my first slow cooker....

[sudsmaster]

Again, after about four hours, delicious aromas are filling the patio and house. Flies are massing on the window screens trying to get at the slow cooker, lol.

Been reading some reviews of the Hamilton Beach "Set and Forget" slow cooker with temperature probe. Most people love the way it cooks, esp with the probe, but reliability has been a big issue. Some report their cookers have failed to heat at all after only two uses. Another couple of buyers say the crock cracked while washing it, and that HB has been unresponsive in how to get a replacement crock. Others say the digital control panel has failed after a few uses. Some say that the cooker turned itself to high mysteriously overnight, resulting in burned and ruined food. Or that it didn't heat at all.

So it sounds like a very good concept, but limited by poor quality/manufacturing. If I do get one, you can be sure I'll be saving the receipt, box, and all documentation.

 

[foraloysius]

Nice crockpot Rich!!

Bob, you are mistaken. I posted a recipe of an Amaretto cheesecake. Would you post your chocolate cheesecake recipe?

 

[appnut]

Luigi, it was teh same basic recipe, I just substituted cocoa powder or melted 1 oz chocolate squares and increased sugar a bit. I'll see what I can find, but Ithink I just made it up as an adaptation.

 

[sudsmaster]

Hmmm. We'll see how well this one turns out.

I thought I was overfilling it. But after five hours, on low, with no preheat, the thing has created liquid from the veggies (onions and tomatoes) and it's boiling around the sides!
Thanks, Louis.

I hopped online to read reviews of the unit and lots of people complained about it cooking too fast. Which wouldn't be a problem IF the times were more adjustable. But all you get is 8 or ten hours on low, or 4 or 6 hours on high. It seems like this thing will be done cooking in 6 hours on low... but since I'm evaluating its usefulness as an away-at-work solution, I'm going to let it run the full 8 hours and see what the temp of the chicken is and how it tastes.

I know my older 4.5 qt crockpot didn't boil on low. It did overcook the chicken last time, but that was probably because I put it on high for 1 hour and then swtiched it to low, and then didn't get home to shut if off until 10 hours had elapsed. And the main problem was the garlic cloves overheating and scorching and tasting rather bitter.

We'll see what these results are. I can always return it to Costco and try a different brand. Or put the older crockpot on a timer and try it that way - although it's rather small for the chicken/veggie dishes I want to make (hard to find chickens at Costco that are less than five lbs these days).

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, I had to call the experiment to a halt at six hours. When I saw the skin of the chicken start to inflate like a balloon I realized things had gone long enough - maybe too long. Opened the lid and put in a temperature probe. The chicken breast was registering 200F!. That was hot enough for me - too hot, actually. So I shut the thing off and pulled the chicken out - which of course fell into pieces. It left behind a nice stew of potatoes, onions, tomatoes, flavored with garlic and the various herbs I had added initially inside the chicken.

Had I not been present, this dish would have been overdone to the point of being inedible again. As it is, at six hours it was overdone - the internal temp of the chicken need only be 180, and 160 probably would have been fine.

From my reading it appears that the mfg's have all increased the heating temps, even on low, to avoid problems some people had with bacterial growth etc. So now it appears that the new low is like the old high, and lord knows what the new high is.

I'm thinking I might take a chance next on the Hamilton Beach to see if perhaps I can get one that is put together right. A temperature probe, at least for chicken, seems to be essential with these modern hot-running crock pots.

And if the Hamilton Beach craps out there's still Kitchenaid - which at least has an extra low setting (they call it "simmer"), and some models have fully adjustable cooking times as well.

At least I gave it a chance.

The other thing - this unit ran very hot outside, as well. The old Crockpot has visible heating elements only on the sides. The new one I guess has them on the sides and the bottom. The counter top got very warm during the first four hours, so I lifted up the crockpot and put a wood cutting board under it, just to avoid scorching the formica. The outside sides ran very hot as well, much hotter than I recall the old one running.

