What About The Slow Cooker?

I’m writing this post in response to something that Jean Smith Lanoue, http://www.facebook.com/#!/jeanjeanthecookingqueen, posted on Facebook. She’s doing a survey on slow cookers, for something she is writing, and I'm thinking about writing about the tools, and gadgets I use in my kitchen. Maybe this is a good excuse to get started on it. Thanks Jean. Anyway, about the slow cooker.

My wife collects them. She can’t see one at a garage sale and not buy it, so we have way more than we need, but the one we actually use is a Rival “Smart-Pot”, with 4, 6, 8, and 10 hour settings plus warm. To me a slow cooker is nothing but a brazing machine. How do I decide to do three to five hours of brazing in the oven, or on top of the stove, or eight to ten hours in the slow cooker? It all depends on how soon do I need the dish, and most importantly what time of day will it be, when I have to take the food out of the cooker?

The only problem with using the slow cooker is, if the food is getting done when it’s time for me to go to bed. At 11:00 PM, I don’t want to set up another two, or three hours, waiting for the stuff to get cool enough to put in the refrigerator.  I can recall several nights, at bed time, putting the food in a big aluminum bowl, filling an even bigger aluminum bowl with ice, and…, well you see where I’m going with this; all so I can refrigerate the stuff, and hit the sack.

My favorite times to start something in the slow cooker is, early in the morning or late at night. If we plan to be gone most of the day, and want dinner to be ready when we get back, I get the slow cooker up early. If I plan to serve great northern beans, or pulled pork for breakfast, the slow cooker has to stay up all night taking care of that.

Things I like to cook in our “Smart-Pot”, are pork shoulder, dry beans, and collard greens, with smoked ham hock, or smoked turkey parts. For the closest thing to the way I do pulled pork in the slow cooker, check out what Bridget said at, “The Way the Cookie Crumbles”.  http://www.crumblycookie.net/2008/05/30/crockpot-pulled-pork/