In our previous post about slow cookery, we highlighted Phyllis Pellman Good's book. She was kind enough to allow us to reprint the tips that appear in the beginning of the book. These will answer all the questions you have about using a slow cooker, and then some. Enjoy!
Tips for Using Your Slow Cooker: A Friendly Year-Round Appliance
by Phyllis Pellman Good, Author of Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes
1. What to buy
A good standard size for a household of four is a 4-quart slow
cooker. If you often cook for more, or you like to prepare sizable roasts,
turkey breasts, or chicken legs and thighs, you'll want a 6-quart cooker.
For parties or buffets a 1½ to 2-quart size works well for dips and
snacks. Cookers which allow you to program "On," the length of the cooking
time, and "Off," are convenient. If your model doesn't include that
feature, you might want to get a digital appliance timer, which gives
you that option. Make sure the timer is adequate for the electrical
flow that your cooker demands.
A baking insert, a cooking rack, a temperature probe, and an
insulated carrying tote are all useful additions offered with some models. Or
you can buy some of them separately by going to the manufacturers' websites.
2. Learn to know your slow cooker
Some newer slow cookers cook at a very high temperature. You can
check the temperature of your slow cooker this way:
Place 2 quarts of water in your slow cooker. Cover. Heat on Low 8 hours. Lift the lid. Immediately check the water temp with an accurate thermometer. The temperature of the water should be 185°F. If the temperature is higher, foods may overcook and you should reduce the overall cooking time. If the temperature is lower, your foods will probably not reach a safe temperature quickly enough, and the cooker should be discarded.
3. Maximizing what a slow cooker does best
Slow cookers tend to work best when they're ⅔ full. You many need
to increase the cooking time if you've exceeded that amount, or reduce
it if you've put in less than that.
Cut the hard veggies going into your cooker into chunks of about
equal size. In other words, make your potato and carrot pieces about the
same size. Then they'll be done cooking at nearly the same time.
Softer veggies, like bell peppers and zucchini, cook faster, so they
don't need to be cut as small. But again, keep them similar in size
to each other so they finish together.
Because raw vegetables are notoriously tough customers in a slow
cooker, layer them over the bottom and around the sides of the
cooker, as much as possible. That puts them in more direct contact with the
heat.
There are consequences to lifting the lid on your slow cooker while
it's cooking. To compensate for the lost heat, you should plan to add
15-20 minutes of cooking time for each time the lid was lifted off.
On the other hand, moisture gathers in a slow cooker as it works. To
allow that to cook off, or to thicken the cooking juices, take the
lid off during the last half hour of cooking time.
Use only the amount of liquid called for in a recipe. In contrast to
an oven or a stovetop, a slow cooker tends to draw juices out of food
and then harbor it.
Of course, if you sense that the food in your cooker is drying out,
or browning excessively before it finishes cooking, you may want to add
½ cup of warm liquid to the cooker.
Important variables to remember that don't show up in recipes:
The fuller your slow cooker, the longer it will take its contents to
cook. The more densely packed the cooker's contents are, the longer they
will take to cook. The larger the chunks of meat or vegetables, the more time they will need to cook.
4. Debunking the myths
Slow cookers are a handy year-round appliance. They don't heat up a
kitchen in warm weather. They allow you to escape to the pool or lake
or lawn or gardens -- so why not let them work for you when it's hot
outdoors. A slow cooker fixes dinner while you're at your child's
soccer game, too.
So don't limit its usefulness. Remember the dozens of recipes-beyond-
beef-stew in this collection!
One more thing -- a slow cooker provides a wonderful alternative if
your oven is full -- no matter the season. You can overdo food in a slow cooker. If you're tempted to stretch a recipe's 6-hour stated cooking time to 8 or 10 hours, you may be disappointed in your dinner. Yes, these cookers work their magic
using slow, moist heat. Yes, many dishes cook a long time. But these outfits have their limits.
For example, chicken can overcook in a slow cooker. Especially
boneless, skinless breasts. But legs and thighs aren't immune either.
Once they go past the falling-off-the-bone stage, they are prone to
move on to deeply dry.
Cooked pasta and sour cream do best if added late in the cooking
process, ideally 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time if the
cooker is on high; 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time if
it's on low.
5. Safety
A working slow cooker gets hot on the outside -- and I mean the outer
electrical unit as well as the inner vessel. Make sure that curious
and unsuspecting children or adults don't grab hold of either part.
Use oven mitts when lifting any part of a hot cooker. To prevent a slow cooker from bubbling over, either when its sitting still on a counter, or when its traveling to a carry-in dinner, fill the cooker only ⅔ full.
If you're going to exceed that limit, pull out your second slow
cooker (what -- you have only one?!) and divide the contents between them.
The above is an excerpt from the book Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook:
Revised & Updated: 700 Great Slow Cooker Recipes by Phyllis Pellman
Good. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text
from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional
errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the
finished book for accuracy.
Reprinted from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. © by Good Books
(www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Author Bio
Phyllis Pellman Good is a New York Times bestselling author whose
books have sold nearly 10 million copies.
Good's cookbooks have also appeared on the USA Today and Publishers
Weekly bestseller lists. She is the author of Fix-It and Forget-It
Lightly: Healthy, Low-Fat Recipes for Your Slow Cooker; Fix-It and
Forget-It 5-Ingredient Favorites: Comforting Slow- Cooker Recipes;
Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining: Slow-Cooker Favorites for
all the Year Round, and Fix-It and Forget-It Diabetic Cookbook: Slow-
Cooker Favorites to Include Everyone (with the American Diabetes
Association), all in the series.
She and her husband, Merle, live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
For more information about Phyllis Pellman Good, visit www.Fix-ItandForget-It.com
and www.facebook.com/fixitandforgetit.
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