 

[mixfinder]

Kitchenaid

The complaint has been the amount of time food is in the danger zone 65-140 degrees. The newer pots have beefed up the heating capacity to get the load above 140 as quickly as possible. Many of the lesser expensive brands don't offer lower options. The Kitchenaid and the uniquely similar All-Clad, had many complaints about the ceramic vessel cracking. It is a combination of an aggressive heating element and loading a cold ceramic insert in a hot cooker. All-Clad has switched their insert to cast aluminum which can go to the stove top to brown or in a conventional oven for a glazed finish. Kitchenaid is still stubbornly trying to educate the user not to start the cooker without the pot and not to refrigerate the vessel full of food prior to cooking. Many cooks prepare the pot the night before and toss it in the cooker in the morning. Calphalon introduced a beautry on the market this year. I have their waffle iron and it's a show stopper.

 

[sudsmaster]

The Rival I bought would be OK if it offered additional times. But eight hours at low is simply too long to cook a chicken, not when it starts to boil at five hours. I could put it on a separate timer, to shut it off early, but four hours with no power would be just too long to let it go.

The Hamilton Beach also has complaints about cracked crocks, but I suppose if I'm careful not to load up the unit and store in fridge overnight before cooking, it will stay in one piece. I really do think that for chicken, a temperature probe is the only way to ensure that more delicate meats (like chicken) don't get overcooked.

Another possibility is a Rival or other brand with a programmable timer where the times are not limited to a few selections. So I could set up a chicken dish to cook for, say five hours on low, and then let it switch automatically to warm until I got home (a total of about nine hours).

The All-Clad looks nice, but there's no mention of an aluminum insert on their web site.

My old 4.5 qt Rival oval could be put on a timer... I figure I could set it for seven hours and then let it sit with residual heat for another couple of hours without risking food spoilage. It heats at a lower temp than the newer Rival. I'm probably going to put both on the watt meter to see what the differences are.

 

[sudsmaster]

Interesting.

The modern Crockpot runs at about 250 watts on high. On low, it cycles between 150 and 250. On warm, it cycles between 250 and 0. After an hour or so, about 2 inches of water in the crock reached 134F at the warm setting.

Next I'll test the old model. This should be easier because it only has two settings (off low high) and it has no computer to cycle the voltage up and down.

 

[xraytech]

All of my slow cookers are at least 18 yrs old except I have one digital slow cooker,
It took me a while to find one that was flexible enough, I bought the Kenmore digital slow cooker, it has 4 heat settings,keep warm, low, med, and high, it has a 24 hour timer so you can set it to any time then it will automatically shift to keep warm for up to 24 hours. The Kenmore also has a 7 qt crock so it has more capacity, plus it is heat resistent and can be used in the oven. It only cost $44.99 at Sears. I have had mine for almost 3 yrs now, it works great and gets alot of use.

 

[polkanut]

Rich,

I have put our slow cooker on a timer with great results. The food is exactly the way we want it done. We have a 15yo West Bend btw.

 

[sudsmaster]

Sam,

I saw that Kenmore on the Sears website. Does yours take longer than expected? There are a lot of customer reviews/complaints that it takes way too long to cook a meal. Like 24 hours! Kind of the opposite problem that most modern cookers seem to have, that is, cooking too fast (like my Rival).

Tim,

That's good news. It may be what I do when all this testing is over.

 

[xraytech]

Tim,

I actually love my Kenmore slow cooker it is my most frequently used one. I think it cooks like my older Rivals and my West-Bend cooker. It is not as fast as the new Rival crock-pots. I just love how it is more flexible with the timer and 4 heat settings.
I usually cook my 3.5 lb rolled rump roasts or pork loins and cabbage rolls for about 8 hours on medium heat,and meatballs only take 4-5 hours maybe less(I make 1/4 lb meatballs) and the keep warm is also a very gentle heat compared to others. I have had 3 lbs of macaroni and cheese in it on keep warm at luncheons at work for 5-6 hours and it dosent burn or dry up.
If I were to buy a new slow cooker or reccomend one to someone it would definetly be the Digital Kenmore.

Sam

 

[sudsmaster]

Three's a charm

I got a Hamilton Beach "Set and Forget" slow cooker today. Tried to get one at Sears - for the online price of $50 - which I had seen last night and printed out and took there this morning - but they said that was a one day only price, and the regular price would be $60. I told them I'd check at Target, which I did, but Target didn't have the same model (no lid clamps, no spoon rest, no lid rest, etc). Since my local Target is in the same shopping center as Kohl's, which I'd never been to before, I decided to try them. Lo and Behold they had the top of the line model for $57. I got a Kohl's charge card which knocked the price down 20%, to about $45, so I felt it was a win-win situation.

