Slow Cooker Chatter #19

[briggsy's girl]

i never pre-brown the onion - can't be bothered! i only pre-brown mince cos i can't stomach the pinkish shade of meat (even though its' cooked, it does my head in!) and cos i like it to be broken down properly

if your soup wasn't cooked (that really surprises me!) when you first put it on, put it on high to get the temperature up and then lower it once it is heated, so it's just low for the cooking part if that makes sense

everything you put in should have cooked up ok so i'm not sure what happened there!

ummm, for the stuff in the cooker - if you're making it into a stew, you'll want a reasonable level of water in it - but as long as there is some liquid in there, the steaming liquid should keep your meat and stuff tender. i think i'd be reluctant to expect that vegies would go soft (as in soup soft) without extra fluid added. if you're looking for steamed type texture, you could try it - have you looked at the "just slow cooking" website for recipes that have been tried and tested by real people?

most of what i make has high fluid content cos i freeze it for DH to heat while he's away - i don't want him to have icky dry reheats!

[Netix]

Ha! Thanks BG, I was kind of hoping you'd reply. I like mince to be broken up properly too, but haven't done anything in the sc with mince yet, so didn't think of mince.

The stew (well, I'm hoping its a stew, it may get a name change depending on how it turns out) I'm doing today has four cups of water in it, which is just to the top of everything in the cooker. I suspect it may be a bit much though. Actually.... no maybe not. On the stove I think I put about that much water in too (to just cover). I have just turned it up to high, so its done three hours on auto (which I think gets it up to temp then goes to low).

I have looked at the jsc website, they have sooo many recipes, I get a bit sidetracked.

[MsPink]

Alioops - thanks for your reply...but my SC doesn't have an auto switch..

as low, high and warm... hints??

[alioops]

It is possible that the 'warm' setting is the auto, as in 'keep warm' maybe have a look at the brand on the net or if you still have the instruction manual see what that says.

[Astrid]

Mine has Low, High and Warm. Basically if you are cooking for longer (eg 10 hours), then use the Low setting, shorter time High (4 hours). It switches over to Warm when it has finished cooking.

[Ozziehoffy]

How do I stop this happening....

Today I am making a sausage hot pot. I put it on and went out and 5 hours later I come home but bits of the sausage which were exposed or on the outer edges of the pot are dry looking and possibly yuck?? It was on low. I've had it happen when doing beef before too and the bits which looked dry were in fact yuck and a bit hard. How do you stop this if you're not home to stir it every now and then??

[alioops]

I would try putting an extra cup of water in.