More About the Crock Pot
There are many crock pot cookbooks on the market. They turn some of our favorite stove top and oven recipes into slow cooked sensations. Dishes you may never thought of cooking in a crock pot can be prepared without you even being there. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?
What you must remember when cooking anything in a crock pot is the liquid that must be added. There must be some type of liquid in the bottom of the cooker to begin the cooking process. Without it, the ingredients will stick to the bottom and burn. There doesn’t need to be a lot, but enough to cover the bottom in most cases. The juices within the meat will mingle with the other liquid during cooking to create more of a stock.
When using a crock pot it should be at least half full for maximum cooking potential. Keep in mind that the more food you add to the cooker, the slower it will cook. The temperature will cook the food evenly without overcooking if the heat settings are adjusted accordingly. If you aren’t careful and don’t adjust the crock pot heat settings, you may find that an eight hour setting cooked your dinner in two and spent the other six drying it out.
Meats are the most common food cooked in a slow cooker. People use a crock pot to cook main dishes for dinner since this is the meal we struggle with preparing most on a busy schedule. Any meat used needs to be thoroughly drained before adding it to the cooker. Since meat takes longer to cook, it should be the bottom layer. This will also help keep the meat moist because it is lying in the liquid placed in the bottom of the crock pot.
For safety, cook meats at least three hours so that the internal temperature reaches a proper cooking level. This is not usually a problem as most set their crock pots at its lowest setting. This usually means the meat will cook for 6 to 8 hours. Just a word of advice, whole chickens should not be used in a slow cooker. The internal temperature needed to safely cook that much chicken properly can’t be reached in time for eating at such low temperature settings.
If you plan to cook vegetables in your slow cooker, here are some tips. Tough fibrous veggies like carrots and potatoes can be tossed in at the beginning with the meat. It takes longer for the fibers to be broken down and for the vegetables to be cooked all the way through. More delicate vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms should be added half an hour before the meal is done.
Slow cooking makes dinner on the run a cinch. Just be sure to experiment with various dishes the first time to get an idea of how long your slow cooker takes to create the particular meal. Layering foods correctly and testing heat settings will ensure your meal turns out delicious every time.
|
