With all of us busy with family or personal obligations that intrude on our time for making meals, a slow cooker can be a handy, efficient way for preparing nutritious dishes with a minimum of time and fuss. Many of the newer models have removable cooking inserts so that the meal can be assembled the night before, refrigerated overnight, then popped into the electric coil unit the next morning before we leave for the office or our daily chores. Set on the 'low' setting, the dish will be done just about dinnertime, leaving you to only prepare any side dishes, a salad, and some fresh fruit to dessert.
If you haven't yet discovered the joy of slow cooking, we suggest you invest in a slow cooker or dust off the one that you received as a gift, but never used. If slow cooking is 'old hat' in your cooking repertoire, perhaps our pointers will help you fine-tune your technique.
Standard crockery slow cookers range in size from 3 1/2 to 6 quarts (3 1/2 to 6 liters). In our recipes, we state the minimum size necessary to hold the ingredients. If your slow cooker is below the suggested size, you may not be able to fit all of the ingredients into the pot. At the same time, you should not cook a small amount of food in a large cooker--for best efficiency, the slow cooker should be at least half full during use. Most slow cookers offer heat setting of low and high. If your slow cooker has other settings, refer to your manufacturer's instructions to determine the levels that correspond to low and high.
Ingredients should be placed into your slow cooker in the order that they appear in the recipes. Usually we do not ask you to stir the mixture, so follow the recipe, stirring only when indicated. When your slow cooker is in use, the tight-fitting cover should be in place. Just lifting the lid for a 'quick peak' or 'taste' can greatly lower the cooking temperature, thereby prolonging the cooking time.
Because there is only minor evaporation from a slow cooker, our recipes usually call for a minimum of liquid, unless we are making a soup. Don't be tempted to add water or other liquids as the vegetables, meats, or poultry will be releasing their liquids during the cooking process.
When set on high, a slow cooker is cooking at a temperature of between 300 to 325°F (135 to 160°C), which makes the cooker more like a top-of-the-stove soup pot in which the liquids will bubble and boil with some reduction through evaporation. When cooking on high, don't leave the slow cooker unattended for more than half of the cooking time as the foods can burn and stick if they cook dry. We usually suggest stirring one during the last hour of cooking time when cooking on high.
If you live at a high altitude and you already extend your stove-top cooking times, your slow cooker times will also be correspondingly longer. The first time you use one of our recipes, note the change in cooking time for future use.
