Why have I never used slow cookers until yesterday?

[Teppodama]

ya, its all the rage and I have not tried that technique yet. Guess I got to get on it.

If you want perfectly cooked meat edge to edge it's great for that and it's as walk away as a slow cooker. Is it necessary? Not at all. If you're a kitchen geek? Likely worth looking into.

 

[Teppodama]

LOL
Sure, let me spend 3 hours cooking a steak that usually takes 3 minutes. I can see it for chicken, but the things people use those things on makes me cringe. A good rib eye NEVER belongs in a pot of water. I don't care if it is in a bag.
And no matter what people say, searing after cooking in water is NOT that same as cooking over coals.

If you're planning on slow cooking a large piece of meat like a brisket it makes for a good alternative, especially in the winter.

 

[mb23100]

We use ours all the time. Best $25 i ever spent. Pot roast, pork butt, chicken, stew, chili you name it. Hell i made tri tip in it the other day cause it was raining and i didnt want to grill outside and it was absolutely amazing. You have to sear the meat first though.

 

[Fijeeto]

I never used one until my girlfriend went to visit her family out of state 3 weeks ago. It was too cold to use the grill and I had a ton of deer in the freezer. I ate like a king those 2 weeks.

 

[lifelessheap]

Just wait till you discover sous vide and have your mind blown.

sous vide is so easy it seems unfair. Ha. Awesome stuff.

 

[Taco Loco]

Some many possibilities with that thing man, you'll be surprised how a fuck up will come out.

 

[TheNinja]

Super Easy pulled pork with spices that most people already have around their pantry anyway (other than liquid smoke which I would say is optional, depending whether you like the "smoke' flavor or not).

https://flouronmyface.com/crock-pot-pulled-pork-roast/

• 1 eight pound Boston Butt Pork Roast
• Homemade Pork Rub
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon seas salt
• 1 tablespoon ground red pepper
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon liquid apple wood smoke

Directions

1. Place all the dry rub ingredients into a zip lock bag.
2. Mix together well by massaging the ingredients together.
3. Rub over all surfaces of the pork roast.
4. Place roast in a 6 quart or larger crock pot.
5. Cook on low for 8 hours. Then high for 4 hours.
6. Carefully remove the roast from the crock pot to a large cookie sheet.
7. Brown under the broiler for 10-15 minutes turning to brown all sides.
8. Pull the fall apart tender pork apart.

 

[MikeMcMann]

If you want perfectly cooked meat edge to edge it's great for that and it's as walk away as a slow cooker. Is it necessary? Not at all. If you're a kitchen geek? Likely worth looking into.

Ya i've read lots and am sold if i expand my kitchen toys.

 

[AznTrojan]

i used it all the time in college..

easiest recipe had 4 ingredients

chuck roast
bottle of ketchup
coke
bag of carrots

shit was delicious over rice or shredded in sandwiches...

 

[Thrawn33]

We've got so many cooking devices we never even use..Pressure cooker, slow cooker, air fryer. They're all brand new and just in the garage.

Air fryer wings brah....

Slow cooker/Crock-Pot is $

Fuck any snob who disagrees

 

[Madmick]

Everyone in this thread should know this fundamental of making soups-- the "happy trinity":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirepoix_(cuisine)
2:1:1 ratio of Onion/Shallots + Carrots + Celery.

You can use this in more traditional soups which are higher maintenance, and tend to incorporate aromatics like a Bay Leaf, usually, or fresh Rosemary/Thyme, but it works as the base to marry to pretty much any meat in existence. Gotta be careful with aromatics in slow-cooking because they break down, and overwhelm the dish if you're not careful. Use thicker cuts of the mirepoix in the crock-pot so they hold up.

The fact that you linked two videos to support your argument that didn't feature the tool we're discussing in this thread says all that we need to know about your argument.

I'm willing to drop the absolutism and concede that you can cook enjoyable meals using a slow cooker, but you will get better results using other methods, such as the ones featured in the videos you linked.

I don't understand where the basis for your perception of technique is coming from. Do you think stew is some dish so lowly that it isn't worthy of professional kitchens with classically trained chefs? What do you think the pros use to make it? Why do you think they have a million different kinds of pressure cookers in those kitchens? They're just trying to fast-track what a crock-pot does while you're at work.

There's a reason you don't see crock-pot cooking on Iron Chef:

1. They don't have time
2. Nobody is entertained by watching Lebron shoot lay-ups for an hour

Not sure if you've ever tuned into the Life of a Chef, but it was hilarious to watch this professional chef, Vivian Howard, who moved back home from North Carolina, and opened up a high-end restaurant, lose to her sister at a family holiday meal because she was so hellbent on proving the superiority of this urban trend that pushes al dente vegetables for everything over classic, southern, home cooking with its supposedly uncouth technique of boiling the hell out of vegetables like collard greens. That was the fad that had spread to New York City from the West Coast where we tend to eat a lot more produce, and freshness of vegetables is a more common style. You blanche the veggies, then you try to leave them alone. Done right, this makes sense in California cuisine.

