Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

Reformed_Money_Waster

pawpurrs wrote:

Remember it depends what you want to cook in it, there are only two of us but i have the big MR one, because i can do leg of lamb, chicken etc.

It would be more for stuff like curry, casseroles. To be honest I'm sceptical about cooking joints in one, other than gammon. Beef for instance, I like my beef roasted, with a slow cooker and just water although tender I can't help feeling it would look pale and uncooked and be a little bland. How do you find your joints turn out?

pawpurrs wrote:

Have you got a cupboard it can be put away in, thats what, i tend to do.

I would have to make cupboard space, probably by retiring my current large curry pot. Could you provide me with some rough exterior measurements of it please?

filigree_2

The 3.5 litre ones tend to be round, the bigger ones are oval. I prefer an oval shape because it gives you more scope to use it for a joint. There are only 3 of us so I compromised with the 4.5 litre Anthony Worral Thompson model, which has worked just fine and we're happy with it.

saving-grace

Having been persuaded by these boards, I recently bought a slow cooker, the Breville Anthony Worral Thompson 4.5 L one and I'm very pleased with it finding it more than big enough for a family of 5 (with leftovers for the freezer)
I'd advise you to do what I did and go and actually look at them in somewhere like Comet so you can compare the sizes. I thought the 6.5L MR one was enormous and too big for my needs.
Also I liked the fact that the AWT one is "cool wall". I noticed the MR ones had stickers on them warning that they can get hot on the outside (haven't seen this mentioned on these boards so don't know if its a problem)
I noticed last week that my local Sainsbury's has 4.5L Breville slowcookers (not the AWT model) for £19.99

squeaky

Hi everyone

We have a main thread on buying slow cookers, which and why, that has lots of information in it and is the main place to keep such new threads in, so I am going to merge this one onto the end of it.

Don't forget that we have lots of other threads in our:-

Complete Slow Cooker Collection


..which you can find via the Cooking section and the Kitchenware section of the MEGA Index; and you can also find it via "Our Collections" in my signature any time you see it or...

..you can use the Indexed Collections link in the Blue Bar at the top of every page which looks something like this:-

FZwanab

Magentasue wrote:

How many portions of rice can you cook in this? There was a thread about cooking rice a while back, never get it right every time whatever method I use.

Use half a tea cup of rice per person, double the amount of water. Bring water to the boil, add rice,reduce heat to a simmer, cover using a tight fitting lid and time for about 14 mins until all the water has been absorbed. Secret - don't take the lid off until the timer goes. Hope this helps.

Horasio

Is DeLonghi a good brand for slow cookers?

joey-lou

mah_jong wrote:

I have just seen one on Argos for £11.99

Cookworks Round 3.5 Litre Slow Cooker.
Was £17.99


Not heard of the brand, but such a good price!

ma

Mine is a huge old Tower..... perhaps a wee one would be better for meals for one/two.

I have the cookworks slow cooker( I got it because I wasn't sure I would use it often enough) It is fab.I use it all the time. It is just argos' own brand

Reformed_Money_Waster

I was going to compromise on a 4.5 litre model for my family of five but this thread swung me towards the 6.5 litre Morphy Richards model in the end and now it's sitting on my kitchen work surface I think I may have made a mistake. It's gargantuan!

I've just put two jars of Sharwood's curry sauce in and barely covered the bottom, and the manual says it works best when half full. It's not bad though as my wife has just popped out for another couple of jars and we will just have another couple of left over portions to bung in the freezer for another night.

One thing, I know others have commented on it, but the lid is a lot looser fitting than I imagined. If too much steam starts to come out should I take it back for an exchange?

tryingtobegood

I bought the MR 6.5l Slow Cooker on Thursday. I have to agree that it does look rather huge ! I wanted the oval shape for chickens , joints etc.
I cooked a joint of Topside (reduced from Tesco's) yesterday and it was fine if you like your meat in strips rather than slices. ( I think I may have overdone it ...7 hours on medium).
Not to be defeated I cooked 3 pork loin steaks with a can of tomatoes, mushroom, red pepper and onion. It was beautiful, the pork melted in your mouth.
The only problem is I have now got 2 pints of beef gravy/stock and 1 pint of tomato/pork based stock in the fridge. These I'll have to use up as I am trying very hard not to be wasteful...
So tomorrow it's a whole chicken.....I will not be using as much liquid as I have done today and yesterday!

mandy_moo_1

After reading all the great benefits of a slow cooker, i've just bought the Russell Hobbs 6.5l one from amazon. its oval,but its got two separate compartments...has anyone else got this one? does it work if you just want to cook in one side? or how would you use it economically? cook 2 different things at the same time?