What To Consider When Shopping For A New Crock Pot
When purchasing a crock pot for your great crock pot meals, look for one with a removable insert. You will really be glad that you did because it will be much easier to clean. You can actually submerse it in water to soak or scrub immediately. That’s especially important when you are tired at the end of a long day and you still have the kitchen to clean. The others can’t be submersed in water and it just isn’t as convenient to clean. I’ve had both kinds and would never have one again that doesn’t have a removable insert. But, then, I don’t enjoy cleaning the messes – just making them.
When shopping for a new crock pot for those delectable crock pot meals, give thought to what you will be using it for mainly: family meals at home, potlucks, picnics, entertaining.? Do you want it mainly for functional purposes or for beautiful food displays, such as special occasion buffets of crock pot meals? There are many beautiful crock pots on the market. The differences are mainly in the decorative designs and shapes. Tall ones are especially nice for soups and stews and for transporting crock pot meals to other locations. The reason is that you can put less food inside so that it’s not as easy to spill yet still provides sufficient quantity for serving purposes. You certainly don’t want to lose half your delicious crock pot meals on the way to the banquet.
I learned that lesson the hard way early one happy Sunday morning as my family set out for the weekly church service and potluck lunch. As usual, we were running late and one of the members of my family hastily placed the full-to-the-brim crock pot of chili into the trunk of the car and rapidly jutted out into traffic. I’m sure I don’t need to add any more color to this story. However, anticipating the outcome of such an impulsive action, the other person – again, no names here – but, it was the one who made the delicious meal – became “somewhat” upset and some rather intense fellowship ensued. Upon arriving at the church, we discovered the disaster was worse than expected and off we went to the car wash, making our arrival at the service even later. Needless to say, more than one person’s attitude needed some adjusting that morning and a good pulpit message on “attitudes” was most appropriate. I might add, that was about 15 years ago, the marriage has survived and maybe someday I’ll start a site on “how to survive the upheavals of marriage”. In the meantime, let’s get back to what to consider when you buy a crock pot or slow cooker. Although there may be some technical differences between slow cookers and crock pots, the names are actually used interchangeably and you will normally find them available under either name.
Although I prefer the tall round crock pots for soups, stews and other more liquid meals, I really like the shorter, oval ones if I’m only going to have one crock pot. The reason is that they are much more flexible. They are much better for cooking and serving more complete crock pot meals. You can put several dishes or a combination of food items and cook them together. This style cooker is great for the larger family that cooks larger quantities, for the small family that cooks smaller quantities of several items as well as the empty-nesters who may do both.
I love the beautifully decorated slow cookers but I also think the stainless steel ones have been made to look just as elegant and are actually easier to clean keep clean.
A really good quality crock pot can be one of the best investments you can make for your kitchen. A friend recently wrote saying that, after many years, she finally bought a new crock pot and passed on her old one to her daughter who loves the old one. My friend wrote “do they never wear out?” So, buy the best you can afford, knowing that this thing will last “forever”.
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For food safety reasons, set the temperature on high for approximately an hour when you first put the food into the crock pot. If you’re a working person, do this first thing in the morning before getting ready for work. Then get ready for work, eat your breakfast or do other chores while the crock pot is heating up to temperature. Then turn the temperature down to the desired temperature.
If your crock pot is functioning properly, it will maintain the food at a temperature above 140 degrees, which is the minimum safety level. For your peace of mind, you can check the safety of your crock pot occasionally by inserting a food thermometer into the center of the food at various times during the cooking process. Raise the temperature of the crock pot until it does maintain that temperature and then use that as your guide to where it needs to be set to do the job safely. If you can’t find a safe level then toss the pot and get a new one.
The LOW setting should maintain the food at about 200 degrees, and the
HIGH setting is about 300 degrees, which are well above the minimum safe temperature of 140 degrees.
It’s best to defrost food before putting into the crock pot. And to put the food into a different container before refrigerating so that the food can cool down quickly.
