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Yep, me too. I put food in it, set the timer and go to bed. In the morning I have dinner done for that night. I just put it in the fridge, then a few hours before dinner take it back out and heat it on low. 3 hours later, we have dinner that has melded to a nice flavor.
The Slow cooker is a countertop electrical cooking appliance used to simmer at a lower temperature than other cooking methods, such as baking, boiling, and frying. Some cookers automatically switch from cooking to warming (maintaining the temperature at 71–74 °C (160–165 °F) after a fixed time or after the internal temperature of the food, as determined by a probe, reaches a specified value.
Heating element heats the contents to a steady temperature in the 79–93 °C (174–199 °F) range. (Below boiling : 100 °C / 212 °F )
Food can be set to slow-cook before leaving for the day so it is ready on return.
Because of the longer cooking time, there is greater danger with slow cookers of having an extended power outage during cooking without the cook's knowledge; for example, the power may go out for several hours while the cook is away at work in places with unreliable power supply.
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A lidded pot generally won't 'boil away' if kept at a simmer, but I wouldn't test that theory over a prolonged period of time.
A cousin to the crock pot / slow cooker is sous vide.
SOUS-VIDE
Sous Vide is a French cooking technique, which translates to “under vacuum." In this technique food is vacuum-sealed in a cooking pouch and heated up at a precise temperature in a water bath. Instead of relying on perfect timing, sous vide relies on precise temperature control. You simply set the machine and can expect the technique to deliver consistent, perfect results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide
The net has plenty of $100+ sous-vide cooking inserts and machines.
El cheap sous-vide cookery : plastic ziploc bag dunked in large pot with water at desired temperature.
On eBay, found a thermostatic controller (800W) for my DIY sous-vide. What was interesting - a reviewer mentioned using it to control a hot plate (!). This allowed me to use any pan I already have - no need to buy a crock pot to hack.
$16 hot plate (W-M)
$25 Thermostatic controller (eBay)
+ existing stock pot
(Poached fish - magnificio!)
(Steaks and chops, cooked thoroughly, then seared on rocket hot cast-iron ... perfection)
SOUS VIDE TEMPERATURES https://www.chefsteps.com/activities...perature-guide
BEEF : ROAST MEDIUM RARE : 60C/ 140F
PORK: CHOP: 62/144
CHICKEN: LIGHT MEAT : 66/149
CHICKEN : DARK MEAT : 75/167
FISH: 50/122
VEGS: 82/180
POTATO: 85/185
Since the food is sealed away from the water (and the heat source) it won't burn up / boil over / etc.
Minor depressing issue - you may find that frozen fish have been infused with cheap water to boost their sales weight. It becomes readily apparent when your bagged fish weighs less than the liquid in the bag.
I personally don’t leave my slow cooker on if I’m not home. Or my oven. I know that it’s probably very safe to do it, that’s what they’re designed to do, I just am too paranoid. I know it’s not logical but there you go.
I’ve left slow cookers on overnight and for extended periods during a day. I would have no problem leaving one attended while at work, if I still worked.
I have not used my slow cooker since I bought an Instant Pot, however.
Most of the issues are too much liquid is added at the beginning and the meats and veggies release more so there might be overflow issues.
That's just silly. If everything fits before you start cooking, it is still going to fit during/after cooking. There is no increase in the overall volume.
I've been leaving slow-cookers, bread machines and other appliances unattended for decades, as have many millions of other people...also wood stoves, pellet stoves, electric heaters, water heaters, etc. Properly maintained appliances in good working order present very little risk.
For those concerned about power outages leading to under-cooked food, I think the vast majority of us have clocks and appliances with clocks that will signal us if a power outage has occurred. If there is any doubt as to the temperature of the food, whether it has been cooked enough, it can simply be cooked longer and some other meal substituted if necessary.
When I used my slow cooker more, I typically didn't leave it unattended - not because I was afraid of a problem but because I'm generally out of the house for longer than 6 to 8 hours on a work day, and felt that the food was overcooked by the time I came home. I know there are now models that have a delayed start timer which would help with that issue, but then you have the issue of raw meat sitting out for several hours before the cooking starts, so that's not great either from a food safety standpoint.
That's one of the things I like about the Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker) - the cooking time is short enough that it's not a problem to wait until I get home to start it. I can even prep a dish ahead of time and leave the inner liner in the fridge until I get home, or there are a lot of resources how there with instructions on prepping and freezing a meal and you just pop the frozen thing into the Instant Pot and cook it that way.
I do use a slow cooker and leave it on overnight when I'm caramelizing onions though - I like to cook them for about 18 hours. Sometimes I've left it for the day, but I usually end up doing that on a day when I'm around the next day, because they do better when they are stirred periodically esp. more towards the end of the cooking process. So typically I put them in before bed, and then let them cook the rest of the next day while I'm doing chores and errands and am in and out to check on them.
My old orange crockpot blew up.
Nothing flew in the air but the porcelain broke in half at the bottom
The noise scared the baggeebers out of me!!
I meant to put in the water in...let it get hot then the vegetables
but got distracted so there was nothing inside it when plugged in
Sounded like a shot-gun going off.
Ever since then, I put the crockpot in the sink and let the slow cooker do it's thing.
Leave it for 4-6 hrs unattended.
If you have this type of crockpot, I suggest you put it in the sink while it cooks!!
It's interesting that you mentioned the stove. There's something called a "blech" (CH as in "challah"), quite common in Jewish communities. It's when you turn all four burners to very low heat, then put a sheet of metal over them. You then place pots and pans of pre-cooked food on top. It's meant to enable families to enjoy hot meals on Shabbat (Saturday), while getting around the prohibition on cooking and lighting a flame. The practice is quite hazardous if not done right; local fire departments (FDNY in parts of Brooklyn in particular) even took to distributing pamphlets on fire safety with using a blech.
In recent years, blechs were supplanted by hot plates and slow-cookers, which are safer, but still carry hazards of of their own. Interestingly, many stoves manufactured in Israel come with a "Shabbat mode", which basically means the oven is kept warm with a very low, continuous flame (stronger than a pilot light, but weaker than normal cooking heat), and presumably comes with an automatic shutoff of some sort.
That just shows me one more reason to think religion is nutty.
I use my slow cooker all the time for 6-8 hours. I put everything in it, turn it on and go to work. Dinner ready when I get home. Never have had a problem and I've been doing this for over 20 years!
What I won't do is leave the dishwasher or washing machine on when I'm not home!
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