Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

skintmam

Morning! was thinking about buying a slowcooker, now as you can see from my sig we are massively in debt and are working incredibly hard to get our debt down.. so need to convince my dh that it is worth spending the money on one. have read through some of the recipes and think over time it will pay for itself as I'll be able to use cheaper cuts of meat - not that I buy anything other than chicken and mince at the mo,due to the cost!

we are a family of 4, me, dh ds who is 9 and a 10 month old dd. what size slow cooker would you recommend? we have a chest freezer so could make large quantities and freeze. also what make? would like to keep the cost as low as possible.

thanks in advance for your help

MATH

I've found that an oval cooker is more useful that a round one as you can fit chicken and odd shaped joints in better. Go large IME, you don't always need to fill it but it is handy to double up on recipes.

However, I do not use the slo-cooker as much as I used to as:
a) I got fed up with smelling my dinner cooking from 9 am in the morning until I ate it and
b) IME quite a few recipes tended to come out tasting the same, sort of school dinnerish, it's hot, it's cooked, but what is it?

If money is really tight consider cooking budget slo-cooker type meals without the expense of buying a slo-cooker. I've found sticking casseroles, bakes and stews in the micro and bringing up to hot and then turning to defrost for 90 mins to a couple of hours pretty much mimics a slo-cookers function.

Here is a basic mince beef casserole recipe:

Put the mince in a large covered dish and nuke on full for 10 mins, stiring once.

Drain off the fat and add all your veggies, chopped evenly and hot liquid (I use baked beans, chopped toms and stock) to not quite cover.

Nuke on full for 10 mins or so to bring to boiling.

Turn to defrost and cook a couple of hours until the root veggies are cooked.

Adjust the consistency if necessary with cornstarch and chuck dumplings on the top.

Leave uncovered and nuke on full for a fruther 10 mins to finish.

HTH

Mrs_Weasley

I bought a slow cooker from wilkinsons i think its a 3 or 3.5 ltr, we are family of 4 and when filled you have enough to use half and freeze half! Sil also has the same one and there are 5 of them. My point.....its only around £12:j
Happy slow cooking!!!!!!!!!

Penelope_Penguin

skintmam wrote: »

Morning! was thinking about buying a slowcooker, now as you can see from my sig we are massively in debt and are working incredibly hard to get our debt down

They often come up on Freecycle, so I'd try that first, then if you like it, you can decide if it's worth the cash investment.

There's an older thread on just this subject, so I'll add this thread to that one.

Penny. x

skintmam

Mrs_Weasley wrote: »

I bought a slow cooker from wilkinsons i think its a 3 or 3.5 ltr, we are family of 4 and when filled you have enough to use half and freeze half! Sil also has the same one and there are 5 of them. My point.....its only around £12:j
Happy slow cooking!!!!!!!!!

thanks! I am now the proud owner of a wilkinsons slow cooker have got some chicken thighs in the fridge and am planning on making a casserole out of them tommorrow. my Dh won't eat anything on the bone so planning on picking them out before I serve it :rolleyes: .

now need to find a recipe.......

schoolhouse

Hi! I shall be getting a slow cooker for my birthday/christmas pressie this year :j . I would really appreciate some help in finding a good slow cooker. I am looking for a larger capacity model(for batch cooking of course:D ) and not too pricey. Which slow cooker has worked for you?

Thank you for your help.

Rikki

Plenty of advice and recipes. CLICK HERE

Penelope_Penguin

There's an existing thread on just this subject I'll add your question so that you can browse.

Penny. x

Vampgirl

I know the general opinion is to go large as you have more cooking options, but sometimes that's not always the best idea if you are short on storage space or really wouldn't use a big at its full capacity.

There are just the two of us and I've had this 1.5L one from Lakeland for almost a year now and its been great. Very simple controls (high, low and auto) and if I fill it right up there is plenty for us to eat plus extra to freeze: its described as a "two portion" slow cooker, but depending on what you are cooking I'd say that it can be up to 4 portions (suppose it depends on how much you eat tho!). I usually fill it to between halfway and 3/4 the way up and that gives us a portion each for dinner plus leftovers for my lunch the next day.

Anyway, there's lot of recomendations on here for the bigger ones, I just wanted to add some info for those people who want a smaller one as I know from when I was buying mine that it can be difficult to find which are the good small ones from people who have actually used them.

morganb

Right, there's a 3.5 litre one on Ebay near my house ... will that be enough for a family of four ..