How To Make The Best Slow Cooker Crockpot Recipes | Food & Drink

How To Make The Best Slow Cooker Crockpot Recipes

Slow cooker crockpot recipes can make the most delicious meals. A slow cooker is a great way to cook, and there?s a whole range of healthy slow cooker recipes to choose from. However, there a number of simple tips you can follow in order to make the most of your crockpot.

Filling Up Your Crockpot

Don?t fill your crockpot up to the top. Fill it up from one-half to two-thirds of the way up. If it?s too full, then the food won?t be able to cook well. On the other hand, if it?s not full enough, then the food will cook too fast. You should also be aware that ingredients at the bottom of the pot will not only cook the quickest but will be the most moist, as all the liquids move to this area.

Crockpot Temperatures

Slow cooker crockpot recipes are meant to be cooked for a long period and will specify if you need to keep the temperature high or low. The low setting is approximately 200?C while the high is around 300?C. Two hours on a low setting is the equivalent to one hour on high.

The lowest the temperature should be is 140?C. If you can, test that the temperature is at least this after 4 hours of cooking on a low heat. If it isn?t at least this temperature, then your crockpot is probably broken. It?s advised that, for the first hour, you cook at a high heat to bring the temperature up to 140?C as quickly as possible. This is a main reason for not using frozen food: It slows down reaching this vital temperature.

Cooking Meat

Many slow cooker crockpot recipes involve cooking meat. It?s advisable to get rid of excess fat on your meat and take the skin off poultry. This is because the fat will simply melt when cooked for such a long time, and the resulting texture isn?t very pleasant. In addition, foods containing a lot of fat cook at a much faster rate.

A lot of meat needs around 8 hours in a crockpot. The longer you cook the meat, the more moist and tender the end result will be. If the meat piece is large, it?s better to brown it first as this will add to the flavor.

For ground meat, you have to fry it in a pan beforehand.

Cooking Vegetables

As vegetables cook at a slower rate to meat, they should be placed at the bottom of the pot. However, tender vegetables, like tomatoes and mushrooms, shouldn?t be added until the last 45 minutes to ensure they don?t overcook.

There?s a wide array of slow cooker recipes to choose from. Whatever your dietary requirements and culinary tastes, you?ll be spoiled for choice by all the healthy slow cooker recipes.

Crockpot recipes are healthy and delicious. However, by using a few extra pieces of advice, you can be sure that your slow cooker crockpot recipes taste their best.

Written by: Dan on June 17, 2011.

Posted by Dan on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 5:07 pm?
Filed under Crockpot Recipes ? Tagged with Best, Cooker, Cooking Meat, Cooking Recipes, Crockpot Recipes, Crockpot Recipes, Delicious Meals, End Result, Frozen Food, Healthy Recipes, High Heat, Liquids, Meat Pie, Meat Poultry, Meat Recipes, Pot, Recipes, Recipes Cooking, Recipes Crockpot, Recipes Slow Cooker, Slow, Slow Cooker Recipes, Temperatures, Texture, Two Thirds

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