Adjusting crock pot timing for super long cook times

November 4, 2019 5:42 AM

Most of our Crock-Pot recipes call for cooking on low for 6 to 8 hours. But thanks to our work schedules we usually put the food in 12 hours before we take it out, so the Crock-Pot stays on warm for an extra 4 to 6 hours before we get home and eat. This means everything gets a little dried out, no matter how liquidy. Can we adjust the cook time down if we know it's going to sit on warm for hours? How many hours on warm = 1 hour on low?
posted by Tehhund to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

I'm not sure if this is the case for all slow cookers...but on mine, a "warm" setting will never get hot enough to actually cook what's in the pot (180*, I believe). So there is no low=warm analog.
posted by Gray Duck at 6:37 AM on November 4, 2019 [6 favorites]

My experience is similar. This is one reason at my house we've got a saying that food tastes "like crock pot."

The best safe solution I've found is to skew towards recipes that are designed for longer periods of cooking - pea soup, super-saucy meats like bbq pork shoulder. Bone-in meats do better than boneless. If you are okay with a bit of food safety risk, you can start your food from frozen or semi-frozen, but I'm not sure it's recommended. Another alternative, depending on your lifestyle and tastes, is to cook it when you're home (possibly overnight, then you just have to cool it and pop it in the fridge in the morning) and then heat it up.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:50 AM on November 4, 2019

You could plug the crockpot power source into a timer to come on 6 - 8 hours before you get home
posted by glasseyes at 6:54 AM on November 4, 2019 [10 favorites]

A different option is to set it up on a delay. There are plug timers which will only allow electricity to flow when the timer is active. You could set it to be on for 8 hours, but have it start 4 hours after you've left so it would only have been on for the required 8 hours. You'll then have to worry about how long it is in the "danger zone" but to me if you've put everything in the fridge the night before and let it warm to RT slowly before it turns on than you're likely to be safe. I've done it before and had no ill effects, but YMMV.
posted by koolkat at 6:56 AM on November 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

There are also bluetooth/wifi plug adapter things that can control devices, even via the internet / web of things. Make sure they're rated for your crockpot's wattage/amperage.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:17 AM on November 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

The outlet timers will only work if your crockpot has a physical switch and not buttons. If you have buttons, the power will come on but the appliance will not just heat without input. There are crockpots (and other brands of slow cookers or multi cookers) that can delay the cooking cycle. I'll bet you can get a decent deal on one in the next month or so with all the holiday sales.
posted by soelo at 7:30 AM on November 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you are willing to invest in a new crock pot, i believe there are some with delayed start functions built into them.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:53 AM on November 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

You probably don't want to buy a new slow cooker but there do exist programmable ones that will cook for a set amount of time, then switch to warm mode. For example, my Instant Pot does this.
posted by mkb at 8:04 AM on November 4, 2019

Crockpots are notorious for variable cooking temperatures; there's no standard temperatures that correspond with "Hi/Lo/Warm." I hooked a crockpot up to a thermocouple-temperature control rig for an unrelated non-cooking project, and found that the 'warm' function was only that; it did not keep food up to safe temperatures. That crockpot failed a few years ago and I bought a new one (running it through the same) and found that it delivered temperatures way higher than the other one. It can actually scorch stuff on the bottom; I've never used "high" for cooking on it.

We've solved this same time crunch window two ways, the first you might want to investigate sous-vide as a potential solution here; there are plenty of recipes that have a completion window of 8-24 hours, so you can even set it up the night before and it'll stay pretty damn fine within a pretty huge window. The second is pressure cookers; you can get similar results with some dishes in a pressure cooker in a 30m window that you get from a full day of crock-pottage. Both Serious Eats and Chefsteps have a battery of solid recipes for both techniques. Both our circulator and pressure cooker get much more mileage than our crockpot ever did; we still use it for certain dishes, but once this one gives up the ghost, we probably won't replace it.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:05 AM on November 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

Perhaps a non-answer, but: we’ve solved this by using an Instant Pot. After cooking, it automatically switches over to a “keep warm” setting (it’s not called this, but it’s essentially what it is). If I know something is going to be in the Pot for a long time, I make sure it’s simething that’ll be okay with longer cooking like a pot roast, certain soups and stews, pork butt, etc.
posted by pecanpies at 8:43 AM on November 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Jumping on the bandwagon to say cook your crockpot meals while you sleep, then put the food in the fridge in the morning and reheat when you get home.
posted by sarajane at 8:48 AM on November 4, 2019 [8 favorites]

Do NOT run a crockpot on a delayed timer. Learn about the danger zone when it comes to preparing and holding foods.

I'd find a sous-vide controller that can run the pot at a more controlled temperature inside the safe zone and hold it there for as long as you need.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:08 AM on November 4, 2019 [6 favorites]

A way to kinda safely use a delayed start is to use it in combination with frozen ingredients, or don't use the delayed start but use really, really frozen ingredients that are going to take up their first couple cooking hours just thawing. See my second-to-last paragraph below.

I don't run appliances when I'm not home anymore, I've just heard too many freak accident stories. I found cooking overnight or cooking after work to put away before bed problematic in that it means putting away very hot food, which I also don't really want to do. This is where the Instant Pot really starts to shine because many slow-cooker recipes have an equivalent for pressure cooking, and they may take about 90 minutes total to complete and set out to cool but you can still have that done well before bedtime for tomorrow.

In any of the above cases, though, it might be worth looking at "freezer meals", which is the most common term I see for pressure/slow cooker meals assembled raw in a gallon bag and frozen (I have several halloween candy buckets that will shape a parcel into an instant-pot-diameter puck) to be cooked from frozen later. That would let you force a shift in duration and not cook your proteins into dust.

Also, use the LOW setting. The only difference between LOW and HIGH is the amount of time it takes to reach a simmer, they then maintain the same temperature.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:27 AM on November 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

Using frozen ingredients does nothing to prevent issues with food being in the danger zone too long. I'd look for another option.
posted by Aleyn at 12:31 PM on November 4, 2019 [2 favorites]