Just tested: Crock-Pot

What is it?
The Crock-Pot is a slow cooker and consists of an electric stainless steel outer pan and a ceramic inner pan. It is available in three sizes and comes with a cookbook for the novice slow cook.

The pan has three positions. A low setting, a high setting and a keep warm setting. The lowest heat setting ensures that the dish stays at the right temperature without boiling. A cooking time of one hour on the high setting is two hours on the low setting.

Why slow cooking?
The dish cooks slowly in its own moisture, so that the nutrients do not boil away or are released into water. Due to the heat distribution, the meal does not boil over and does not burn. Stewing also ensures that aromas and spices come into their own. In addition, the ingredients retain their structure and do not break down.

To see whether the Crock-Pot lives up to its promises, I put together a menu from the cookbook: onion soup as a starter, a whole chicken as main course and rice pudding for dessert. Because of the preparation time, I prepared the dishes on three different days.

How does it work?
The operation of the Crock-Pot is simple. For the onion soup I had to fry onions with some garlic and wine. Place the onion mixture together with the stock in the Crock-Pot and let it sit on low for five hours.

The principle was about the same for the chicken. The whole chicken, along with carrots, celery, herbs, and a little liquid (stock or wine) went into the pot, this time on the low setting for eight to 10 hours.

Finally, the rice pudding. Put milk, desert rice, butter, sugar and herbs in the pot and let it cook on low for two hours. After that, the porridge had to be kept warm for at least half an hour: the porridge thickens.

The result
With the onion soup I just wanted to put down a good soup. And it worked. The soup had a nice color, the onions were soft and tasty. As befits a real homemade soup, it was even tastier the second day.

Preparing a whole chicken sometimes results in dry chicken breasts for me and with rice porridge it is always a challenge to get the rice grains just soft enough. The porridge was just right and the chicken was delicious for the most part. The aromas of the herbs, carrots and celery were really infused. Unfortunately the chicken breasts were still a bit dry.

An additional advantage of preparing the chicken was that the vegetables and the liquid from the bottom of the pot, diluted with water the next day, formed an excellent vegetable soup.

After
The ceramic inner pan can be cleaned very easily. Both by hand and in the dishwasher.

Conclusion
Cooking with the Crock-Pot is easy and the result is impressive. But for a weekday the preparation times are actually too long for me. A timer could then be a solution.

Tips

• The Crock-Pot does not brown meat, so if desired, first pre-fry the meat in the frying pan.
• During cooking, the product loses very little liquid, so do not add more liquid than indicated in the recipe. Meat needs little stock or water, vegetables a little more.
• Fresh herbs lose their flavor during long cooking. So use dried herbs or add some extra herbs at the end.
• Milk and cream are best added during the last hour of cooking.
• It is important to leave the lid on the Crock-Pot during cooking. Especially if you cook on the low setting, because then you lose a lot of heat when you open it. When cooking for a shorter time on the high setting, stirring the food now and then will benefit the food.

Information
The Crock-Pot costs €69.00 for four people (3.5 litres), €99.00 for six people (4.7 litres) and €129.00 for 8 people (5.7 litres). The latter does contain a timer. Sales addresses can be found on the website of crock pot.