Crock Pot Basics, Part 1

I recently posted about one of my favorite recipes, Russian Chicken.  If you haven’t tried it, you should – it’s a delicious and easy recipe for the crock pot (a.k.a. a slow cooker).  A crock pot is a great way to make dinner, and I’ve got a few other great recipes for the crock pot to share.  So, this seems great opportunity to feature a series on crock pot basics.

If you have a crazy schedule like I do, a good home-cooked meal can be hard to come by.  Enter the crock pot. Now, I bet some of you are thinking, “There’s nothing quick about a crock pot.”  Well, true, it might take all day to cook a meal in a crock.  But, if you spend a few minutes loading it with the ingredients before you head out for work in the morning, your dinner will be ready to eat by the time you get home.  It doesn’t get and quicker or easier than that!

Now, if you are considering using a crock pot (and I obviously suggest that you do), there are a few things you should know before you start.  Trust me, even a crock pot meal can be horrible if you don’t follow a few basic tips.  No one wants to come home with a hearty appetite and find a pot full of mush.  Yuck!

So, let’s start with buying a crock pot. You can buy crock pots in various sizes, from as small as one quart to as large as five quarts.  If you come across a larger one, that’s even better.  Depending on your family size or the amount of people you’ll be cooking for, you may find the larger the crock pot the better it will work.  Mine is a 3.5 quart model, and it has worked just fine for anything I’ve tried so far.

Some crock pots also come with removable inner pots.   A removable inner pot allows everyone to sit and relax as they spoon their food onto the plate instead of standing in the kitchen, but the best perk to a removable inner pot is that it makes it so much easier to clean when you’re done!  You can let the pot soak in the sink or tip it on its side to give it a good scrubbing if you need to.  Do yourself a favor and don’t even think about buying a crock pot without a removable inner pot!

Temperature settings vary among crock pots.  Many offer a range of temperature settings, while some have as little at two setting (high and low). There may also be a warm setting, which comes in handy if you want to keep things warm while you whip up a few side dishes.  I’ve gotten by just fine with my three-setting crock pot (warm, low, and high), so don’t feel like you must spend extra to get a crock pot with tons of settings.

Be careful with your heat settings, however.  As with ovens, temperatures and settings on the dial are a rough estimate.  Don’t be like me who, at the expense of my meal, overcooked a roast the first time.  Even though I had it set to the eight hour setting to cook throughout the day, my crock pot has a high temperature and cooks boneless meats pretty quickly.  I could have put it in the crock pot when I got home and still had a delicious meal in less than two hours.

Just goes to show, you live and you learn.  To avoid such a food crisis, test your crock pot out on the weekend when you’re at home.  Start a meal in the late morning hours, using the lowest setting and see how long it actually takes for the meal to cook.  You may need to make adjustments to cooking times when you are away based on what you discover.   (Or, you could even break down and see what the manufacturer’s instructions have to say on this!)

Ok, now you should be ready to hit the stores and get a crock pot of your very own.  In the next part, I’ll give you some tips on what and how to cook in your new crock pot.

EDIT: Continue on with Part 2 here.

Tagged as: crock pot, hints, slow cooker, tips