slow cooker quick questions thread

Bongedone

Glad it came out okay.

iamzippy

Treat yourself to a new one. Summertime is the time to buy, demand is low and decent SCs are not that expensive (browse & compare Amazon, Comet, etc.).
Expect prices to creep up as winter approaches. I've been tracking prices for a couple of years now, and they do tend to go up around October.
Rocketing energy costs make an SC a smart investment; get one about twice the capacity of your current, with time/temp control, and plan on using it a lot.

My 2 cents

ShelBell

Question - I read on another forum that you can do jacket spuds in the slow cooker? It said wrap in foil and just place in with no liquids etc. Has anyone tried this? Scared of damaging the cooker! I do all my joints with no added liquid but liquid comes out in the cooking so its only the first hour or two its dry.

youngmum_2

I'm doing a lamb casserole for dinner tomorrow night. I'm using a Schwartz pkt mix (not very OS I know but for a special occassion). There'll be onion, red pepper, lamb, chopped tomatoes and the pkt mix with 150ml of water.

I'll be bunging this on first thing about 7am, not eating until approx 7pm. Will this be okay? I've always had it in my head (read off here somewhere) that any liquid going into the SC should be hot? I don't see how, on this occassion, I can do that.

Someone please reassure me. Don't want to come home to a dinner disaster when I'm planning on serving it up to my mum as part of her birthday dinner!

TIA.

Gingham_Ribbon

You don't nead to put hot liquid in. It will heat it up from cold.

crockpot

I too also put cold in and it`s ok, I never bother browning meat,even micnce and never had a problem..

youngmum_2

Thanks both!

Bowski_1011

I'm gonna start using my slow cooker as of tomorrow and was just wondering.. can I put things in it from frozen?

Pink.

Hi bowski,

I know that some people do use food from frozen in the slow cooker but personally I think it's not a good idea. When frozen food is added it takes much longer to bring the slow cooker contents up to cooking point therefore the food remains lukewarm for quite a while and as this is the optimum breeding ground for bacteria it could cause problems.

Pink

Chell

IS there any features that I should look out for when buying a slow cooker? Some mention being non-stick, others don't. Are the cheapy SCs ok? I can't decide what size to buy but Asda have some on dipslay so I will look later.