DH complains about SC food!

Shereen

black-saturn wrote: »

Another thing you could do is cook chips every day until he's so fed up with them that he will want a proper meal.

I think I could do this for years and G wouldn't get fed up with them. :rolleyes:

Swan_2

thriftlady wrote: »

We don't all like them;) -I tried one but just couldn't get excited by the food it produced and really don't blame folk for not liking SC food.

that's exactly how I feel about it, but then I don't care for ready meals & suchlike either, & that's what slowcooked food always reminds me of, quite apart from the SC'd whole chicken which is in a special class of evil all of its own :eek:

the person I gave my SC to invited me round to share a sausage casserole they'd made in it, & it was pretty awful (imho) but I still ate it, I wouldn't have dreamt of refusing it ... but then I'm not a bloke

HalfaSixpence_2

Swan wrote: »

I wish I'd seen this thread back when it started, all this time I've been thinking I was some kind of freak because everyone else seems to love their SCs

I wouldn't be so picky that I wouldn't eat the food, but I really don't like it at all, the only thing I like cooked in it is soup, everything else tastes just like ready meals/institution food, & don't even get me started on the vileness that is a whole chicken done in it!!! _pale_

I've just given mine away & good riddance to it


PS I know about the less liquid thing etc & I've always been a good 'from scratch' cook, so I do know what proper food should be like

You mention the paleness of chicken - that makes me think you weren't browning things first before putting them in the cooker. That definitely makes a big difference to taste as well as to looks and isn't really a 'slow cooker' issue - if you made any dish by just putting raw food and liquid in a pot and cooking it you would get a dreadful result. But for some reason people get the idea that all you do with a slow cooker is dump it all in together and leave it to cook - perhaps because you can't generally brown in the same pot, though that is no different from using any ceramic casserole dish.

I'm not knocking your experience - but I do find this complaint that SC food is 'different' so puzzling and always wonder what can be going wrong - slow cooked food done well is delicious, unless you mean that you just don't like casseroles and pot-roasts etc whatever it is you cook them in. I basically use all the recipes I used to use when I had an Aga-type cooker with a slow oven and I used to do the Christmas turkey in that to rave reviews. It doesn't replace other kinds of cooking - a pot-roast is a different thing from a roast and if you had a roasting chicken or other joint it would be a bit perverse to slow-cook it unless you had some reason to need to (like being out all day). But a piece of brisket, for instance, needs to be cooked long and slow and a slow-cooker is the ideal way to do it.

jo1972

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Good heavens Ailuro2 I dread to think of the willies you might have encountered!

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

I find that slow cooked food can be a bit bland, my first attempt at a lamb jalfrezi and OH thought it was Hungarian Goulash!! I've learnt now though that the spicy bits go in at the end, like the chillies etc.. It makes a huge difference when you season it at the end. Otherwise I do find that most things do taste the same

Maybe I'm just doing it all wrong

thriftlady_2

HalfaSixpence wrote: »

But for some reason people get the idea that all you do with a slow cooker is dump it all in together and leave it to cook - perhaps because you can't generally brown in the same pot, though that is no different from using any ceramic casserole dish.

When I had a SC this is how I prepared the food- browning first etc. I wouldn't dream of slinging it all in naked as it were. But I'm not out of the house all day and I'm not particularly concerned about my fuel bill I'd rather do my slow-cooking in the oven especially as I often serve baked spuds with this sort of meal. You get a much better result with more concentrated flavours.

Swan_2

HalfaSixpence wrote: »

You mention the paleness of chicken - that makes me think you weren't browning things first before putting them in the cooker. That definitely makes a big difference to taste as well as to looks and isn't really a 'slow cooker' issue - if you made any dish by just putting raw food and liquid in a pot and cooking it you would get a dreadful result. But for some reason people get the idea that all you do with a slow cooker is dump it all in together and leave it to cook - perhaps because you can't generally brown in the same pot, though that is no different from using any ceramic casserole dish.

I'm not knocking your experience - but I do find this complaint that SC food is 'different' so puzzling and always wonder what can be going wrong - slow cooked food done well is delicious, unless you mean that you just don't like casseroles and pot-roasts etc whatever it is you cook them in.

