Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with slowcooker

Oh, the oatmeal and the Crockpot will be friends.....

otherwordlyglow — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:26:08 -0800

I have a 5-qt slow cooker and would like to make as much Steel-Cut Oatmeal as I can in it for a breakfast for a crowd. What are the correct ratios and amounts of water and oats? Also interesting mix-in ideas are welcome. I'm providing breakfast for about 30 adults and one of the dishes we're doing is Steel-Cut Oats with a variety of topping available. In the interest of efficiency, I'm thinking it makes sense to put the oats in my 5-qt crockpot the night before so they'll be ready in the morning but I have no clue as to correct water/oats ratios. I make oats on the stove all the time and usually do 1/4 cup oats to 1 cup water for single serving but does that scale up in the exact same proportions? Are there different ratios for slow cookers due to the longer cooking time? And how many servings do you think I can get in one batch?

Also, I usually just make the oats plain,maybe with a little cinnamon and vanilla but any ideas for interesting ingredients to cook with the oats or to have available as a topping would be helpful.

I want succulence, not shoe leather.

cabingirl — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:24:04 -0800

CrockpotFilter: "Falling-off-the-bone tender" is cited as a desirable quality in meats prepared in a slow cooker, but I find meat cooked this way to be dry and mushy. What can I do to fix this? The earlier fast meals question reminded me that I have yet to find a crockpot recipe where the meat actually tastes good. When people post reviews on recipe sites, they rave over how the meat was "falling apart, it was so tender." While the meats I prepare do fall apart, they usually taste overcooked with a terrible texture - sometimes akin to chewing bubble gum.

I've tried tons of recipes in different slow cookers and with different cuts and types of meat (usually pork, chicken, and beef), yet I can't seem to avoid this problem. The few times it's worked out well have been when I've gotten an exceptionally well marbled chuck roast. I typically cook meals on Low setting for around 8-9 hours. Sometimes I brown the meat, sometimes I don't.

I really want to use my slow cooker more often, but I'm so frequently disappointed by how things turn out. What tips can you offer?

Toxic Crock Pot panic

cobra_high_tigers — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:49:54 -0800

A soup of cleaning chemicals soaked in my slow cooker for several days. Is it safe to use for cooking still? For various reasons I'd rather not go into, none of them particularly good, the ceramic cooking portion of my Crock Pot was filled with soapy water and bef stew remains, but also various muck like laundry detergent and Comet. When I poured the mixture out, there was a slimy blue residue at the bottom. I used dish soap and rather hot water to clean out the nastycrap, and soaked and washed it like three more times, and now I've got some water in there cooking on the high setting to try to get it to boil.

In other words, I'm kind of panicking. Have I done enough to get rid of the chemically mess, do you think? Is the ceramic porous, or could some nasty chemicals have leached into it in some way? Should I do anything else before I consider this thing safe to cook in and eat out of again?

Wheatless Crock Pot recipe that doesn't suck?

thinman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:47:34 -0800

Any suggestions for a nice meal to serve to dinner guests (four diners total) later this week? But there are catches... 1) We just bought our house, and don't have a stove yet; we have a Crock Pot, a toaster oven, and a microwave. So no meat browning or onion sauteing. 2) The meal must be wheat- and gluten-free. 3) No seafood. We've had pretty limited success with the slow-cooker... recipes sound delicious, but end up tasting like a whole lotta nothin.

Jeff Smith wasn't lazy, but I am!

piedmont — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:43:19 -0800

Know any freezable and/or crock-pot-able stews that also happen to be vegetarian (or pescatarian) and go well with rice? I like good food... Unfortunately I also tend to be a bit short on time and cash.
I have me a fancy new-fangled rice cooker, now I'd like to be able to set it before work so that I can come home and zap a stew and throw it on fresh brown rice. What vegetarian or seafood stews can I cook and toss in the freezer? Alternately what stews can I make in a crockpot that consist of mainly canned and frozen goods? Recipes for curries and other spicy delights are especially welcome-I have access to well stocked ethnic markets, so lay it on me!

