Slow Cookers For Dummies
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You can make easy and delicious meals in your slow cooker, with some helpful tips, you can even convert your favorite traditional recipes to the slow cooker. Make sure you use the slow cooker temperature guide to cook dishes thoroughly and convert temperatures, if necessary.

Tips for using your slow cooker

You can prepare great food in your slow cooker without a lot of fuss. Use these tips for preparation and to get the most from your slow cooker to make convenient and delicious meals.

  • Brown meats and poultry first. Although doing so may add a few extra minutes in prep time, food takes on a whole different look and flavor when first browned. Add a small amount of oil, like canola or olive, to a nonstick skillet large enough to hold the meat or poultry. Warm it over medium-high heat a couple minutes, add the food in small batches, and brown the food evenly on all sides.

  • Don’t overdo the liquid. Very little evaporation occurs in a slow cooker compared to stovetop or oven cooking. Most slow cooker recipes, with the exception of soups and sauces, call for 50 percent less liquid than conventional ones.

  • Always cook covered. To maintain the proper balance between time and temperature, always cook with the cover on. If you must peek or stir, do so quickly; it can take up to 20 minutes to recover lost heat after the cover is removed.

  • Even pieces mean evenly cooked food. Food should be cut into even, bite-sized pieces so that they cook evenly at the same time.

  • Season liberally. Because slow cooker food cooks longer than other conventional methods, the flavor of herbs and spices can diminish. Fresh herbs should be added during the last 60 minutes of cooking. Also add a pinch or two more of dried herbs than you think is necessary. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste again and adjust as needed before serving. Never salt dried beans until they’re cooked to the point of being almost tender. Salt hardens the outer coating of the bean when added too soon.

  • Never add dairy products in the beginning of the cooking process. Slow cooking causes liquid dairy products to curdle and aged cheese to become oily. Either add dairy products the last 60 minutes of cooking or use canned sweetened, condensed, or evaporated milk. Substitute processed cheese for aged cheese.

  • Never use frozen ingredients. For food safety, a slow cooker must reach at least 140° in four hours or less. Frozen food prolongs the cooking process, increasing the possibility of harmful bacteria growth. Large pieces of foods like meat and poultry should be safely thawed a day or two before in the refrigerator. Frozen vegetables and the like should be thawed before being added.

  • Take care with power outages. Resume cooking in slow cooker if the outage has been for less than two hours — or remove food from the cooking container and continue cooking in a saucepan or ovenproof dish on the stovetop or in the oven. If the outage was longer than two hours and the food was still cooking, discard the food to avoid the possibility of food-borne illness.

  • Don’t subject the ceramic cooking container or glass lid to extreme temperatures. The ceramic cooking container and glass cover react to changes in temperature and can crack or break if cold ingredients are added when hot, or if placed on a cold surface when hot.

  • Do not overfill or underfill. For best cooking results, fill your slow cooker at least halfway and no more than two-thirds.

  • Note that cooking times increase above an altitude of 4,000 feet. Check with your local cooperative extension bureau for cooking time conversions.

Slow cooker temperature conversions

If you pull up a recipe for your slow cooker and the temperature is in metric, use this conversion chart to find the right temperature to make sure your dish is cooked correctly and thoroughly.

Degrees Fahrenheit Degrees Celsius
140 60
145 65
160 70
165 75
170 80
180 85
250 120
275 135
300 150
325 160
350 175
375 190
400 205
425 220
450 230
475 245
500 260

Determining slow cooking times

Slow cooker recipes average 6 to 10 hours of cook time. If you want to convert your favorite recipes to the slow cooker, use the following guidelines. (You can always check to make sure your food has safely finished cooking by using a meat or instant-read thermometer. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the cooked food without touching bone or the cooking container to get an accurate reading.)

Cooking Times
Traditional Recipe Slow Cooker, Low Setting Slow Cooker, High Setting
45 minutes 6–10 hours 3–4 hours
50–60 minutes 8–10 hours 4–5 hours

Slow cooking temperatures

Pick up a thermometer for a quick and easy way to determine if your meal is cooked to a safe temperature. Here’s a guide for using your slow cooker and cooking to a temperature that’s safe.

Food Safe Cooking Temperature in Degrees F
Eggs Cook until yolk and white are firm
Egg dishes 160
Ground Meat and Meat Mixtures
Turkey, chicken 165
Veal, beef, lamb, pork 160
Fresh Beef
Medium rare 145
Medium 160
Well done 170
Fresh Lamb
Medium rare 145
Medium 160
Well done 170
Fresh Pork
Medium 160
Well done 170
Poultry
Chicken, whole 180
Turkey, whole 180
Poultry breasts, roasted 170
Poultry thighs, wings 180
Ham
Fresh (uncured) 160
Precooked (ready to eat) 140

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Tom Lacalamita has written five appliance cookbooks and appeared on Good Morning America®, CNBC®, and NPR®. Glenna Vance is a food writer and recipe developer.

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