Five Tips for Great Slow Cooker Meals

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

29 Aug 2009 09:25 AM

Using your slow cooker or crockpot is a great money saving idea. You can use inexpensive ingredients and have dinner ready with ease, avoiding the cost of eating out. I often get a lot of questions about using slow cookers, especially from people who find that their meals are dried out, tasteless, over or under seasoned or a strange texture. But most of the time, this can be corrected easily by following some basic guidelines or tips to freezer cooking.

Here are five tips for great slow cooker meals.

1. Be careful about opening the lid. While some recipes do benefit from one or two stirs during the cooking process, opening the lid too often can spell disaster. About 20 minutes of heat can escape this way, plus a good portion of moisture. Make sure that the lid of your slow cooker fits properly.
2. Milk can break down easily under heat. In general, try to add the milk or at least half of the milk at the very end of the cooking process.
3. You will generally have better results if you cook longer on the low setting instead of using the high setting. If you want to cook on high, it is best to do it in the beginning of the cooking cycle, and make sure you stir well before switching the temperature down to low.
4. Recipes aren't set in stone, and recipes for regular cooking methods can generally be adapted to the slow cooker. One of the best rules of thumbs to follow is to use a recipe made specifically for a slow cooker and follow it to the letter the first time you make it. Then, change things here and there to suit your particular taste.
5. When adapting a regular recipe for cooking in a slow cooker keep the following in mind: Cut back a little on spices, since the slow cooking process can make them stronger, use less water or liquid in your recipe, layer hearty vegetables such as carrots and potatoes underneath chicken, and brown ground meats before placing them in the slow cooker.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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