Slow cooker advice general

Recently got a slow cooker and I'm not too happy with the results when I've used it. I've mainly tried to use it for stew but it gives me hard vegetables and thin and low in flavour gravy. Are there any slow cooker experts on Veeky Forums? Did I just fall for the slow cooker meme?

Is that like a crockpot?

temperature's too low, veg cook at around 85C

You sound like a working class chump. I bet you thought it would be a great "investment", how you would wake up to a warm, healthy breakfast to start off your long day. Maybe, you even had a couple thoughts about all the other nifty little uses you could find for the thing, how it would help you cook healthier meals in general, shed a couple pounds off the old gut, boost your confidence around work and with the ladies. Yeah, maybe that slow cooker would start your life cooking again, wouldn't it? I can see your strained hands holding the box and reading through it carefully at the store. A little bit pricey, but you're the type of guy who thinks everything is more than you can spend, aren't you. And look what happened to you. Look what the slow cooker did to you. Fucked you over, and made you clean it like a useless bitch. You don't even fucking like oatmeal. Piece of shit, you've been repeating those three words your whole life, haven't you. Yeah, how was work after that piece of shit fucked you over? I bet it was on your mind the whole day, you probably didn't say shit to nobody. Can't be telling people about your mistakes. How your little fix yourself plan, failed you. Don't want people to start thinking you're the failure. You're the piece of shit, all along. You don't want that do you? You don't want to be the piece of shit everybody secretly whispers about, do you? Was your father a piece of shit like you? I bet he never had a slow cooker. He had a woman, a house, a damn good job. I bet it's slow cooking you the fuck alive, isn't it. Comparing yourself to him. How one day when all the steam runs our of your life, you'll discover how you're nothing more than burnt shit to be scrapped off and thrown in the trash.

salsa chicken

You must have had it on too low and not long enough.

It's really not that complicated. A simple one I do is sliced carrots, quartered small onions, dice potatoes and some diced beef.

Put it all in, add salt, pepper, all spice and some rosemary or other herbs. Add just enough water and put it on low for an entire day with the lid on.

Liquid doesn't really reduce in slow cookers much at all, so forget about being too generous with the water like you would if you were doing this in a pot on the stove. Just add water to the level you'd expect the gravy to be at when finished, maybe a miniscule amount more than that.

At the end you'll have stew so fucking good and meat that just falls apart and everything. It's the most rewarding thing when you come home to a hot pot of stew that you pretty much did fuck all to make, especially when its freezing outside.

Calm down Jerry, you're scaring the kids.

Hi Mike. Having pasta for lunch again?

>wall of text starts with a type of insult
>expects me to read it

You've got more chance of holding hands with the opposite sex (apart from your mother) this century.

1/10 at least you got your precious (you).

>I've mainly tried to use it for stew but it gives me hard vegetables
you either added the veggies too soon, and/or didn't leave the cooker on long enough.


>>and thin and low in flavour gravy.
That has nothing to do with the cooking method but rather your choice of ingredients.

Thanks. I'll try again on medium next week.

BTW, I did save the it -- I basically just simmered it a while like a normal stew.

>At the end you'll have stew so fucking good

No, you'll have shit stew because:

1) you didn't brown the meat first
2) you cooked it with fucking water instead of something tasty like stock, broth, or wine.

I've never browned the meat for a stew, never had any complaints.

And yeah you can swap water for any of those, I think anyone here would know that...

You're missing out. Browned meat is way better.

This, and stock is a much better choice than water. Wine into the pot/pan after browning meat, then into slow cooker with stock is the best way imo

Your "stew" sounds pretty shitty, the spices suck, non browned meat and veg sounds fucking awful, your veg is shit, and you use fucking water. You don't have any complaints because you're the only one that eats it.

Not hard m8. I recently got a slow cooker since I started working more hours, so Monday through Friday, I tend to slow cook a roast.

>get a fatty roast (I use a 1 kg chuck)
>trim some of the fat off
>coarse salt, pepper, olive oil, and any other seasonings you like
>slather that shit on then sear at around 215C
>want a quick sear to brown, but not really cook the interior
>set it aside, the add uniformly cut potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions, really whatever you want to the crock pot
>add 500ml-1l of beef stock (meme, but knorr stock pots are pretty decent in a pinch)
>add roast over the top of vegetables
>cook on low for around 8 hours
>remove roast, wrap in foil to rest
>use 500ml of the liquid to a roux, cook until thickened, season to taste
>throw roast, stewed veggies, some steamed greens (brussels, peas, and broccoli for me) on a plate with some yorkshire puddings
>top it all with gravy and enjoy

I have enough for both my girlfriend and myself to eat a damn good meal that night, plus enough leftovers to make another meal the next day.

It's kind of boring, but you can change it up enough to keep it fresh, eat cheaply, and save gourmet meals for weekends where you have more time.

