Keeping food warm in a slow cooker

FatVonD

Can any of the Old Stylers give me some advice, please, and stop me possibly poisoning my guests?

I'm having a 'gathering' in a couple of weeks and, because people may well be in and out of the garden all day (I live on the route of the bike ride) I'm going to make a big curry and then I'm hoping to leave it in a slow cooker to keep it warm so people can help themselves to it as and when.

Is it going to be okay to do that without it becoming a breeding ground for bacteria and, if so, on which setting should I leave it? (I don't actually own one yet!)

Also, I was going to do a massaman curry but are the potatoes going to turn to mush as it will effectively still be cooking?

Many thanks to anyone that can advise!

Fruball

Mine has a 'keep warm' setting so perhaps when you buy one, make sure it has that option?

As for the potatoes, choose waxy ones that keep their shape and they should be ok. Floury ones will just break up.

HTH

meg72

What settings does your SC have,if I am keeping warm for any length of time I put mine on Auto which keeps it at a safe level but I have an older one which doesn`t have this option so I would keep it on high and keep an eye on it adding more water if necessary.

Fruball

meg72 wrote: »

What settings does your SC have,if I am keeping warm for any length of time I put mine on Auto which keeps it at a safe level but I have an older one which doesn`t have this option so I would keep it on high and keep an eye on it adding more water if necessary.

She already said she doesn't own one yet which is why I suggested getting one with a 'keep warm' function

iammumtoone

Fruball wrote: »

She already said she doesn't own one yet which is why I suggested getting one with a 'keep warm' function

I think the 'keep warm' function is for when the meal is cooked and you need to keep it warm for when it is be be eaten (all in one go). I would not use this for something that the lid is going to be consistently opened and food allowed to cool down slightly before the lid being replaced. I would suggest you are better keeping the cooker on high all the time to ensure the food stays at the temperature that is needed to kill off any bacteria.

You do not say over how many hours you will be receiving the visitors, it may be the case that towards the end of the time the food does not look quite as appetising as it did at the beginning of the day but personally I would much rather this than the risk of food poisoning

The other option you have is to leave the food in the fridge and heat up a serving in the microwave every time it is needed. You will of course need to make sure it is re-heated properly to the correct temperature.

FatVonD

Thank you all, I have bought one this afternoon (Mr S have a 4.2L one on offer at £9.99 if anyone is looking for a new one!)

It does have a function to keep the food warm but I take the point that it may be better to leave on high. The recipe I'm going to be doing said to cook with lid on for a runnier sauce or off if you like it thicker (this is cooking in a wok, not the slow cooker) so I'll aim for the runnier sauce to start off with to allow for any drying out!

Thank you again all

Fruball

FatVonD wrote: »

Thank you all, I have bought one this afternoon (Mr S have a 4.2L one on offer at £9.99 if anyone is looking for a new one!)

It does have a function to keep the food warm but I take the point that it may be better to leave on high. The recipe I'm going to be doing said to cook with lid on for a runnier sauce or off if you like it thicker (this is cooking in a wok, not the slow cooker) so I'll aim for the runnier sauce to start off with to allow for any drying out!

Thank you again all

I was in sains earlier and saw them on offer so was going to let you know!

You will want to use less liquid if you are doing it in the SC. SC's barely evaporate at all, it is not like conventional cooking where you get a lot of steam

Wouldn't want you serving up watery curry lol