Slow cooker tips
TIPS FOR TOP RESULTS
• Spray your cooking bowl with a little cooking oil or butter for a super-easy clean up.
• Pre-warm the slow cooker on low for 15 minutes before adding the ingredients. This is similar to pre-heating an oven.
• Slow cookers work best when half to three quarters full.
• Modern slow cookers work a lot faster than older generation ones so, if you’ve got a newer model, you might need to revise the cooking times given in older cookbooks.
• Most cookbooks advise against taking the lid off and stirring slow cooker meals while cooking, because it lets too much heat out. However, I find that food cooks more evenly if it’s stirred at least once.
• Thaw everything before adding it to the slow cooker.
• Frozen casseroles can be placed in a cold slow cooker and heated for 5-8 hours, depending on the quantity.
• Add raw vegetables at the beginning of the slow cooking process.
• If you are using thawed frozen vegetables, these can be added to the slow cooker in the last 30 minutes of cooking.
• Layer your ingredients so that the ones that require more cooking are in the BOTTOM of the slow cooker.
• Sauteing onions before cooking in the slow cooker adds more flavour.
• Make chicken or beef stock in the slow cooker, and then use it instead of water in all your slow cooker meals for added flavour and nutrition.
• Economical cuts of beef such as blade, chuck, skirt or topside will cook to perfection in a casserole or slow cooker.
• When preparing meat for casseroles, lightly coat the pieces in flour and brown before adding to the slow cooker. This will give you a thicker sauce, helps to seal in the juices and flavours, and keeps the meat tender.
• Browning meat first not only improves colour but also develops flavour.
• If the meat is ready but the cooking liquid has not reduced enough to give a good sauce consistency, remove the meat (keep it covered so the surface does not dry) while you complete the sauce. Then return the meat to the hot sauce.
• As a general rule of thumb, you need 1 cup of liquid per kilogram of meat for the slow cooker.
• Should you wish to thicken the gravy, add a little flour or cornflour mixed to a smooth paste with a little water and stir in at the end of cooking. Cook on high for an extra 30 minutes.
• If a recipe results in too much liquid, turn the slow cooker to the HIGH setting, remove the lid and cook until sufficient liquid has evaporated.
To adapt a slow cooker recipe to the oven, add an extra 1 cup of liquid per kilogram of meat to the recipe.
Roasts
REQUIRED TIME: 8:00 hours
SETTING: LOW
Stews/Soups
REQUIRED TIME: 6:00 hours
SETTING: HIGH
Fish/Poultry
REQUIRED TIME: 5:00 hours
SETTING: HIGH
Dips/Desserts
REQUIRED TIME: 2:00 hours
SETTING: HIGH
Traditional Recipe Time Slow Cooker Recipe Time
15-30 minutes 4-6 hours on LOW Setting
60 minutes 6-8 hours on LOW Setting
1-3 hours 8-12 hours on LOW Setting
Cuts to use for Pot Roasting
Beef: topside, fresh silverside, rump, chuck (rolled), bolar (blade), fresh brisket, thick flank.
Lamb: hogget, mutton or lamb shoulder boned and rolled.
Pulses
You could almost think that crock pots were designed for cooking dried beans, peas and lentils. Without being boiled furiously, but slowly simmered with gutsy flavoured ingredients, dried pulses hold their shape beautifully and become well-flavoured.
Dried pulses all require soaking overnight in 3-4 times the amount of water to beans. Drain off the water and cook in fresh water or liquid. Changing the water helps alleviate the “wind” causing nature of the beans.
Kidney beans require 30 minutes’ boiling time once soaked and before being placed in the crock pot to cook.
Cooking time for pulses will vary on the size, freshness and % of dryness of the pulses. Many of our pulses are so well dried today, that they really do need 12 hours minimum soaking.
Old dried beans and pulses will not become tender no matter how long you cook them for, so don’t buy large stocks and store for extended periods of over 6-9 months.
Do not add salt to dried pulses until after cooking has finished as salt prevents the beans from softening.
Acidic ingredients such as wine and tomatoes also slow down the cooking time of dried pulses.
Dried pulses need plenty of liquid to cook with and naturally the larger the bean or pea, the more liquid required.
If wishing to add pasta or rice, it is probably easiest to add this , cooked, at end. This is because the brands and styles of pasta and rice vary greatly today and so absorb more or less water when cooking, making it hard to make any recommendations to you.
Steamed puddings in a Steamed Pudding Basin
Turn the slow cooker on to low to pre-warm while gathering and preparing the ingredients.
Place an upturned saucer into the base of the slow cooker, this will act as a trivet.
Lightly grease the pudding basin.
Sit the pudding on top of the saucer. Pour 2 cups of boiling water into the slow cooker. The water should come about halfway up the sides of the bowl. Cover with the lid.
Cook on high for 3–4 hours.
Remove carefully from the slow cooker. Check to see if the pudding is cooked. If not, quickly recover the cover and return to the slow cooker for a further 30
minutes or until cooked.