My crockpot was 13$ at walmart and I can clean it in the dishwasher.

I also fucking love oatmeal.

Anyone know some good recipes?

i love oatmeal

but it takes 25 minutes on the stove

Slow cooked pulled chicken is a favorite of mine

>three boneless skinless chicken breast, halved
>12oz of your favorite bbq sauce
>half a cup of your favorite hot sauce
>quarter of a finely diced sweet onion
>1 clove of diced garlic (or more, to taste)
>1/2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
>maybe some oregano if you want

Cook on high for 6 hours, then pull apart with forks. Don't worry if it looks like there's too much sauce. The chicken sops it up when you pull it.

You can put it on rice or make sandwiches. Hell, it works pretty well as a dip with crackers too.

My favorite is toasting those tiny sweet Hawaiian rolls in the oven then adding chunky blue cheese dressing and a couple spinach leaves. Pulled chicken sliders. Always a hit for a potluck/game day.

sounds like a fattening way to ruin chicken breast

I don't make oatmeal in my crockpot, but I'm a filtyh instant oatmeal whore so.

kek

What are these things and what are they supposed to do? Does it cook food faster or something?

No, basically a self heating crock. I found use in it for braising roasts, as I don't have anything more than a toaster oven in my apartment. Good for roasts, stews, soups, casseroles, noodles, and other similar long cooking things. Definitely not a needed kitchen item, but I like using it to cook while I'm away at work

I was listing a basic one for this guy to try out, sorry I offended you so harshly with my shitty stew.

I normally put lentils or other pulses in it aswell, and herbs change depending on what I've got left.

Why are you using breast? That shits gotta be dry as fuck.

...

I liked your post friend

What's the difference between a rice cooker and a slow cooker ? I'm about to buy a rice cooker

You can't cook pasta in a slowcooker pal.

if you braise a cinder block in a crockpot on high for 6 hours, it will turn out moist

Kek rekt edgy post

Rice cooker is just a pot that's constantly on the right heat for rice

I visit Veeky Forums for the first time in half a year and this is what I fucking see. Jesus christ.

But OP, I'm curious, what brand/model did you get? I know it's irrelevant to your problems but it makes me wonder if you just got an actual shitty slow cooker instead of making user error.

Christ man who hurt you

I'm going to make meatballs in a tomato sauce in my slow cooker tomorrow. Any tips?

Same thing as what everybody else suggests
Little bit of olive oil, brown/crisp meatballs on the sides, don't worry about them being cooked all the way through, drop in the slow cooker, add in the rest of the ingredients and turn it on medium-high depending on if you're home or not.
I also save 3 meatballs to drop in raw in the tomato sauce so they cook fully in it.

So a slow cooker is better, i can do more stuff with it ? Or do i need both ?

Yes. A slow cooker, well, slowly cooks. If you work a nine-to-five job, it's easy to just drop stuff in there, go to work, and come back to a nice hot meal.

Maybe. You don't NEED either, but a rice cooker is like those egg-cooker things: its good, but pan-cooking basmati rice with a star anise is way better.

A standard rice cooker cooks your rice just as well as pot does. No better, no worse.

A rice cooker with a pressurized sealed lid produces better texture and flavor than an ordinary pot with a lift-off non locking lid.

You can add whatever spices you like to your rice cooker BTW.

>A standard rice cooker cooks your rice just as well as pot does. No better, no worse.
>A rice cooker with a pressurized sealed lid produces better texture and flavor than an ordinary pot with a lift-off non locking lid.
>You can add whatever spices you like to your rice cooker BTW.
I see your points, but I raise you mine:
>1. Gas is (usually) cheaper than electricity (unless you're not cooking on a gas-top stove, in which case you deserve to get gassed)
>2. Buying an unitasker* instead of using a pot you already own
*unless there are other uses for rice cookers I'm not aware off.

I used a cheaper rice cooker once before giving it away and, yes, it cooked practically the same way, but I didn't know you could add spices to it.

>1. Gas is (usually) cheaper than electricity
Yeah, technically it is. But that's not considering the insulation qualities of the pot/cooker. A rice cooker is insulated. Most pots are not. And do you seriously think the cost even matters? .0001 cent versus .00015 cents? Who gives a crap?

>>unitasker
Rice cookers have many uses. You can cook a lot of things in them besides rice. Plus they have the advantage of freeing up valuable space on the range, and are-set-and-forget without having to remmber when to shut it off.

Anyway, I have no problem if you don't want to use one. The only point of my post was to explain that your statement of "pan cooking is way better" is untrue. I was pointing out an error, not trying to change your mind.

>oatmeal in a slow cooker

What the fuck am I reading

>I bet it's slow cooking you the fuck alive

What is pot au feu faggot

God this pasta's stale.

Copypasta/10.

But why would you not be able to add spices to it?

Are you a little touched in the head?

fuckinn saved!