Is it worth buying a slow cooker?

[Deleted User]

Yes Yes Yes I wouldn't be without mine it gets used quite frequently in the winter and I have an oval one which will take a chicken and a smaller round one that DD gave me when her family gott larger (5 kids )

Pollycat

elsien wrote: »

I work full time. But I find 10 minutes preparation at night worth it to come to a hot meal on days when I know I'll be pushed for time. And shopping doesn't take long if you know what you're going for. especially for veg that keeps well.

I do appreciate that.
And when I was working, I found time to shop and prep too.

I just thought it worth pointing out to the OP if shopping (rather than grabbing an armful of ready meals) is a bit of a chore.

fiscalfreckles

lucyhope wrote: »

I had one but didn't like it, I'd rather use my pressure cooker, I found that the meat wasn't as well cooked as we like it even though it was on for hours. I seem to be very much in the minority because most of the people I know love their slow cookers.

I'm not a fan either. I've only had a few successes (a gammon joint was really nice) but find most of the stews/things in sauces that I expected it to be great for come out watery and flavourless. I can minimise this by browning everything off before putting it in, and then thickening and seasoning (again) at the end, but this is quite a lot of faff which detracts from the convenience factor, I seem to be doing just as much work and the slow cooker is simply keeping the dish warm for ages between these two points.

Citygirl1

Thanks for your replies. Yes I do work full time and like convenience foods but just want a way of heating healthier. I wouldn't chop and prepare veg, don't have time, I would buy it prepacked.

The only meats I eat are chicken and turkey mince so in this case would it be worth the slow cooker?

jackieblack

I bought this small one when I became a single person household as it is only £10. http://www.wilko.com/slow-cookers/wilko-functional-slow-cooker-15l/invt/0316165?nst=0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9La9wKaO1wIVXs-yCh3KSwK9EAQYASABEgK7TPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I have a terrible habit of getting distracted when I'm cooking and things end up boiling over/ boiling dry etc, which doesn't happen with this. I use it for chicken casserole, stewing fruit and for rice pudding.

Pollycat

Citygirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Yes I do work full time and like convenience foods but just want a way of heating healthier. I wouldn't chop and prepare veg, don't have time, I would buy it prepacked.

The only meats I eat are chicken and turkey mince so in this case would it be worth the slow cooker?

As previously posted:

Pollycat wrote: »

Whether you'd find one useful is something only you can decide.
Maybe browse some slow cooker recipes and see if that's the type of food you'd like to eat.

Nelski wrote: »

I use mine at least twice a week and its always on with a batch cook at the weekend. Second the idea to have a look round the internet for some slow cooker recipe sites you might be surprised what you can do in it its not just for soup and stew

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

jackieblack wrote: »

I bought this small one when I became a single person household as it is only £10. http://www.wilko.com/slow-cookers/wilko-functional-slow-cooker-15l/invt/0316165?nst=0&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9La9wKaO1wIVXs-yCh3KSwK9EAQYASABEgK7TPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I have a terrible habit of getting distracted when I'm cooking and things end up boiling over/ boiling dry etc, which doesn't happen with this. I use it for chicken casserole, stewing fruit and for rice pudding.

I had a tiny SC when I was living by myself - I needed to get the hang of not adding so much liquid to the ingredients, but it came into its own for making things like ratatouille, chicken pieces, curries, bolognese/ragu with very lean mince/lentils and soups (it's great for slowly cooking onion for onion soup without burning) and pie fillings.

When the household increased by one, he quickly became a fan (after trying spicy oxtail stew/soup) and when it died, we bought an £18 full size one, which takes a whole chicken - the meat falls off the bone, the skin comes away easily (which is great if you prefer not to eat it) and the carcass gets turned into stock for future meals without any need to wash tins and pans up or watching it for burning/boiling dry. If you're into the concept of Bone Broth, it's fantastic for that, and because it doesn't let all the steam out, you don't need to cook veggies separately, which means all their vitamins are kept in the meal, rather than being poured down the sink as you drain them.

It's simple to make the main part of meals in there and then just flick it onto High, chuck some frozen veg in at the end and they are cooked as it reheats to serving temperature, too - all without having to look at it once.

As turkey mince doesn't have a particularly strong flavour, if you SC it in a tomato based sauce, I'd suggest you add a large squeeze of tomato puree, rather than a whole tin of tomatoes by themselves - you just adjust your cooking to add more flavours rather than doing things exactly the same.


*******
In short, I'd say try a cheap SC, as if it doesn't suit you, it's no great loss, as you can donate it to a charity shop that accepts electrical items - don't bother with an all singing, all dancing one until you know it works for your style of cooking.

Citygirl1

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I had a tiny SC when I was living by myself - I needed to get the hang of not adding so much liquid to the ingredients, but it came into its own for making things like ratatouille, chicken pieces, curries, bolognese/ragu with very lean mince/lentils and soups (it's great for slowly cooking onion for onion soup without burning) and pie fillings.

When the household increased by one, he quickly became a fan (after trying spicy oxtail stew/soup) and when it died, we bought an £18 full size one, which takes a whole chicken - the meat falls off the bone, the skin comes away easily (which is great if you prefer not to eat it) and the carcass gets turned into stock for future meals without any need to wash tins and pans up or watching it for burning/boiling dry. If you're into the concept of Bone Broth, it's fantastic for that, and because it doesn't let all the steam out, you don't need to cook veggies separately, which means all their vitamins are kept in the meal, rather than being poured down the sink as you drain them.

It's simple to make the main part of meals in there and then just flick it onto High, chuck some frozen veg in at the end and they are cooked as it reheats to serving temperature, too - all without having to look at it once.

As turkey mince doesn't have a particularly strong flavour, if you SC it in a tomato based sauce, I'd suggest you add a large squeeze of tomato puree, rather than a whole tin of tomatoes by themselves - you just adjust your cooking to add more flavours rather than doing things exactly the same.


*******
In short, I'd say try a cheap SC, as if it doesn't suit you, it's no great loss, as you can donate it to a charity shop that accepts electrical items - don't bother with an all singing, all dancing one until you know it works for your style of cooking.

Thanks for this. Just wondering how many servings of soup, casserole, chicken pieces does the small SC do, just wondering if its better to get that rather than a larger one. Do vegetables cook OK if you put them in before you go to work or do they come out mushy?

PasturesNew

With a small SC, what I discovered is that it's easy to run out of space if you start by chucking a pack of meat at it, a tin of tomatoes .... and you then find you're tight for space to add other things.... e.g. a chilli, if you opened a tin of kidney beans, tin of tomatoes and chucked in a 450-500 gram pack of mince and added a chopped onion you're rapidly on the side of "this is filling up a bit".

I chose 3.5l, oval, as I can do smaller quantities in it, or do quite a big meat/veg stew - and potentially fit any meat joints in it easily. I used a frozen 800 gram turkey breast for Xmas and that "just fitted" in my 3.5/oval.

Small looks good, but you might then find it limits your options.

For simple soup making, or rice pudding, it'd be fine .... but is that the sort of food you thought you'd use it for?

Anoneemoose

I didn't like mine. I thought everything tasted samey from it. I didn't feel like it was very flavoursome either.

I do however have a slow cook function on my oven (not sure if it's any different from a normal really low setting) and I use that quite regularly. I have a hob to oven pan so I usually brown things on the hob then pop in the oven on slow cook.

Hubby also used to say food didn't seem to retain its heat out of the slow cooker, so at least the oven way, I can whack up the heat for a bit at the end.