Slow cookers and slow cookery

Nelski · 14 August 2020 at 6:08AM

You really don't need much at all as during the long cooking process all your ingredients will add their own water too during the cooking. You can add more if you want but there really isn't any need. If you want the liquid to be a sauce remember it won't thicken so you would have to thicken on the hob after cooking. I usually just add a splash of water and its ample. Enjoy it will be gorgeous

Si_Clist · 14 August 2020 at 6:53AM

Nelski said:

You really don't need much at all as during the long cooking process all your ingredients will add their own water too during the cooking. You can add more if you want but there really isn't any need.

Cheers Nelski. My Lady Wife (who normally does the cooking) has just requested that I aim for plain and simple cooked gammon with which we can do whatever the fancy takes her once it's cold, so to this end I'm leaping into the unknown by simply covering the thing with boiling water and slow-cooking it on "low" for however long it takes. I might be really daring and add a quartered onion to the water, 'cos that's what a lot of recipes seem to insist on. I have no idea why.

joedenise · 14 August 2020 at 7:00AM

Please don't cover it with water, it will make the gammon very bland! If you halve a couple of onions and place them in the bottom on the SC you can sit the gammon on it and then just add some water to cover the onions, this will be enough to cook the gammon, as you say it steams and should be really moist.

I actually like it cooked with some diet orange, like Tang*. Gives it a nice sweeter than usual flavour.

However you do it, enjoy!

Si_Clist · 14 August 2020 at 8:11AM

joedenise said:

Please don't cover it with water, it will make the gammon very bland!

Thanks ever so much for that, joedenise. I was just about to sink it in water but what you say makes perfect sense to me, so it's now sitting quietly on a quartered onion in about half an inch of boiling water, heating up. Once it gets simmering, I'll turn it down to low and have a poke at it in four hours or so to see how the patient's doing. It's just over Ikg, by the way.

I must say, this cooking lark's jolly interesting for an old git whose culinary repertoire pre-slow-cooker was limited to bread, scones (pronounced skoans) and a couple of varieties of bicuits

PS I take it that if it looks like it's going to dry out of liquid, I just add some boiling water to bring it back to where it was?

-taff · 14 August 2020 at 8:14AM

I expect the recipes that say cover the gammon think you're intending to use the liquid left over to make soup. If you only intend to cook the gammon a little bit of water is fine.

bouicca21 · 14 August 2020 at 8:15AM

Even with modern curing methods I would still bring it to the boil on the hob, and then throw away the water in order to reduce the salt before proceeding to cook it.

PipneyJane · 14 August 2020 at 11:20AM

Si_Clist said:

joedenise said:

Please don't cover it with water, it will make the gammon very bland!

Thanks ever so much for that, joedenise. I was just about to sink it in water but what you say makes perfect sense to me, so it's now sitting quietly on a quartered onion in about half an inch of boiling water, heating up. Once it gets simmering, I'll turn it down to low and have a poke at it in four hours or so to see how the patient's doing. It's just over Ikg, by the way.
I must say, this cooking lark's jolly interesting for an old git whose culinary repertoire pre-slow-cooker was limited to bread, scones (pronounced skoans) and a couple of varieties of bicuits
PS I take it that if it looks like it's going to dry out of liquid, I just add some boiling water to bring it back to where it was?

Yes, Si. If it looks like it's going to dry out of liquid, add HOT water (boiling is fine). Never add cold water to a hot slow cooker - that will cause the ceramic pot to crack from the shock.

- Pip

Si_Clist · 14 August 2020 at 12:57PM

Thank you one and all for sorting me out again. I'm not quite sure how long it's had now, but it seems to be very tender when impaled by a fork, so I shall throw all caution to the wind and consider it done after another half hour for luck. Then cool it and bung it in the fridge so it's cold by teatime.

I must admit that I was surprised by the amount of liquid it produced. Now I see why some of the recipes say only use 100ml of water ...

maddiemay · 14 August 2020 at 3:18PM

Si_Clist - I hope that you enjoy your gammon, I looked longingly at the gammon joints in the butchers this morning, but firmly told myself I must eat some of the food from the freezer first.
Off topic for this thread, thank you for the recommendation for the dried egg, a nice large packet is now crammed into my Brexit/further lockdown/Winter stores.

Si_Clist · 14 August 2020 at 5:03PM

Here's me popping back just to say that thanks to you lovely lot, that was a real success. Half of it went down very nicely cold for tea tonight, the other half's still in the fridge for tomorrow, and not only did it earn me my Lady Wife's fulsome praise, but I'm also getting some Smarties later from her secret stash

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