It doesn't in most southern cooking. My maternal family is from that South. Not sure if you've ever had collard greens in the style her sister made them, but it's just about the only goddamn way I can eat collard greens. If there is a hint of spring or chew left in them...you didn't boil them long enough. You bathe them in butter, you bathe everything in butter, which is where the South learned well from the French, usually with some clarified bacon fat thrown in for good measure, and you boil the hell out of bitter, coarse vegetables until they're not bitter or coarse anymore. It makes perfect sense. You get the most incredible, concentrated, pure collard green flavor that mixes with the richness of the fats. Every single person in her family preferred her sister's dish that was done in this tradition their mother taught them.

You're thinking about this the wrong way. You're not killing flavors. You're concentrating flavors. You're pulling flavor out of the fats and even the bones that you would never get in a more quickly cooked dish. Appreciate it for its distinct value.

Air fryer wings brah....

Slow cooker/Crock-Pot is $

Fuck any snob who disagrees

Everyone knows I'm a snob, and I adore slow cookers. Snobs are being misrepresented ITT.

#endsnoboppression

 

[MoneyGun]

i used it all the time in college..

easiest recipe had 4 ingredients

chuck roast
bottle of ketchup
coke
bag of carrots

shit was delicious over rice or shredded in sandwiches...

That sounds terrible. Should have saved the ketchup for your steaks.

 

[The Doberman]

Instant Pots are where it's at, makes roast better, faster, and you can even throw stuff in it frozen and just add a little time. they're really unreal. I've also got a sous vide for christmas and have been killing it with that lately. It's fantastic.

 

[misterfurious]

I thought the Mississippi pot roast sounded pretty good, so I made one today...fanfriggintastic! Can’t believe I’d never heard of it before!

 

[4HODMT]

Corn beef brisket. Made one the other day . 28oz can crushed tomatoes. Garlic. And salt and pepper. Cooked on high for 8 hours and was possibly the best corned beef I have ever had. Cum in your pants type shit

 

[Roxxo]

LOL
Sure, let me spend 3 hours cooking a steak that usually takes 3 minutes. I can see it for chicken, but the things people use those things on makes me cringe. A good rib eye NEVER belongs in a pot of water. I don't care if it is in a bag.
And no matter what people say, searing after cooking in water is NOT that same as cooking over coals.

It doesn't take 3 hours, it takes 40 minutes to an hour to cook a steak sous vide. That's less time than the way a lot of people cook steaks, leaving them out for an hour to come up to room temp before cooking, which in reality accomplishes nothing. It takes several hours for a chunk of meat to go from fridge temp to room temp, an hour or so on the counter will bring the temp up a few degrees at most. That time could have been better spent cooking it sous vide or doing a reverse sear. Sous vide is all about passive hands off cooking, I can have steaks cooking sous vide that I don't have to mess with or worry about overcooking while I'm preparing everything else, and then finish them with a quick sear in cast iron or on the grill.

All that said and being a proponent of sous vide cooking, there's not a very big benefit to cooking a good steak sous vide as far as the end result is concerned. There's less of a doneness gradient than a traditionally prepared steak, but for one some people like that gradient and two you can get similar results if you're careful while cooking.

Where sous vide really shines is with tough cuts of meat cooked for a long time at low temps. You can completely transform a tough cut of meat. The other day I cooked a chuck steak sous vide, normally quite a tough cut, and it was as tender as any ribeye or strip steak. The other thing sous vide can be good for is unorthodox/normally unsafe preparations of things, i.e. poultry cooked rare. If you cook, turkey for example, at 130 degrees for an hour and a half, it will be pasteurized and perfectly safe to eat.

 

[Liquid Smoke]

I never use a slow cooker. I find they change the texture of everything to a sort of soft clay consistency, and there is some sorcery where the slow cooker robs the individual flavours from the foods you put in, combining them into one much less appealing jumble of every flavour.

Learn to cook. You'll get much better results.

Do you even soup and stew bro?

 

[ShadBo]

Do you even soup and stew bro?

Yes. I slow cook loads of things.

Genovese meat sauce
Bolognese
All sorts of soups and stews
Sunday gravy
Cuts of meat with lots of connective tissue
And so on

So much of the flavour in slow cooked meals comes from building a glorious fond by searing meat or sauteing vegetabes, and then deglazing the pan by sweating aromatic vegetables or adding liquid. Maintaining a low simmer is crucial for the consistenty/structure of your meats and veg.

Even the really good slow cookers struggle with gentle simmering, and if you plan on searing and building up a fond, you're going to have to use another pot anyways.

Ditch the gimmick and get a tool meant for the job, and spend the extra few minutes it takes to do it right.

 

[superpunch]

Get a rack of ribs, remove the membrane, dry rub it, slow cook for 8 hours. Pour in BBQ sauce about 30 minutes before they're done.

Best. ribs. ever.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

LOL
Learn to use a slow cooker and you won't say such ridiculous things.

didn't read what you wrote, just liked your post because of your avatar