The No.1 Slow Cooker Recipes Site

Adapting Recipes for Slow Cookers

Many websites and recipe books provide great ideas for what foods to make in your slow cooker. However, you can also adapt some of your favourite recipes to your new appliance. The biggest change you will want to make to an existing recipe is the amount of liquid used. Since slow cookers retain liquid better than an open pot, you can usually reduce the amount called for by up to half. Also, the cooking time will obviously be longer when using a slow cooker. The best way to know how long a dish will take is to find a similar slow cooker version of your recipe.

Take it Slow

Slow cookers are, naturally, slow. However, you can try to lessen a dish’s cooking time if you are in a bind. A general rule of thumb is that high heat settings cook food roughly twice as quickly as low heat settings. For dishes like soups and stews, the higher heat should not cause too much harm to your recipe. However, you will want to be careful when trying to speed up desserts or larger meat dishes, like roasts. Another option is to find a recipe that lets you do part of the cooking on the stove or in the oven prior to adding ingredients to the crock pot. This can help you create a tasty meal in less time.
 

General Slow Cooker Tips

• One hour on HIGH is equal to two hours on LOW.
• The LOW setting is about 77C, and the HIGH setting is about 88-93C. Note that both of these temps are well above the minimum safe temperature of 60C.
• Only fill the slow cooker one half to two thirds full. The foods will not cook properly if the appliance is filled to the brim. If the food and liquid level is lower, the foods will cook too quickly.
• Foods cooked on the bottom of the slow cooker cook faster and will be moister because they are immersed in the simmering liquid.
• Don't lift the lid to stir, especially if you are cooking on the low setting. Each time you lift the lid, enough heat will escape that the cooking time should be extended by 20 minutes to half an hour.

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