I finally found a Hamilton Beach slow cooker w/ auto shift.

[polkanut]

Today there was a small estate sale just 2 blocks up the street from our house so I decided to take a look.  Well, I didn't need any rosaries, but the woman must have had about 3 dozen or so.  But, amongst other things on the kitchen counter was this lovely.  It looks very pristine, and apparently was well taken care of.  I've never used a slow cooker with the auto shift feature.  I know some of you have them and use them.  Pros & cons?  Any opinions on this option?

 

The box and all of the original paperwork came with it along with a few paperback slow cooker recipe books.  The paperwork shows the year 1976 on it.

 

[appnut]

Isn't that a 4 qt capacity?  If so, my mom had the exact same unit.  She liked the auto shift because it would start on high and then shift. 

 

[polkanut]

Yes, 4qt version.

 

[appnut]

Yay!!!   

Think of me when you use it.  Yesterday would have been my mom's 93rd birthday. 

 

[frigilux]

Nice vintage slow cooker; congratulations!

A question: Does it shift from high to low or from high (or low) to hold warm?
If it shifts to hold warm, it's a wonderful feature. I've come home a few hours late a number of times and the hold warm feature kept the food at a safe temp without drying it out.

Rosaries: My mom was a Catholic from Italy who prayed the rosary every day. She had a bunch of them, too, her favorite being one with white beads that she wore around her neck while seven months pregnant when she and my Dad came to America on a Red Cross boat in 1946.

 

[maytagbear]

Nice catch!

Really nice, Tim!

I have a slow cooker with auto shift, with the "Corning Electrics" brand. I almost always use the auto shift setting with it. So handy.

Mine just shifts once, from high to low.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[petek]

It looks a lot like my first slow cooker which had auto shift but cant for the life of me remember if iT was an HB or not. Auto shift is something of a food safety feature. it heats the food up more quickly to lessen the chance of bacterial growth then shifts to low to slow cook

 

[vacerator]

I rarely use

my slow cooker. I don't prefer the under browning of meat from it.

 

[appnut]

I don't prefer the under browning of meat from it.

Per directions, that's why I brown my roasts and beef stew and sometimes chicken pieces before putting them in the crock pot.  I do the same thing when I do roasts or other beef in my pressure cooker. 

 

[vacerator]

So if I'm

lifting my cast iron dutch oven up out of the cabinet to brown the meat, I'm cooking the entire dish in it. largest burner on almost low, and let it slow simmer a few hours. Deliciousness uncompared from the deglazing with wine after browning the meat, then sautéing the mir et' pois or trinity of carrots, onion, celery, and or peppers.
Julia Child never made casoulet in a slow cooker.

 

[vacerator]

Today,

I made Spanish Pallela for the family. Halibut, shrimp, chicken, Portuguese sausage, bomba rice, little neck clams. Onion, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, saffron.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I brown my meats on the grill before popping them in the slow cooker. The grill's always out and available so it's handy that way.

Chuck

 

[firedome]

Tim:

we have the identical HB Auto-Shift slow cooker, only difference ours has a brick pattern on the outside, otherwise the same. We bought it a couple years ago from an older couple who'd only used it a couple of times. Unfortunately they had lost all the paperwork so I don't know the timing when the shift goes from Hi to Lo temp, but it seems to work very well, we like it!

 

[lordkenmore]

I, too, seldom use a slow cooker. Make that "almost never." My mother was just about as bad--she used her slow cooker more than I use mine, but it was only used to make vegetable soup. Thus, during a period she wasn't making soup for whatever reason, it collected dust in the cupboard.

I keep thinking I should try to use one more. But I'm programmed to use regular pots and pans, and much of the time these days my eating seems to be get something made and served fast.

 

[lordkenmore]

has a brick pattern on the outside

I've seen those, at least in photos and maybe in person. I have to admit mixed feelings. I guess I personally prefer simple, understated design these days. But those certainly have 1970s flair to them! Indeed, as I think of it, 1970s design was--in general--a bit much, but at least there was some content there that I really don't see in most of today's appliances.

 

[lordkenmore]

>Auto shift is something of a food safety feature. it heats the food up more quickly to lessen the chance of bacterial growth then shifts to low to slow cook

A point worth considering. I know slow cookers of yesteryear have been targeted as potentially unsafe in that they might not heat up fast enough on the low setting to a temperature that will kill the germs. I'm not an expert, but it seems like a auto shift system would help address this issue.

Of course, I've seen the suggestion that one's old faithful slow cooker should be retired in favor of a new slow cooker. Which is made in China, and may poison one with bad glaze for all I know. Or burn the house down with bad electrical components. (Plus one wonders if the "experts" suggesting a new slow cooker work for a slow cooker manufacturer...)

 

[Ultramatic]

Oh congratulations. I have the same one. I use it a few times a month. I usually brown the meat before popping it in. Love mine.

 

[polkanut]

Roger "Firedome", the instruction booklet says that it when using Auto-Shift it switches from Hi to Lo after about 1 ¾ hours.

 

John "LordKenmore", I was very happy that this cooker had what the box calls "Harvest Wheat" as the pattern on it.

 

I'm going to give the crock & cover a good washing in the dishwasher and then I think a nice beef stew may be on the menu now that the temps have a definite Fall feel to them. 

 

[firedome]

Thanks!

For that info Tim!

 

[mikael3]

That model is exactly what I remember from childhood, wheat and all. 

 

For a couple of decades, I refused to even look at a crockpot, because they sort of took over the world for a while, and it seemed like there wasn’t a meal on earth that hadn’t been cooked to death in one of those things. I felt the same way about casseroles.  Crockpots and casseroles both promised one-dish culinary glory, and frankly, life just isn’t that easy.  The last straw for the casseroles was a bubbling hot lab-sample of canned asparagus, potted meat, and mayonnaise.  That’s a childhood trauma that no therapist can cure.  I’m not sure what soured me on crockpots; probably a slopped-up mass of pulped carrots from a beef stew gone wrong.

 

But about 10 years ago, I took another look at crockpots, and I’ve come to love them for a lot of the foods that really demand and deserve that type of cooking: old hens and tough, gristly meat, both of which are full of flavor but short on tenderness.  After several hours in the crock, they make a remarkable meal.

 

I don’t brown anything before crocking it.  I love and embrace the concept of bouilli and bouillon, the wonderful boiled meats and real broth in the truest sense of the word.  A hen in a pot with some onion, garlic, celery, peppercorns, a sprinkle of thyme, a bay leaf and a clove will be ready to go after 5 hours on high, and it is fantastic; browning just isn’t necessary.  That’s all you need for a great soup; but the flesh makes a fantastic chicken salad, too.

 

If you like real Mexican food, then you’ll love cochinita pibil and barbacoa cooked in a crockpot—again, with no browning, which would not be authentic.  Just a very long, very slow steamy stew.

 

And by the way, La Julia did use a crockpot.  She loved it for New England baked beans!!