/cpg/- Crock Pot General

stew beef with some potatoes. i think thats all dad ever made in a crock pot.

>buy chuck roast
>buy pepperoncini peppers
>season roast to your liking and put in crock pot
>pour peppers and juice over roast
>cook on low overnight
>get up
>shred roast
Boom! roast beef and pepper sandwiches baby!

I just went and bought this one this morning for $20. My last one was an expensive one and the nonstick coating started peeling off the bottom.

This is my favourite stew to make in the slow cooker.

600g chuck, gravy or blade steak
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes (in juice)
1 cup (250ml) beef stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 tablespoons chilli flakes
1 jalapeno (diced)
1 onion (chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger (diced)
2 fresh garlic cloves (crushed)
1 teaspoon salt and pepper
2 parsnips (diced)
2 carrots (diced)
2 potatoes or kumara (diced)

Before you start, turn the slow cooker on low.

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan over medium heat and brown the beef. Once browned, remove and season with salt and pepper reserving juices. Add the ginger, jalapeno, and garlic. Stir until soft. Add curry powder, tomatoes, chilli flakes and beef stock. Stir slowly for 1 minute.

Place the onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Layer with the beef. Scoop the frypan mixture into the slow cooker over the beef. Place the diced parsnips, carrots and potatoes (or kumara) over the meat.
Cook on low for 7 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Fak, should have checked the catalog. May someone help with my thread?

I bought mine this morning for only $9 on offerup, waiting some pot roast as we speak right now

Should be ok. Probably shouldn't fill it up that far though, mine has a marker about 2 thirds of the way up inside the insert for maximum fill level.

What could I do if it begins to get too high? If I unplug it in the event it overflows, it might not be tender enough and then my family will have to eat mcchickens

I don't think there's much difference between an expensive one and a cheapy. It's just a ceramic pot and a heating element.

I'm going to wait until Sunday to give mine its first run.

It said in the instructions to heat it up for half an hour with some water in it before first use so I'm just doing that now.

What might you cook for sunday dinner?

Not sure yet, tossing up between lamb shanks or chili con carne.

I'm interested to know what happened?

>What could I do if it begins to get too high?

Am I missing something here, or isn't the solution obvious? Just scoop out some of the liquid with a ladle or a spoon.

>I'm interested to know what happened?

user overfilled the cooker.

>I don't think there's much difference between an expensive one and a cheapy.

There is one important difference: Some of the expensive ones have a "saute" or other high-heat setting. That's ideal for stews because it makes it easy to brown the meat first, then you set it on low while it cooks. If you don't have that feature then you either need to spend more work browning the meat on the stovetop before sticking it into the cooker, or you might be tempted to get lazy and skip that step.

I do agree with you that as far as the normal slow cooking process goes the cheapos work just as well as the fancy ones.

Cheap ones have poor temperature sensors, they boil your food and then let it cool down, then boil it again. Theres a great youtube video on consumer reports or some similar site

Must only be certain ones then. I have a really cheap, basic one. Bought a decade ago at Wal-Mart. It cooks very evenly. But I don't doubt that there might be some that suck.

Everything I cook in mine comes out tasteless
idk if it's too hot or too long

veg - root veg, celery, leeks are all good.
meat - better if you brown it lightly beforehand. not really a fan of chicken desu
spices
stock and/or beans (optional)

just leave it on the lowest setting all day. can't go wrong really.

I doubt it's either. It's most like your choice of ingredients and lack of seasoning.

Are you putting some good flavorful liquid in there, like stock or wine? Or are you just using water? Are you adding seasonings, herbs, spices, etc?

>I doubt it's either. It's most like your choice of ingredients and lack of seasoning.
Absolutely not. I've dumped loads of herbs, broths, funds, spices and veggies. The entire house smells heavenly for hours, but the food tastes like nothing.

Yeah, then it's either running too hot, too long, or both.
Ideally it will never be "boiling". You want the barest little simmer.

How is the texture of the meat when it comes out? Is it literally falling apart mush? Or does it still have some texture to it?

Don't fill it as high as that.

>truth
I'm only on this thread because I'm pissed off that I spent my supermarket loyalty points on one and it just gathers dust. I can make everything it makes better by other methods.

>How is the texture of the meat when it comes out? Is it literally falling apart mush?
I haven't used it in a long while now, but from what I recall it still had some pull to it if I tried to separate it.

Yo, if you're having a fall party- cider and apples on low heat. Add Fireball. Get messed up really quick.

that's a really good idea. Good one user.

OP, if you're trying to get fit, it's really easy to put 10lbs of chicken, a bunch of spices, and about a jars worth of picklejuice and water in there to make really really soft shredded chicken.

Really easy for portioning for meal prep

any good batch recipes Veeky Forums would recommend for neets something cheap and good i can freeze the excess with and thats not bad on reheat for leftovers? or good websites for recipes for such things

I have found that crock pots are a mostly useless invention unless you're on a time constraint and need meals that you can basically pre-prep and just toss in when needed. Sometimes I'll cut up meats and vegs into cubes and freeze them in pre-measured portions when I have a busy work week and toss them in with a can of broth for cheap and easy stew, but the meals never come out as tender and rendered as they do when I use my cast iron roasting pan at a slow and even heat.

The one thing I did find to be better in a crock pot is chili. When you need flavors heated and melding together for a long time like chili, a crock pot's low setting is god tier. I like to make mine with short rib, so 8 hours on low makes that shit like butter.

Slight overflow, but it was from the steam and simmering around the end. Roast could have used more salt, it was a lot better the next day (today)

>General