Slow Cooker Q - please help

Binxy

I have trawled through lots of the threads and even searched the big ol' 97 pager for this (whre I found the question posted by someone else but no one had answered), and haven't found it, so no lectures on looking please, I have and it's driving me barmy.

I've even googled and not found it so either I'm totally useless or missing it. It really is a simple question for those who know, and I have faith the talented massive of the OS board can assist.

I have a cheap cookworks slow cooker. I tried one recipe in it that didn't work, and gave up. However, we are in a bad way financially right now so badly need cheap recipes, and my mum has given me 2 beauitiful casserole recipes that I would love to have a go at in the slow cooker.

Both require 2.5 - 3 hours in the oven at 140 degrees. Is there any way of knowing what the temperatures equate to as far as "low" and "high" go on the slow cooker? The recipe I tried that messed up was chicken that was in for 8 hours plus and didn't cook.

Thing is, I cannot afford to mess up all the ingredients by experimenting in a slow cooker that doesn't cook the tea and we all go hungry. Any help massively appreciated, and tolerance for yet another slow cooker thread appreciated too please.

jujitsu

hi dont know if this helps much but i also ha ve the cookworks s.c i just tend to put everything in it on the morning switch it on high for about 30 mins then turn it on to auto it is usualy on for about 7 hours whatever i am cooking never had a problem yet

Princess_Fiona_2

If you dont fancy leaving it on all day. Try using a timer. If I do braising steak in the slow cooker. I put everything in at 6.00am before i go out to work. Plug it into the timer for it to come on at about 12 noon on auto and when I get back in at about 6pm its ready for dishing up. Friend of mine does whole legs of lamb and pork and chickens in hers and does the same as i do plugs it into a timer. Good luck. I wouldnt be without mine. Did a joint of pot roast beef in mine today. Put it on at 11.00am on low and dished it up at 5pm. DELICIOUS!!!!! PF

meadowcat

Binxy wrote:

Both require 2.5 - 3 hours in the oven at 140 degrees. Is there any way of knowing what the temperatures equate to as far as "low" and "high" go on the slow cooker? The recipe I tried that messed up was chicken that was in for 8 hours plus and didn't cook.

Can't really understand that. 8 hours should have been long enough even for a whole chicken. When I do a chicken I can hardly lift it out without it falling to pieces. Did you have it on low or high? Did you start it off high and then turn it to low? I'm not familiar with the SC you are talking about. Does it have an automatic setting?

Maybe you could post exactly what you did. :snow_grin

meadowcat

I've just checked the cookbook that came with my old Tefal SC - which I no longer have because the lid of the crock got broken. Anyway, most casseroles and things like that appear to be heat 1 for 8 hours or heat 2 for 4 hours.

Here's a few other pointers in the tips at the beginning of the book.

1. Never remove the lid while cooking as this will a further 30 minutes to the cooking time.

2. Always preheat for 20 minutes before use. If using heat 1, use on heat 2 for 30 minutes before reducing.

3. Heat 1 or 2 for all recipes other than pork, poultry and large meats which should always be cooked on heat 2

4. All frozen food should be completely defrosted

5, Can be left on heat 1 for 2 hours and heat 2 for one hour over the stated times without fear of burning.

6. Trim off fat as it does not reduce as with your conventional cooker

7. Veg takes longer to cook than meat. When cooking together always ensure the veg are thinly sliced

In each of the recipes it tells you to fry the ingredients first, but I don't do that and I don't think most other people do it.

HTH

Binxy

I tried to do coq au vin. Can't rememberthe setting, but it was actually a recipe from the instruction book so I was left fairly down hearted :rolleyes:


Thanks for the advice. I'd better leave it as I just can't afford to trash the ingredients. I'll leave it to the oven I think!

Glad

I never fry my ingredients first either

it does sound as if maybe your SC wasn't working properly,
did the chicken cook at all?

squeaky

Oh noooo....

I too cannot understand why chicken didn't cook in eight hours, even if it was accidentally done on the low setting.

Perhaps you should try one of the recipes for a soup or a casserole and see how that goes...

AND...

Don't bin it if you think it hasn't cooked properly, just finish off the whateveritis in a pan or the oven. But honestly, they should come out just fine.

mah_jong

OK ....I am admitting to this...... just to prove that anything is possible.

The first time I heard that you could cook a chicken all day in the SC .....i did just that...... it didn't cook very much at all. Next time I added the water (!!!!!!) that I had overlooked the first time and guess what it was loverrly !!!!

Am going to hide now as I am sure I can hear you laughing already!!!

Glad

lol with mah_jong

Binxy

Glad wrote:

I never fry my ingredients first either

it does sound as if maybe your SC wasn't working properly,
did the chicken cook at all?

I seem to recall it did a bit, but was raw in the middle. And the red wine (such a waste ) was all runny and watery. Bleugh.

The SC has 3 settings: auto (pre cook) where you have to brown things first; auto (no pre cook) and high.

I do wonder what the high setting equates to on a normal oven.......... anyone? I'm assuming still really quite low, but