Browning meat (merged)

Fruball

McKneff wrote: »

Why use all the elctricty for hours in a slow cooker, when Spag Bol can be done in minutes on a hob. Mince is so small and cooks so quickly.

Seems a bit daft to me and very un MSE

Why thank you for your helpful comments.

Almo

McKneff wrote: »

Why use all the elctricty for hours in a slow cooker, when Spag Bol can be done in minutes on a hob. Mince is so small and cooks so quickly.

Seems a bit daft to me and very un MSE

Traditional bolognese takes a lot longer than a few minutes!

eleanor73

McKneff wrote: »

Why use all the elctricty for hours in a slow cooker, when Spag Bol can be done in minutes on a hob. Mince is so small and cooks so quickly.

Seems a bit daft to me and very un MSE

Maybe it only takes minutes if you use a jar but no way does it take that long the traditional way. Also i am pretty sure a slow cooker uses very little electricity?? But not sure about that.

Pink.

Hi frugal,

I always brown meat before adding it to the slow cooker as I think it adds colour and taste to the dish. In the case of mince I would never add it raw as the one time I tried it, it sort of disintigrated and went mushy. As you said it tasted fine, but totally lacked texture.

Anyway, now that you have tried your experiment I've added your thread to our existing one on browning meat before cooking in a slow cooker....it seems the jury's out on this one....some do and some don't.

Pink

Fruball

UPDATE - the kids love the texture!

I cannot get either of them to eat mince in sauce - only hm burgers - as they hate the texture.

The fact that the mince disintegrated completely into the sauce and turned to mush has made it more than acceptable to them! Even extremely fussy DD1 is eating pasta bolognese as I write this!

I might carry on doing it this way until they are used to mince, then introduce browned mince bit by bit into the mix so they don't notice.

(Lots of grated cheese made it bearable for me to eat!)

morganlefay

Now: I just need to get this straight. I'm a Kuhn Rikon and Remoska person really and dislike SCs. BUT have just found my old one and am going to give it one last chance. When I used to use it I got up early and fried off onions and raw meat to put in the Sc to make a casserole. All that at crack of dawn made me feel sick. But do I now understand that people put things into their SC cold and raw and it's quite safe and works ? I might be able to do that. Say chicken joints, onion, carrots etc etc with stock, or cubed beef or pork cheeks with assorted veg - mostly meaty things. And if so do you have to have it on a high setting for a bit to get hot, and then turn it down ? This its last chance, so its fate depends on you ! Thankyou

Fruball

If I am doing it before work, or short of time I just chuck it all in, switch on low and leave it.

Never put it on high first

Good luck!

Grimbal

I regularly just chuck everything in without pre-browning or cooking. Don't eat meat myself, but hubby generally is positive about the results !

A couple of weekends ago, I put in brisket, pack of passata (slooshed out with water), mixed herbs, s&P, garlic, finely chopped onions & a couple of oxos. on low for 6 hours & he practically inhaled it !

bossymoo

I just throw it all in too. Currently have mince, onions, curry powder and passata. Will leave overnight and blitz to make mulligatawny mmm I love my sc

eandjsmum

I usually just bung everything in raw, but I do brown sausages.