slow cooker quick questions thread

homealone_2

i bought the mr family slo cooker last year and noticed that you can now throw ingredients cold and they will heat up in the cooker. but i hunted out my 20 yr old stoneware slo cooker smallish one and was going to give to mum as she has been inspired to trying to use one even though she lives alone but i am sure back then you had to put all the ingredients boiling hot as all it did was sort of simmer along. have the rules changed or the slo cookers changed? i know my mum wont want to heat up stuff first so may have to get her one of the newer ones and if i do have to do that can anyone recommend one smallish enough for one person as she not a mse and wont freeze leftovers or eat same meal for 2 days so will be pointless getting her one too big!!

SunnyGirl

I can't recommend a new slow cooker unfortunately but I think you're right about putting things into the older ones boiling hot. I got a new MR sc last year too and was amazed at how hot it gets. My first couple of things caught on the bottom it was that hot :cool: My old one, a wedding present 20yrs ago, was an earthern ware pot affair too. I used to brown the meat in a pan first, chuck veg in uncooked or unheated but had to make sure that any liquid was boiling hot. I just used to chuck tinned toms, stock etc into a small pan & bring it to the boil before pouring it over the meat & veg in the sc.

Sorry not to have been more help. There is a slow cooker thread where someone is bound to know about a decent one for smaller servings.

HTH

smarties84

Hello, i purchased a slow cooker today and i have never used one before. I am looking for menu ideas and any help on getting started.

I have been told that there is a slow cooker thread on here, please may someone post the link?

Thanks Smarties

mummy2mygirls

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=43570 here is one link where there is lots of recepies on here! Im sure there is another one where people ask any questions they have will have a look and add the link if i find it....

onetomany

enjoy its a great tread, ive saved loads of money this way

tinksy

planning to use my slow cooker for the first time tomorrow to make a mixed soup. i have potatoes, onions, peas, veggie stock, lentils and prob some other veg
how long do people think it will take?
also have a bread mix so planning hm bread for tea to!

juicygirl

I was given a slow cooker as an engagement pressie. I've now been married 2.5 years and the slow cooker still hasn't been taken out its box :rolleyes: .

My question though is this - how exactly is a slow cooker moneysaving if it's using electricity for so many hours?

All the recipes on here sounds delish, but I'm not keen on dusting it off if my leccy bill is going to shoot up.

Thank you!

SunnyGirl

Hi!

You can safely put your slow cooker on as they use very little electric. About the same as a light bulb if memory serves me correctly. They are very, very economical because of their low power use and because you can cook the cheaper cuts of meat for a long time making them meltingly tender

I hope that you enjoy using it :T

Wolfsbayne

Im going to try out my first SC tomorrow, got some diced turkey, onions, garlic and potatoes, mushrooms - not sure what I can make out of that! lol

justpeyton4now

The way I understand it is that a slow cooker uses very few kilowatts per hour (kw/h) as compared to your cooker which uses many times the kw/h for the same amount of time. Hope this made sense, tired brain tonight.

On the experience side of it, I can say my electric use has definitely gone down since I started using the slow cooker instead of my cooker.