I love my crock pot. I use it more than any other appliance in my kitchen, but there is an art to good slow cooker results. Here are a few tips that will help you with your favorite dishes.
1. Brown meat before placing it into the crock pot. This also removes excess fat you don’t want baked into your meal. When making stew, I brown the chunks of stew meat on all sides first and it makes a nice difference in how the stew turns out.
2. If you cook something for a long time, the flavors can become diluted. Do a taste test before you serve the dish to make sure you don’t need to add more seasonings.
3. Filling the crock pot about two thirds full is the ideal amount. Too little and the food will cook too quickly, and too much might result in uneven cooking.
4. Resist the urge to peek. Every time you take the lid off the crock pot, you release steam and heat and have to extend the cooking time about half an hour!
5. To make cleanup easier, you can spray the inside of the crock with a non-stick spray before adding the food.
6. Since the crock pot is completely enclosed, liquids don’t boil away. If you are using a recipe that is usually made in an open pan in the oven or on the stovetop, reduce the liquid by about 1/3.
7. Use cheaper cuts of meat in the crock pot, not just to be frugal, but because these cuts actually work very well because they have less fat. Long cooking times in liquid or steam make these meats tender.
8. If you can cook all your crock pot dishes on high for one hour, then switch to low. This will bring the temperature up to food safety standards quickly.