The Hamilton Beach with the insert that can go on the stove makes searing meat/sautéing onion before slow cooking much easier.

I don't usually throw things in frozen, but I don't understand why some recipes call for cooked chicken when you can just cook it with the meal. Wouldn't the chicken just way overcook?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A different crockpot question--I don't like the taste/texture of veggies that have cooked for 6+ hours in a slow cooker. I'm thinking of just putting some potato quarters under the chuck roast next time and then adding onions and carrots the last 2 hours. Or maybe putting half the onions and carrots in for the full time to flavor the broth and then adding more the last 2 hours. Does anyone else do either of these options? Thanks for your suggestions!

I add the veggies in the last couple hours so they don't overcook and get soggy.

Thanks! I'm going to do the same when I cook a sirloin tip roast tomorrow and appreciate your comment!

Anonymous wrote:I always do put it in thawed, but I do skip any step where they say to brown it first, sear it first, etc. Nah. Skip that sh!t!

This is (one of the reasons) why crock pots suck. They encourage people to skip the steps required to make food taste good, as opposed to merely edible.

There is a really good answer in this post (the long one at the top from poster Aaronut posted March 20, 2011): http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/12992/why-is-it-dangerous-to-eat-meat-which-has-been-left-out-and-then-cooked

It explains that letting food sit out can allow various contagions to grow on it. Even killing the contagions is not enough as the contagions are often not what causes food poisoning. For example, E Coli actually lives in small quantities in human bowels. However, when you increase the population, they generate more protein toxins (which is a waste product of the bacteria) and it's the protein toxins that are toxic and cause food poisoning. When you leave food out, the bacteria collect, multiply and produce waste product. Even if you heat the food up high enough to kill the bacteria, they have already generated the protein toxins which will not degrade from the heat and you ingest that you you still get sick from food poisoning.

If you can't get someone to stop by the house and turn on the crock pot within about 3-4 hours, then you should toss the uncooked food. Sorry.