot of connective tissue, such as stew meats, chuck roasts, brisket, and short ribs. If you cooked them to 130 they would be terribly tough! But when you stew them (or braise them), the collagen breaks down into gelatin. And the meat strands (the protein) at first get tough under the higher heat, but eventually at a very high heat the proteins relax and soak up that gelatin. This happens somewhere around 200 degrees. And that is what makes stewed or braised meats tender and delicious. (This is also the secret to making bbq ribs or using smokers that cook low and slow, but that takes a lot of practice.)

Don't get confused about the temperatures. I'm explaining the science. All you need to do is to set up your pot roast or whatever, let the crock pot do its work, which is to cook low and slow, and learn to recognize when it's done by poking the meat to see when it is tender. And remember, it will get more tender during the end of the cooking process.

My biggest mistake when I started cooking pot roast or stew was to check the meat, find that it is tough and then panic. OMG my stew is drying out, I need to serve this now or it will be inedible! It turned out I was not waiting long enough for that meat to finish. Now I have faith and wait until the meat is tender.

Obviously it helps to be able to spot a good piece of meat, even when you are buying cheap meats. But you will get the hang of it soon enough. If you make pot roast, you will probaby buy a chuck roast. And you will notice that there are several different parts to that roast. At dinner time, try pieces from each section. One or another piece will taste especially good. If you can remember what that piece looked like when you bought the roast, you will know what to look for the next time in order to pick out the nicest chuck roast.

Another good meat to braise is lamb shanks. Yummy. While they aren't cheap like chuck roast, where you could feed a family of 4 for under $10, they are about 1/4 the price of a rack of lamb. And they braise very well. I haven't done them in a crock pot, but you can braise in a dutch oven which is where I do it.

[Anonymous]

don't put rice in the crockpot all day. it WILL Turn to sloppy mush.

meat only or meat & potatoes & hardy vegetables seem to do well. or things that are OK as sloppy mush... like chili or lentils.

[Anonymous]

If you are going to be cooking meat for a long time you can make a foil package of vegetables and place them on top of the meat. The heat from the meat will steam the veg and they will not go mushy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mostly use mine for homemade meatballs and sauce. It's an old (delicious) family recipe which makes a lot of meatballs

Can you post the recipe? Please.

[Anonymous]

I do a lot of bean soups that I make on Sunday (often overnight) and then eat for lunches throughout the week. I soak some kind of bean overnight and then throw in some vegetables and spices. In the morning, there is a chili-like soup. This week, I put in a pound of black beans, chopped butternut squash (I did put this in the oven for about 20 minutes so it would be easier to peel), canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, cumin, vinegar, salt, pepper, about 4 cups of chicken broth and water. My husband and I have had it for lunch all week. I do this about once a month. Sometimes I add sausage or something. I also sometimes do a variation of the vegetable and chickpea curry from cooking light. Occassionally, I will sear up a buffalo roast and stick it in with some sauce (not too much) for pulled buffalo sandwiches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it for me to get a crockpot if my family is vegetarian?

Yes. We're vegetarian and I still use the slow cooker a lot. I have the Beth Hensperger book a PP mentioned and a good vegetarian slow-cooker book, but often I just throw in different things for soups and chili. I admit it was in use even more often when we ate meat, but I still use it often.

[Anonymous]

I second the reccomendation for the crockpot lady's website http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

I'd start with a few good tested recipes instead of just throwing crap in - because if you start with the crappy stewed-meat, no flavor recipes, you'll never want to use it.

I like the Vietemese chicken (from the website). To make you life easier, you can double the sauce recipe and throw in carrots also. It says to use chicken thighs, which cook and taste great, but if you want to avoid fat, I've also used chicken breasts.

Also good (from that website) is peanut butter pork, rotisserie chicken, and roasted vegetables (three separate recipes). And I even did the stuffing recipe from there and it was pretty good.


There are a few tricks to when you are out all day - much longer than the recipe calls for:
1. Get a crockpot with a timer
2. Use the right size crockpot - it has to be at least 1/2 full or it burns. If almost full, most recipes just get better as they cook. If the crockpot has a good low setting - but this can be hard to find. I found a lot start out great, but eventually the low become high.
3. My personal "secret" is add in extra liquid. You would only want to do this if you knew you were going to be out much longer than the recipe class for. This falls into more of the desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Anonymous]

I have a few crockpot recipies that I like, but lately, I've taken to buying from Let's Dish. Overall, their meals for the crockpot have been very good and more interesting that what I usually produce.

For those concerned about timing, you could rig up a lamp timer to switch on the crockpot at the right time. More work,I know, but just a suggestion.