Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

davetaylor

davetaylor wrote: »

Sorry to put a spanner in the works but I am a slow cooker fan, but hate my Morphy Richards 6.5 litre model. I also have the smaller MR model, I believe it was 3.5 litres and love it. I only trated myself the the 6.5 version because I wanted to cook larger cuts of meat and generally bigger portions.

The problem I have is that the 6.5 version gets too hot. It's ridiculous! I now use my 3.5 version still for most things and then only use the larger one when I am at home.

Even on low, the 6.5 makes sauces rapidly bubble up after only a few hours. I thought there was a fault with mine until I looked on the Amazon website and read the reviews and realised that others had the same problem. I wish now that I had taken mine back and exchanged it for a different brand but same size when I could of.

I am on a mission here. I switched my sc on 2 hours ago I poured a pint of cold water into it and then sat an oven thermometer in the bottom of it.

Just two hours later, it's bubbling away at 200 degrees. Surely that is not slow cooking?

tiff

davetaylor wrote: »

I am on a mission here. I switched my sc on 2 hours ago I poured a pint of cold water into it and then sat an oven thermometer in the bottom of it.

Just two hours later, it's bubbling away at 200 degrees. Surely that is not slow cooking?

I found the same. I had a large MR stainless steel one and didnt realise the difference until it stopped working and I bought the Cookworks 3.5 litre one. The MR was also hard to clean as food would be burnt on, whereas the Cookworks crock is very easy to clean.

anniemf2508

We have the oval Anthony Worrall Thompson one and can't fault it.

Olliebeak

anniemf2508 wrote: »

We have the oval Anthony Worrall Thompson one and can't fault it.

.......that was my first one - and have to say that I found it really good and 'very controllable'.

My new one is the MR 6.5 and I'm having a little trouble getting used to the cooking times (no low or Auto function). Plus it can't be 'set' for less than 6 hours.

I don't think that bubbling in 2 hours is all that fast - don't forget that the density of the actual food will probably slow it down to a simmer. With my AW-T one, I always used boiling water/stock to get the cooking off to a quick start - don't have to do that with the MR one, but I probably will do from force of habit.

davetaylor

Olliebeak wrote: »

.......that was my first one - and have to say that I found it really good and 'very controllable'.

My new one is the MR 6.5 and I'm having a little trouble getting used to the cooking times (no low or Auto function). Plus it can't be 'set' for less than 6 hours.

I don't think that bubbling in 2 hours is all that fast - don't forget that the density of the actual food will probably slow it down to a simmer. With my AW-T one, I always used boiling water/stock to get the cooking off to a quick start - don't have to do that with the MR one, but I probably will do from force of habit.

As a comparison, I'm going to do the same thing with my other smaller Morphy Richards model and compare results...

davetaylor

davetaylor wrote: »

As a comparison, I'm going to do the same thing with my other smaller Morphy Richards model and compare results...

Ok, after two hours on low, in my smaller Morphy Richards slow cooker, it has only reached 150 degrees. That's 50 degrees lower. Not sure what to do with this information, but it has proved a point!

I'm thinking of emailing Morphy Richards customer care about it!

lbt_2

Lyndsay_21 wrote: »

thanks for all the advice will go for the 6.5 ltr then...going to look online now. ooh how exciting

Excellent choice - I have the MR 6.5l and I love it - I use it all the time and I have never had a disaster yet I have a high, medium and low setting on mine which seems to differ from some people.

I had the AWT version before but took it back because it didn't get hot enough! After many hours the liquid didn't even bubble - I was worried about giving everyone food poisoning :eek:

Lyndsay_21

well i went into sainsburys to get a few bits so decided to look what they had sc wise and they had there own branded one 'sainsburys home' or whatever 1/3 off so it was £15.99 for a 4.5ltr which by the looks of it will be plenty big enough seeing the size of it the 6.5 would have been too big.

it has 3 control low, high and auto but not really sure what the auto does???

davetaylor

Lyndsay_21 wrote: »

well i went into sainsburys to get a few bits so decided to look what they had sc wise and they had there own branded one 'sainsburys home' or whatever 1/3 off so it was £15.99 for a 4.5ltr which by the looks of it will be plenty big enough seeing the size of it the 6.5 would have been too big.

it has 3 control low, high and auto but not really sure what the auto does???

I have always wondered about the auto control and would be interested to hear the answer.

shelly

For those of you wondering what the "auto" setting does on a slow cooker, I found 2 explanations.....

*An auto setting will fluctuate between high and low settings through the cooking cycle*

*On auto the slow cooker cooks the food then automatically lowers the temperature to a "keep warm" setting*

I'm pretty sure my mums sc does the first one, changes temp thhroughout the cooking period.


HTH