Before I duct tape it back together...

slightlybewildered — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:25:38 -0800

How can I stick a control panel back on a slow cooker that gets hot? The plastic mount for my Russell Hobbs slow cooker is hanging off the front of it. It's a simple cooker; the controls are just a knob to choose Auto, High, or Low, and there's a lightbulb to say it's on. And that is still all working. I'd like to stick it back where it belongs so it's not dangling sadly an inch off the front. What sort of glue could I use, on something that gets very hot, to connect a plastic control panel and the metal case of the cooker?

Make my pork and beans taste good

shelleycat — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:08:05 -0800

I need a kick arse recipe for pork and beans that's slow cooker compatible. I've tried a few found via google with lack luster results, so now I'm looking for something tried and true. There's a school of thought that says pork should be cooked with overly sweet fruit, apricots or pineapple or whatever. I don't really belong to that school. I like all kinds of beans except black beans and green beans, and am sure that they could be added to pork to make a really nice casserole in my slow cooker (aka crockpot). But there needs to be something else in there because so far every recipe I've tried is really bland.

The only other condition is that the dish be low fat (the pork is already lean) and reasonably low in salt, otherwise I'm open to all kind of flavourings or whatever to make this taste good. Oh yeah, and it's winter here just in case that matters.

Iron Chef RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:10:17 -0800

Need tips on cooking Chicken in a Crockpot. Okay ... over the past few weeks, I've been having startlingly good (for me) success making ribs in a slowcooker. I used an ultra-simple batchelor-centric recipe: Cut slab of ribs into 8-9 pieces, submerge in BBQ sauce diluted a bit with water. Simmer on LOW for 8 hours. I tossed in a few onion slices, adding a touch of brown sugar & cider vinegar along with various spices ... works perfect.

I want to try something similar with chicken.

QUESTION: I'm thinking 8 hours -- even on LOW -- would be way too much cooking time for chicken. Am I right?

Any other pointers (or QUICK-n-EZ crockpot recipes) welcomed!

What can I cook sans-stove?

wreckingball — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:59:09 -0800

What can I cook with a countertop grill, a crock pot, and no stove? I'll be visiting my boyfriend in Winnipeg at the end of next month--we live in different cities and can only work in a couple visits each year, and, typically, I would do a fair amount of cooking (I enjoy cooking, he enjoys eating--it works out rather well).

The problem: since my last visit, he's moved into a new house and currently lacks a functioning stove (the house's wiring won't support one--this isn't going to be fixed between now and then). The only cooking devices I'll have recourse to, aside from a microwave and a toaster oven, are a crock pot I bought him as something of a joke gift, last year (I'm pretty sure it's still in its box, unopened and unused--that is, assuming his skiddy friends haven't figured out a way to distill codeine in it) and a countertop grill of the George Foreman kind. The problem is that I've never used either of these pieces of equipment, and I'm fairly stumped as to what I can make with them.

I've of course come across scads of slow cooker recipes, but a) having never worked with a crock pot, I'm finding it difficult to assess which ones are going to yield something palatable, and b) most of them require a stove for some part of the process. I should think the grill could do some of the stove stuff (browning onions and whatnot), though I might be wrong about that.

Either specific recipes or general tips pertinent to stoveless cooking would be greatly appreciated. FWIW, neither of us eat meat (which has put a further damper on the recipe hunt--both Foreman grill and crock pot owners seem to be, as a group, rather fond of the stuff); I'm pretty good at modifying recipes to exclude it, though. Mostly I'm just worried about blowing a lot of money on ingredients and winding up with giant batches of slowly-simmered crap.

