Slow cooker beginner - question/s

B0bbyEwing

Hi

First off, sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

Have ourselves a slow cooker (if it matters which then I can try find the model number etc) and I think we'll be looking to have more meals this way. Instantly I have 2 questions about it:

1) How much water?

My wife tends to deal with the slow cooker and the juice level can be hit or miss but 9/10 it's ok. As I was off work when we had the meals last week I dealt with it. Asked how much & she said she doesn't know, she just eyeballs it. Cover the meat .... so I did. 
There was a ton of juice in the sausage casserole. Too much really, but then if I thought that was bad, I'd not tackled the chicken casserole yet - that came 2 days later. I needed to put in so much water to "cover the meat". The outcome was ridiculous. 
I had to take the chicken breast out, take out the veg with one of those spoons that has holes in it (stop laughing! I don't know what they're called ) and then pour on enough juice & throw the rest.

So basically, how do you put in enough water to have a reasonable amount of juice & have everything cook just right without there being no juice at all or the flipside of it swimming in it?

* and if it matters then I think all our slow cooker meals are with rice - which is microwave rice. 35p Aldi.

2) How long - and also specifically, can you do a 10hour cook without it drying out?

My wife is a worrier. When we first got it she didn't even want to use it because she'd already decided the house was going to burn down.
I told her it's not like leaving the gas hob on, just give it a go & so she then puts it on something like a 6-8 hr cook, low heat.
The knock on of that basically is that due to leaving for work time and coming home from work time, even with the 2 hour "keep warm" function, by the time you're home from work you're having to then heat it back up. 

I don't like this & I'd rather have it beep that it's just finished as I'm walking through the door - which would be 10 hours. 

As I say, I wouldn't want it all drying out so would a 10hour cook be ok and how do you handle that one vs what we have been doing which I think is about a 7hour cook?

bouicca21

Don’t cover the meat!  You don’t need nearly as much water as cooking in the oven.  Don’t throw the ‘juice’ away, use it as stock.

My slow cooker never needs more than a few hours for chicken, and not a lot more for super tough cuts.  So if you really are leaving it for 10 hours, I’d get one of those automatic timer thingummys, the sort you plug in to make a light come on when you are away to fool the burglars …

HumberFlyer

I only ever put water in with meat joints including chicken breast if I want to make a bit of Gravy. Other than that no water. Meat is always juicy and doesn't dry out. I did a gammon joint the other day for 9 hours on low..... no water, lovely and juicy.

NorthernMonkey1

Remember, your slow cooker uses about 150 Watts, 50% more than an old fashioned 100w light bulb. If a light bulb manages to not burn your house down, then a slow cooker will manage the same

Katiehound

use the 'juice' as a basis for gravy and/or soup

just to point out that leaving it on for 10 hours- it won't come to harm, but might be more cost effective to cook for a shorter time.

B0bbyEwing

bouicca21 said:

Don’t cover the meat!  You don’t need nearly as much water as cooking in the oven.  Don’t throw the ‘juice’ away, use it as stock.

I know I threw it away when there was about a bathful of it but when it's done right none of it is thrown away. It just gets spooned on the plate so the rice isn't as dry/bland - adds flavour.

bouicca21 said:

My slow cooker never needs more than a few hours for chicken, and not a lot more for super tough cuts.  So if you really are leaving it for 10 hours, I’d get one of those automatic timer thingummys, the sort you plug in to make a light come on when you are away to fool the burglars …

I asked about them. Was even mentioning one of those mains smart things that you can control by your phone so that when I'm at work or whatever I can just set it to go off.

But then my wife pointed out that the slow cooker itself goes off after a certain amount of time. Basically it needs you to be there to press the timer twice which knocks it in to low heat, then you need to press another button to set the duration you want, then you need to press the start button. You can't set it & leave it for it to then click on in x-hours time as all the display goes off & you have to start again.

NorthernMonkey1 said:

Remember, your slow cooker uses about 150 Watts, 50% more than an old fashioned 100w light bulb. If a light bulb manages to not burn your house down, then a slow cooker will manage the same

That's another way of looking at it. Thanks.

My way was if they were so bad then we'd see nothing but "slow cooker burns house down" in the news, which we don't see, therefore it's not happening

Katiehound said:

use the 'juice' as a basis for gravy and/or soup

just to point out that leaving it on for 10 hours- it won't come to harm, but might be more cost effective to cook for a shorter time.

I accept that, but the stuff is cold by the time I come home. 
As I can't remember if it's 6 or 8 I'll go with 7. 
So wife sets at 8am. It was 7am but her new job means she sets off an hour later.
Slow cooker goes in to keep-warm mode at 3pm (was 2pm) which lasts until 5pm (was 4pm) then the slow cooker totally turns off.
I get home at 6pm at the very very earliest. Could be 6:30pm, 7:00pm if I'm having a terrible day but probably mostly 6pm.

By which time I need to heat it up again - which I do on the gas hob as 1) i find it re-heats the meat evenly vs the microwave and 2) it's cheaper than electric.

I was just thinking of eliminating that. 

Katiehound

I then thought maybe you can cook your microwave rice in the juice rather than boiling water?
 It would give it added flavour.

My slow cooker is very basic- it will stay on until someone presses the off switch!

Perhaps you could get a cheap timer plug and set it to start cooking later?

ps bog-standard rice in Aldi is microwavable- it was around 45 pence per kg- 10 mins in microwave. I haven't bought any for a couple of weeks-so  might be dearer / OOS!

newlywed

For beef mince dishes or whole chicken, gammon joint, or pulled pork then I leave it for 10 hours or so on low without any problem. No fancy timer on mine though, just a turning setting for off, high, medium or low.  I wouldn’t want to leave raw meat sat at room temperature for too many hours before the slow cooker starts up.

fish or chicken breasts cook quicker so might dry out or overcook - but having said that I have done a curry with chopped chicken breasts and left it for 10 hours and it was ok. 

Definitely put less liquid than you think as lots does come out.  Whole chicken needs no extra liquid, and pulled pork joint starts with a paste over the meat and ends up with loads of juices.

I think someone suggested using 3/4 of the amount of liquid if cooking in slow cooker compared to hob or oven as there is less evaporation.  But I think that’s still a bit too much.


ps.  It’s called a slotted spoon in my house anyway!

pickledonionspaceraider

I know people rave about slow cookers, but I have given up with mine for some foods.

Some meals just taste strange when coming out of it a slow cooker, bolognaise sauce for example has a weird twang to it, that I hve never been able to figure out

Stews hve always been ok though

MoonChild91

Mine took some getting used to but now I wouldn't be without it! My advice is to find a couple of recipes you like the look of to practice with, and then use them as a sort of base guide for liquids/solids ratios (this is what I did for rice and grain dishes at least). In general the more veg you add the more watery the dish is likely to turn out, and frozen ingredients kick out of a lot of liquid.

I've recently learnt to make puddings in mine - highly recommended!

Katiehound

MoonChild91 said:

 

I've recently learnt to make puddings in mine - highly recommended!

What kind of puddings are you talking about? please elaborate!