Slow Cooker

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Friday, May 9, 2008

Slow Cooker

History of Slow Cooking and the Crock Pot

Family Crock Pot Recipes

Slow Cooker Ratings

Phytohaemagglutinin

Video: Making Soap in a Slow Cooker

Of Interest to Neighborhood: Special Appliances

Question: What's your favorite dish to cook in a slow cooker?

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	DianeandtheBees: Great crock-pot entries! I use a crockpot frequently for main dishes, not for side dishes or desserts. I love the convenience of coming home to a full meal after a hard day at the office! It's also great to use in hot weather, because you don't heat up the kitchen cooking and you don't get hot slaving over a hot stove. And, cooking in a crockpot uses less energy. I've found a good way of preventing food from cooking too long while I'm away...I bought a Rival Crockpot Timer for my Rival Crockpot. It works this way: you select a setting based on the model of your Rival crockpot, then set the cooking duration. When the crockpot reaches the designated time, it ramps down to warm 'til you turn it off. I've also made soap in a crockpot. Heavens no, not the one I cook my food in! I bought an old 1970s model at a yard sale and make soap in that. The quality of the soap is not up to the quality of soap made the conventional way, but it is soap..it makes suds and clean-up is easy and you can use the soap much more quickly than you can with the cold process. comment left Fri
	philz: Cynthia--Thanks. I am posting the article on crock pot safety on the Applewood bulletin board. Hopefully, now, someone here will decide to use the crock pot some Monday night to make a delicious treat for one of our weekly Tuesday meetings:-) comment left May 09
	Cynthia: Okay -- I found one website that says they're safe if you keep everything cold until you put it in the cooker, and then don't lift the lid of the cooker at all until you're ready to eat. Here's a site with more details. http://www.extension.... comment left May 09
	Cynthia: I wonder if there are ingredients that would make crockpot cooking safer -- vinegar, wine, spices, salt, tomatoes. Or perhaps people just use crockpots on the weekend. (There are enough cultures that leave something on the back burner for days that it seems that there must be a trick of some sort.) comment left May 09
	philz: We bought a crock pot at Applewood for our kitchen. We don't seem to use it as much as I had hoped. It's hard to create a lunch meal in it, without leaving it on all night the night before. Seems like that would be inviting trouble. I worry about the safety of doing so. Same at home. For working families, leaving the appliance on all day without someone home feels risky. Recently at the office, we used the liner of the crock pot to hold a delicious fruit salad. Kind of like using a book as a doorstop, which we would never do. comment left May 09
	Cynthia: Saw something on Food TV last time I visited my mom (I don't have cable, so Food Network only exists when I'm on holiday) about Sanda Lee, and though it's not mentioned in the crock pot history, Lee has apparently been the genesis of a huge resurgence in crock pot interest and use currently sweeping the nation. So crock pots are definitely back, and no longer the butt of jokes, as concluded in the history article. comment left May 09
	Cynthia: The piece on Phytohaemagglutin reminds me of one of the chapters in Jeffrey Steingarten's great book, The Man Who Ate Everything. The chapter is titled "Salad, the Silent Killer," and reviews all the toxins in uncooked vegetables. I had long known that raw lima beans were poisonous, but Steingarten relates that a surprisingly large number of uncooked veggies are potentially lethal. Definitely going to cook my red beans really well next time I make chili. comment left May 09