Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

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Hi lizbob,

I would go for as big a slow cooker as you can get, you don't have to fill it if you don't want to. I had a 4ltr slow cooker for years but it wasn't big enough to feed our family of five as the children grew up if I wanted to add potatoes etc to the crock so I bought a morphy richards 6.5ltr and it's perfect for us.

This thread may help you to decide which slow cooker to go for:

Buying a slow cooker (which? & why?)

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the replies together.

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Rebekah24

Just wanted to add Argos have 1/2 price on various kitchen appliances atm including some huge slow cookers

the_other_mce

We have the Morphy Richards 6.5 litre too - it's really good. I always cook extra to freeze and it's saved me so much time ... I really recommend it. The Argos one (that they were selling for £14 odd recently!) looks good too...

laurel7172

I'd say go for a 6.5l, BUT, as you already have one, you do have the option of buying a 3.5L and running both...I made a huge soup base from use-me-or-lose-me veg on Friday, then flavoured two thirds with spices and red lentils, and the remainder with tomatoes and green lentils, pulled my old Tower compact out of the back of the cupboard and cooked two kinds of soup instead of one. It depends what you think you're likely to use it for...

lizbob

the_other_mce wrote: »

We have the Morphy Richards 6.5 litre too - it's really good. I always cook extra to freeze and it's saved me so much time ... I really recommend it. The Argos one (that they were selling for £14 odd recently!) looks good too...

bought the argos one, 14.69!!! wow that is soo cheap!

looking forward to our first curry!

richj

bought a 6.5l one from Aldi for £19.99 work ok with the chilli io made last week

loopyanna

Hi everyone,

I'm a slow cooker virgin and not really too sure what's going on!!! I understand the principle but have some questions if someone would be so kind!

First off, i always thought you could only cook liquid based things? For example stews, chillis, spag bols etc. but it seems that you can also do joints and whole chickens in there?! So if i wanted a roast chicken to strip down to make a pie or butties, could i just shove an entire raw chicken in the SC, leave it for however long and come back to a cooked chicken? I take it it wouldn't brown like it would in the oven but i image the meat would be gorgeous!

Secondly, i am a bit lost by some of the "Settings"... i get high and low but what's "Auto"? Can you get them with a timer on? i.e. If i'm going to be out from 8am and want to eat at 7pm, would you just turn it on when you left and eat at 7 or would you want a timer so that it turned itself on half way through the day?

Thanks in advance everyone

Anna

zippychick

Hi Loopyanna! Welcome to OS, hope you keep posting.

Okay, I shall help as best as I can.

Liquid based things - common misconception. You can cook large cheap joints in there with very little liquid - a chicken for example will produce a lot of its own juices and literally fall off the phone. Some people seal the chicken in a frying pan to give it colour - but it depends on your preference. There is thread for Cooking a whole chicken in the SC . I cooked chicken thighs yesterday and the meat literally falls off the bone. The SC can also tenderise the cheapest of joints.

Settings - ok. From what I understand, Auto starts out high then changes to low (but i don't have my manual to hand, can check later) . Personally I just use the low setting if it is going to be around the 8 hour mark.

Time - 8am-7pm is 11 hours. I haven't Scooked for that long from memory. Your choices would be - try it first one day you are home, on low for 11 hours and see how it works out . Or you could apply a timer plug, and have it start at 11am so by 7 would be 8 hours. You can't get slow cookers with timers built in , so you would need to get a special timer plug thingmy. If it is meant to be dinner at 7 and you don't eat until 8 that is fine! Don't worry - it is flexible like that

For cooking meat joints you can add a small amount of stock/alcohol/water.

Many rave about Gammon done in coke

Hope that helps - any more questions just ask! :D

loopyanna

Thank you Zippy Chick!

Timer plug sounds like a good plan - as does having a go on a saturday and seeing what happens! lol.

I've had gammon in coke before and it is amazing! Not in a slow cooker though but i will definately be trying the recipe when i get mine!

Thanks again.

zippychick

No problems at all Loopy! Oh is it nice?! I definitely have to try it,loads of people rave about it on here! Seems to simple too, and there is a black bean soup made from the juices if my memory serves me correctly?!

When are you getting a SC then? Have you picked out a model etc ok? It's so exciting. I wanted one for AGES, then my Mum bought me one because she was proud of me for paying my debts off. It is so versatile and I must use it more than i do. I fell out of the habit of using it but now I started again,I remember how great it is. I made stock from carcasses on Sat, then made jalfrezi yesterday, and am going to make more soup tonight and a bean casserole type thing tomorrow. I have also made lemon curd in it.:D

What's your first dish gonna be?! Excited on your behalf.:j

Just read my typo lol

zippychick wrote: »

You can cook large cheap joints in there with very little liquid - a chicken for example will produce a lot of its own juices and literally fall off the phone.