I don't recall mentioning pale, I think I said it was vile & evil :A
it was 'falling off the bone', which a lot of people seem to like, but it just reminded me of the nasty boiled chicken I recall old folks eating when I was a child & it made the house smell terrible!
on the upside, there was loads of chicken stock

I did brown the food before putting it in the SC (I've always been amazed at the 'just bung it all in' recommendations) in fact I remember a thread on here where we were having a laugh at my stripey sausage casserole after I'd browned the sausages on a George Foreman grill

I'm a fairly experienced cook, love cooking & I do like casseroles etc, I just found with the SC the flavours seemed to disappear & it all ended up tasting of nothing/ready meals
but then lots of people like ready meals, so maybe it's just down to personal taste?

it did make excellent soup though

Penelope_Penguin

HalfaSixpence wrote: »

You mention the paleness of chicken - that makes me think you weren't browning things first before putting them in the cooker. That definitely makes a big difference to taste as well as to looks and isn't really a 'slow cooker' issue - if you made any dish by just putting raw food and liquid in a pot and cooking it you would get a dreadful result. But for some reason people get the idea that all you do with a slow cooker is dump it all in together and leave it to cook - perhaps because you can't generally brown in the same pot, though that is no different from using any ceramic casserole dish.

I'm not knocking your experience - but I do find this complaint that SC food is 'different' so puzzling and always wonder what can be going wrong - slow cooked food done well is delicious, unless you mean that you just don't like casseroles and pot-roasts etc whatever it is you cook them in. I basically use all the recipes I used to use when I had an Aga-type cooker with a slow oven and I used to do the Christmas turkey in that to rave reviews. It doesn't replace other kinds of cooking - a pot-roast is a different thing from a roast and if you had a roasting chicken or other joint it would be a bit perverse to slow-cook it unless you had some reason to need to (like being out all day). But a piece of brisket, for instance, needs to be cooked long and slow and a slow-cooker is the ideal way to do it.

IME, food cooked in the SC is completely different from the same food cooked slowly in the oven. I have a Rayburn, and regularly make casseroles that cook on low all day. They have a richness and depth of flavour that I'm unable to replicate in the SC. I'm convinced it's because the Rayburn evaporates some of the liquid, and removes it up the stove pipe, so the casserole cooks in a drier atmosphere.

I often make a casserole by putting raw ingredients into the dish and cooking them in the Rayburn - the result is excellent, and it's quicker than faffing about browning :T I think it was Jamie Oliver who experimented with browning meat, and found absolutely no difference in a casserole between meat that was browned and that which wasn't

IMHO, a Rayburn or other range is the ideal way to slow-cook meat, and a low oven comes a close second

Penny. x

Swan_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

IME, food cooked in the SC is completely different from the same food cooked slowly in the oven. I have a Rayburn, and regularly make casseroles that cook on low all day. They have a richness and depth of flavour that I'm unable to replicate in the SC. I'm convinced it's because the Rayburn evaporates some of the liquid, and removes it up the stove pipe, so the casserole cooks in a drier atmosphere.

I often make a casserole by putting raw ingredients into the dish and cooking them in the Rayburn - the result is excellent, and it's quicker than faffing about browning :T I think it was Jamie Oliver who experimented with browning meat, and found absolutely no difference in a casserole between meat that was browned and that which wasn't

IMHO, a Rayburn or other range is the ideal way to slow-cook meat, and a low oven comes a close second

Penny. x

I'm glad it's not just me who finds the SC'd food different


I had a solid-fuel Rayburn for 20 years, & I really miss it ... apart from the soot :rolleyes:

as well as being good for the things you mention, it baked the best bread I've ever made, but that's another thread

HalfaSixpence_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

IMHO, a Rayburn or other range is the ideal way to slow-cook meat, and a low oven comes a close second

Penny. x

I wouldn't argue with that - I loved my Stanley and was heartbroken to have to leave it. Actually, the bottom oven in the Stanley isn't vented, though the top one is. But if I can't have a range, I certainly find I get a very reasonable result from the slow cooker - better than I get by just putting my oven on the 'slow cook' setting, which always leaves me wondering whether I'm going to come in and find either the meat dried up or the house burned to the ground.

thriftmonster

Well, I've just got rid of my SC - it was a godsend at uni when we only had two rings and a grill so dh and I could have casseroles (and it got past the evil eye of the Domestic Bursar as we weren't supposed to cook - just to reheat things - yes I'm just reheating these chicken drumsticks, tin of tomatoes, onions, herbs etc honestly!!!) - but now I'd rather use the oven and the trusty Le Creuset - it just tastes better to us - more concentrated as people have said