I was going to do this today, but I forgot.
So if I remember, I’ll run out to the supermarket Tuesday morning when I’m telecommuting and have it ready for dinner.
Today, we cooked a ginormous 7-pound pork roast in the crockpot. Just a little salt and pepper, along with potatoes baked in the microwave, and some applesauce from the fridge. I put it in before church, and it was ready when we got home. Perfection.
Well, I used my slow cooker yesterday (Sunday) to try to make carnitas. On Saturday I rendered about a kg of lard on the stovetop, and using my cool iGrill thermometer Sunday morning tracked my slow cooker’s temperature performance. After about an hour it kept my lard pretty constant at 201°F. So in went my chopped up pork butt (about 2.5 kg, salted of course), and four or five hours later had some pretty damned good pork. A few minutes under the broiler crisped it up quite nicely.
One my guests had complained about the amount of lard, but she absolutely loved the carnitas!
And, yes, for some reason in this land of pig meat everywhere I cannot seem to buy rendered lard, however there are very nice packets of visceral fat that produces very creamy, soft lard in short order.
The newer crocks do seem to run way too hot, I noticed that. Can mandatory Ad Council Admonishments be far behind? I wonder if a Variac would work, or possibly some kind of timer, to dial it back a bit. Or just seek out more vintage household appliances I guess.
Mechanical relay and a temperature sensor, maybe?
America’s Test Kitchen uses soy sauce and/or tomato pastein a lot of their crock pot recipes to mimic the deeper meaty flavors you can get from browning and searing. The results are pretty awesome.
I do this recipe, except I use one can of Golden Mushroom soup, for the oven. Pop it in at 300 for about four hours. It’s very tasty.
Hubs doesn’t care for crock-pot cooking, so I use the oven (low and slow) for many of the crock-pot recipes I have. Of course, someone is always home while the oven is on.
The house smells like pot roast. I think two cans of soup might have been one can too many, but whatever.
I endorse this post.
Ah, crock pots are a crock. Who wants to prep for dinner at breakfast time?
When I want fall-off-the-bone tender meat, or ham hock bean soup done almost before I turn the burner on, I use my trusty pressure cooker. I use it almost as often as I use my iron skillet–and that’s a lot.
Um, good for you?
I have, and use, both slow cookers and pressure cookers. They do not produce identical results. For example, a pressure cooked brisket will be tender, but it will not have the same texture and flavor as the same cut done in a slow cooker.
It could be good for you, too.
They may not be identical, but they are similar enough. And, in my opinion, the results are superior with the pressure cooker. I’m not the only one to come to that conclusion.
My point is that pressure cookers offer a viable alternative to crock pots, even though one is a slow cooker and the other a fast cooker. They both offer a convenient method for having a good home cooked meal on the table shortly after getting home from work—something not easily done with conventional cooking.
I’ve converted a few people from crock pots to pressure cookers over the years. Many people are unfamiliar with pressure cookers, or consider them old fashioned, or dangerous. I believe modern pressure cookers are safe and who cares if the concept is old fashioned. Our grandparents knew a thing or two about eating well.
Another advantage to pressure cookers is that you can brown or sear meats in the cooker before adding the other ingredients and sealing the lid. With a crock pot you need to dirty an additional pan for the same effect. I’m pretty sure pressure cookers use less electricity, too.
If I get even one of you to convert to pressure cooking, I’ve done my good deed for the day.
…unless you end up blowing up your kitchen, then I accept no liability.
how about you let people enjoy what they like instead of trying to ram your preferences down everyone’s throats as though you’re Keeper of the One True Way?
I’d rather be prepping for dinner at breakfast than at 8pm when I walk in the door from work. Slow cookers are good for some things, like stews, but of course they’re not good at everything. They’re good for making a meal that’s ready when you come home from work during the middle of the week, when the alternative is fast food goop in a Styrofoam container.
I agree that a pressure cooker can produce similar results to a slow cooker, not exact but close enough, more true of the modern crock pot then the lower temperature ones. The main difference to me is do you want to prepare the foods in the morning or in the evening. Quick cook times is a energy saver. So a viable 3rd option.
:rolleyes: How about if you let people decide for themselves whether they want to try something they may not have considered before—another method of convenient cooking that compares favorably to slow cooking? It may not be for everyone (e.g. those who prefer prepping in the morning), but it may be appreciated by some (e.g. those who prefer prepping after work, but still eat quickly, with less cleanup and low energy consumption).
Slow cooker bowls make excellent dog water dishes - flat bottomed and heavy so they don’t tip and food safe.
My slow cooker doesn’t see a lot of use, but I’m not ready to toss it or repurpose the insert for the dogs just yet, because it is handy for those times when I do use it. Every year we have a company pot luck around Christmas time, and a good portion of the hot dishes are brought in in crockpots, plugged in around the office to bubble away all morning and be hot and ready for lunch. Can’t do that with your oven.
I don’t consider pressure cooking particularly convenient. Certainly not more convenient than a slow cooker. My slow cookers have timers and require no babysitting, whereas only a fool leaves a pressure cooker unattended. Cleanup is easier on the slow cookers, as the bowl and lid can just go in the dishwasher. Pressure cookers require hand washing. A final point worth mentioning is that slow cookers are silent. The whistling and rattling from pressure cookers is something that I, personally, find irritating. When I get home from work, one of the things I want even more than dinner is quiet.
As mentioned, pressure cookers aren’t for everyone, but they may be a better choice for some people.
I find my pressure cooker to be more convenient than my slow cooker. It’s a stovetop model and is dishwasher safe (I remove the gasket first). In the same pot, I sear the meat, cook the meal, store what’s left over in the fridge, then clean in the dishwasher. I also don’t keep my eye on the cooker the entire time, just while it’s getting up to pressure. Then, I reduce the heat to low, see that the gauge is at the safe level and check on it every 10 minutes or so (considering the very fast cooking time, this is usually only once or twice). Worst case scenario, if the pressure for some reason rose too high, is that the safety valve would blow out—the kitchen won’t blow up. And, unlike the pressure cookers many of us grew up with, modern models generally don’t make much noise; mine certainly doesn’t. My mother’s cooker used to scare the hell out of me.