HELPFUL COMMON-SENSE TIPS FOR USING A SLOW-COOKER!

Hi all

Love a slow-cooker? I do! I wouldn’t be without mine. In a busy working week, who would need or want the hassle of cooking everything by hand when you have a slow-cooker? Not me!

You know how it works, right? Just throw everything in there in the morning, then forget it about it until dinnertime – there’s nothing better? So easy and convenient. However, as simple as slow-cookers are, they do come with rules. The following is some of the mistakes that can be made when using slow-cookers. Have a look so you can be sure not to make them yourself.

Taking a peek: Yes, we all do it! Whatever’s cooking in the slow-cooker has your whole house smelling delicious. But try to gather your willpower – you need to try and resist peeking inside. It took your slow-cooker a longer time than you might think to reach the correct target temperature and lifting the lid, even for just a second, will let out most of that lovely smelling hot air.

Too much peeking results in a reduced heat inside the slow-cooker, and more time needed for your dish to finish cooking. In fact, each time you lift that lid, you add 30 minutes to the time you need to cook your food.
Using expensive cuts: Those fancy cuts of meat can certainly have their place at your dinner table if they’re affordable. However, there’s no need to spring for the good stuff when you’re shopping for a slow-cooker meal.
Slow-cookers live up to their name and will cook low and steady over a long period of time, making even the toughest cuts of meat very tender and juicy. So why not grab a low-cost cut and let it cook all day. The resulting dish will be so fall-apart tender and full of flavor, no one will ever guess you bought bargain beef.

Do you sear your meat first before cooking?: Be honest: if a recipe tells you to sear your meat before you drop it in the slow-cooker do you do that … or do you skip it? It may seem reasonable to skip it – it’s going to cook all the way through in the slow-cooker, right? Well, let me tell you that skipping the searing step does change the flavor of your dish, and not necessarily for the better!

According to the cooking site Kitchen, searing your meat before slow-cooking it actually caramelizes the outside of each piece of meat, while adding texture and an extra layer of flavor. If you’ve never seared your meat before slow-cooking it, you really don’t know what you’re missing. I promise that after you’ve tried it once, you’ll never skip that step again.

Cooking chicken with the skin on. Chicken cooked with the skin on in an oven or pan usually ends up gorgeous and crispy. However, when you’re cooking it in a slow- cooker, you’re probably going to end up with a soft, rubbery outside that’s anything but appetizing. So if you want to be able to serve dinner straight from your slow-cooker with no extra steps, it’s better to use skinless chicken when you slow-cook.

There is a workaround this though if you don’t mind an extra step. Transfer the cooked chicken from the slow-cooker to a broiler pan and cook it under your oven’s broiler for just a few minutes, until the skin is deliciously golden-brown and crispy. It’s worth it!

Fresh versus dry herbs: With all the fuss given to fresh herbs, it’s kind of refreshing to know that dried herbs are actually the preferred seasoning in slow-cooker meals. Since they do their best when cooked over long periods of time, dried herbs are the easy winners when it comes to your favorite slow-cooked recipes.
That’s not to say you can’t use fresh herbs in a slow-cooker recipe — just remember not to add them at the beginning as there simply won’t be anything left when it’s time to serve dinner! Instead, toss those in toward the end of the cooking time, so they’re still fresh and full of flavor when you sit down to eat.

Using the wrong size: Slow-cookers come in different sizes so one slow-cooker does not fit every slow-cooker recipe. The cooking time on each recipe counts on the fact that you’re using the same size slow- cooker as the recipe directs – meaning it’s filled to the appropriate level.

Your slow-cooker should be filled halfway to three-quarters of the way full. If it’s not full enough, your food will end up overcooked. If it’s too full, it may not cook completely, or you may end up with an overflow – and a big mess on your kitchen counter!

Adding dairy products too soon: Dairy products don’t really do well warm, and there’s no exception when using them in the slow-cooker. If you add ingredients like milk, cheese, cream, sour cream, or cream cheese too early in the cooking process, you’ll have a curdled, disgusting mess at the end. To save your dish without sacrificing the creamy flavor you love, cook it without any dairy items and then add those ingredients in during the last half hour of cooking, just long enough for them to melt and blend properly into the dish.

Using too much alcohol?: It’s usually okay to use a heavy hand when cooking with wine on the stovetop. As heavy a hand as you want, really.
However, that’s not the case with a slow- cooker because the lid stays on tight and nothing really evaporates. In fact, when you add wine to a slow cooker recipe, you’ll taste more of the wine than you would in a stove-cooked dish. For that reason, it’s best to skip the wine – or add it sparingly unless you’re really after a boozy tang.

Frozen food (especially raw meat) in your slow- cooker.
If your slow-cooker is full of frozen food, it’ll take way too long to reach a safe temperature for consumption, meaning your food will spend longer than it should at temperatures that may be less than safe.

Not layering correctly: Believe it or not, your slow-cooker doesn’t cook evenly all the way through. The foods at the bottom will cook faster, so foods that need longer cooking times, such as root vegetables, should go at the bottom of the slow-cooker, followed by the meat, which cooks faster.

Not greasing: Slow-cookers may make cooking a breeze, but they can also make clean-up a pain. They usually end up soaking in your sink just as long as they spent cooking on your counter — and even then you sometimes still need a lot of elbow grease to get them clean. You can save yourself some time and use a cooking spray or a slow-cooker liner to make clean-up that much easier.

ENJOY!