He'd probably be happy with two weeks of crock pot chilli and grilled sandwiches, but, you know, I don't see him that often, and I'd like to make at least a few things a bit more "special" than those. Super-double-plus bonus points for Indian or Middle Eastern recipes, although those (particularly the former) seem like long shots, given the equipment at hand.

Cooking more with yonder crockpot.

actionpact — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:11:28 -0800

I am craving slow-cooked goodness. Please share your favorite crock-pot recipes! I love to cook but sometimes get lazy, and there's really something wonderful about a house that smells delicious from being cooked in all day, especially now that it's winter. I'm also a huge fan of throwing random foods together and MacGuyvering them to taste awesome.

I've seen this and while handy I'm craving more! I know how to do the usual awesome pot roast w/ carrots and potatoes dish, and I've tried some spaghetti dishes (spaghetti pot roast was one-- but while very tasty, the oils in the meat came out in the sauce, so maybe not my wisest move), but I'd love to hear of great soups, stews, and unexpected recipes for the crockpot (preferably online recipes unless there's a cookbook you swear by!). Chicken? Baked goods? Ethnic recipes? Bread? Risotto? (Can you even do risotto in a crockpot?) Healthier options are always a bonus too-- and I don't mind a little extra legwork if necessary if it helps me reach crock-pot nirvana. Teach me so I can revel in more than just pot roast!

Should I buy a crockpot?

davar — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 03:36:01 -0800

Does a crockpot really improve the flavor of the food or make your life easier? I am considering buying a crockpot/slow cooker. One of the things I think I like, is that I can put a lot of stuff in it in the morning and will have dinner ready in the evening. But then again: it seems that vegetarian crockpot recipes are mostly stews/soups/chili's. Couldn't I just make the recipe in a regular pot in the morning and reheat it in the evening? I often hear that the crockpot improves the flavors, but so does leaving food in a normal pot during the day or overnight. Does a crockpot really make a difference in flavor or ease of use? I am vegetarian, so the fact that crockpots make nice soft meats is not relevant for me.

Where I live, a crockpot is hip and new instead of old fashioned, so I cannot just go to a second hand store and buy one on the cheap to see if I like it. I also don't know anybody with a crockpot.

Am I going to die if I eat this?

jheiz — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 05:05:07 -0800

My crockpot failed to heat up last night. I now have a pot of raw chicken and onions that's been sitting out for 10 hours. Would it be safe to eat if I cooked it? (Sorry if this has been asked before... the only related question I saw was this thread, but that was about refrigerated meat and veggies).

I want a man with a slow... cooker.

MsMolly — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:12:28 -0800

Just bought a new slow cooker. What are your favorite recipes? Inspired by yesterday's hotpot question, I'd like to pick the collective brain about good slow cooker/crockpot recipes. I've browsed some of the older threads and have found good suggestions, but there wasn't a thread entirely devoted to recipes. So in the interest of colocating useful information, let's make one.

I've already made steel-cut oatmeal overnight and it was delicious! (Thanks to whoever on AskMe recently suggested it.)

1 cup steel-cut oats
4 cups water
a little bit of salt

Cook overnight in the crockpot. In the morning add brown sugar, pecans, fruit, etc. to taste. Save any extra and refrigerate it for continued deliciousness throughout the week.

I need your Italian Beef Sandwich Recipe

MarvinTheCat — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 17:28:58 -0800

Chicagoans/Chicagophiles I need your help: an Italian Beef Sandwich recipe! I've been trying to cobble one together from various cookbook and internet sources, but the jones has become so bad that I don't want to be disappointed by the fruits of my labor. The standard this sandwich is trying to match includes the sandwiches from Big Tony's on Milwaukee, Mr. Beef, Carm's Deli in Westchester, and of course Portillo's . I would prefer a slowcooker recipe if possible, and want to stay away from recipes in which the only ingredients are beef and "Italian Dressing." I'd prefer something that used fresh onions, peppers, spices, and beef broth, I'm just unsure of the volumes and times involved. Thanks very much for your help.