slow cooker

I use mine very regularly, glitabo. I roast meat (cheap cuts like brisket, etc) and make stews, curries, and soups (and it's a great way of making a really lovely rice pudding)!

I have a large one so that if I wish I can put all the veg in too - it is also good for cooking things with haricot beans or lentils. Depends really what floats your boat as they say - but it is great is you are out or busy all day and the meal is ready when you come home. Mine has an automatic setting so it starts off on the higher heat and then uses the lower heat.

I gave mine to the electrical department of a charity shop. You had to get up at crack of dawn to get it started if you wanted to really slow cook. And then you had the cooking smell all day! If you used the quicker programme, the stew or whatever boiled.

A microwave is good for a rice pudding.

I am a pressure cooker fan... tasty stews and casseroles in 20 mins! My gran and mum always used one so i just followed suit!

I've used mine once! absent had to give me advice and encouragement! It was a success, but I think you have to be really organised and plan in advance what you're going to cook in it and get up earlier than I usually do...

that's why I like a pressure cooker anagram.. I am always a bit last minute!

Very interesting responses.
I started the thread because I did not want yet another, must have, impulse buy to be left in a cupboard after only being used once or twice. I have too many of those.

I wouldn't be with out mine,I have had several,I use for reheating previously cooked foods,tougher cuts of meat are lovely when slow cooked,can use to keep food warm as well if we all eat at different times making it economical as we all eat the same meal,also cook boiled bacon it in it in coke and it came out lovely...am hungry now..

glitabo I'm sure we've had a previous thread on slow cookers. Might be worth a look.

Ella I did have a quick look through House and Home and also through Food but I did not see anything. Admitted it was only a quick look so I will do it again.
Cheers

I have just done a slow cooker search and have found about 10 pages of recipes and info so I will spend some time reading them tomorrow.

I use the slow oven of my cooker for overnight porridge and have also used it for slow casseroles like cassoulet. DH had a yen for home made chicken stock at little while back which entailed buying a pressure cooker (!) quantities of veg, chicken legs and wings and a lot of prepping. The stock was delicious but cost about the same as vintage port. So now I am looking for useful suggestions for using the pressure colker!

I'm with nanaej. Just love my pressure cooker.

I make quantities of soup & casseroles!

Slice the onion, dice any cheaper cut of meat & brown lightly in oil in the pressure cooker, chop whatever root veg to hand stick it all in the pressure cooker with your preferred seasoning and small amount of liquid ( wine, beer, stock, cider, cola etc!)
Bring up to pressure, lower heat and let it hiss for 20 mins...yum! I often do double quantity I need for one meal & either freeze half or blend it for soup! See link for more ideas!

allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/pressure-cooker-recipes.aspx

I put a whole chicken in my slow cooker, with lots of veg, and make not only a lovely juicy pot roast, but great chicken stock and plenty of chicken soup. I usually transfer the cooked chicken to a roasting dish with roast potatoes for half an hour, and get lovely gravy when the dish is ready.

I also use my slow cooker regularly, especially in winter, I often don't spend a lot of time on putting together a recipe - I just plonk a piece of meat e.g. rolled brisket, or other 'forgotten cuts' in it, cover that with either thinly sliced tomato and onion or slices of lemon (depending on what meat) for moisture, lay a few sprigs of fresh herbs whatever is in the garden over the top of that, dash of wine or some stock, salt pepper and off I go to work. Come evening all that is needed is some veg and perhaps making gravy from the slow cooker and you're eating a lovely supper. Another thing I use it for very successfully is ribs - it cooks ribs so that the meat falls off the bone, then I cover them with sticky marinade (mix of chutney, honey, tomato sauce, brown sauce - or anything similar I have to hand) and stick them in the oven to finish them off, before we finish them off! I've had great success with curries, chili con carne etc. Like the idea of the whole 'pot' chicken when will try that.

I have used a slow cooker for years, but find the recipes suggest longer cooking time than needed. I just put everything in, vegetables at the base, and the cheap meats are lovely in flavour. My food only cooks for about 4 hours though - becaust it is usually diced pork, stewed beef or chicken pieces - cooked just long enough for me to be out in the morning and come home for a delicious lunch.

When I have cooked a whole chicken in the slow cooker I have found that the bones become very soft and it is difficult to 'carve' the bird - am I doing something wrong or do you just take the meat off the bone in lumps?

I give the chicken half an hour with roast potatoes and let it rest if I want to slice it. I have an electric knife, so I take the whole breast off and sllce it on the chopping board, and put wings and legs out with slices of chicken.

I wouldn't be without my slow cooker, use it for soups, stews etc - shin beef is especially tasty and tender. I have never had to get up early to start anything either. If a dish is required for lunch I do it the day before, which is said to improve it anyway. When I had a busy life with a growing family my pressure cooker was a godsend, but it now resides in my loft, gathering dust. I hope you make the right choice for you, and good luck!

I regularly use mine for a whole chicken, too. Cut two or three slits in breast skin and slide in garlic cloves and stick an onion in the cavity. Crumble a chicken Oxo over and Bob's yer uncle! Shin of beef (hough, as it's called up here in Scotland) is a good cheap cut and makes a wonderfully tasty gravy.

Shin of beef is absolutely beautiful done in the slow cooker,and I agree the gravy and is beautiful ooohh can't wait for the hearty dinner season to return...do dumplings as well init on top of the casserole or stew,have been known to put my Christmas pudding in it to cook when I made it....I love the smell of a dinner cooking...actually just love food...

I bought my slow cooker to replace one form years before - the lid had been smashed. Somehow it was several more years before I got round to using it, but now I'll echo what has been said by so many here - I wouldn't want to be without it.

Must agree about shin of beef, and the whole chicken (with garlic and butter) - jointed rabbit is marvelous, too. Then I thought of curry... there is an Indian style of cooking called dum, in which food is cooked over a slow fire, in a closed pot, with pastry sealing the lid. Sounds not unlike the way a slow cooker works, no? Anyway, lovely curries - lamb, nice and tender without pre-cooking - are possible - sorry, had to wipe the old chin there, drooling, you know!

beef shin with bone (impossible to find in the supermarkets but luckily my butcher obliges) is double yummy in the slow cooker.