Right now I'm preparing the other fryer chicken (Costco sells them in pairs) with basically the same recipe as I made yesterday - which wound up making a passable chicken stew. This time I sprinkled the chicken with paprika and put the garlic and serrano peppers on top of the chicken. Set the heat level to low and the temp probe to 170F (which is a good compromise for the breast area - the dark meat down below will get hotter). Here's a shot of the latest slow cooker experiment. Let's hope the crock doesn't crack and the electronics don't crap out.

The digital display cycles between the probe set temp and the actual probe temp, which started out at 32. The watt meter I attached shows the power cycling between 0 and 275 watts, more or less as expected. I estimate the cooking should take about four or five hours for the chicken to reach the set temp.

 

[tlee618]

Rich, beautiful slow cooker, be sure and let us know how the chicken turns out.

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks, Terry.

It is a neat unit. It seems to have almost everything one could want in a slow cooker of that size: gasketed lid that seals tight when the handle clamps are engaged, so it can be carted about without too much fear of leaks or losing the lid. The cord can wrap around the base (albeit the cord is rather short to begin with). There's a lid rest, which would be great for buffet service (or bringing unit to pot luck). A little clip inside the handle to carry an included ladle/spoon. The aforementioned temperature probe. Highly adjustable cooking times, and three temp settings: warm, low, and high. And it can be used simply like an original crock pot, with any of the three settings engaged without timeout. It auto switches to warm after either the time or the probe temp is reached.

The one thing it doesn't have, that some other brands have, is an auto switch over from high to low, such as high for an hour or two and then low to finish cooking. But I'm not sure this is something I'd always want anyway.

The finish is nicer than on the Rival. The stainless seems to be higher quality, with a near mirror (lightly brushed) finish as opposed to the matte brushed finish of the Rival. The side handles seem very sturdy, as does the lid handle, which has three fasteners. The two outer fasteners in the handle also function as steam vents, as does the hole for the temp probe.

So far, at four hours cooking on low, the chicken reached an internal temp of 130F. I'm guessing it will be a full six hours before 170F is reached, which is fine, if a little late in the day. I could have run the test on high but I really wanted to see what the results would be like if I set it in the morning, went off to work, and then returned nine hours later to something better than overcooked stew.

So far I don't see much boiling going on, which means to me this thing heats more gently than the Rival. Which in my book is a good thing. Boxed up the Rival, probably going to return it to Costco next week.

Oh, and the Rival really got hot underneath, so much that I was worried it would burn the formica countertop. This HB unit seems to stay pretty cool down below, so no such worries there.

This particular model is 33862. Sears had a similar model, the 33967. One might think the Sears model is more recent, but this one has a later date on the box (2009) and on the manual (which I downloaded from the HB website - the manual included was for the older 33966/7 models. I figure it was new enough (this spring) that they just threw in the last of the old manuals. They also included two lid holders. As far as I can tell, only one is used at any time, so I guess I have a spare ;-). The one difference between this model and the Sears version, that I've noticed so far, is that the control panel on the Sears model has visible screws at each corner. This one has extended a plastic shield to cover the screws. I can tell they are there, but it looks nicer to have them hidden.

 

[sudsmaster]

The Finale

The HB took about seven hours on low to bring the chicken up to 170F. The result: chicken that actually still has some chicken flavor. And it didn't fall into pieces when I removed it from the crock. The breast meat was tender and juicy - not tough and dried out like the previous two attempts.

The potatoes and carrots that I put around the edges of the pot were a bit on the too al dente side, so after I removed the chicken I put the unit back on high for 30 minutes to finish the veggies. Along with the garlic and peppers that were hanging around on top of the chicken, still. I figure that had this been a work day, the keep warm feature would have completed the cooking of the veggies without overcooking the chicken.

Also threw in some fresh basil in the last few minutes.

PS-My apologies to Vacfreak for hijacking his thread like this. I've been looking for a way to slow cook chicken on a working schedule for years. Looks like I may finally have found it. Otherwise I had pretty much written off the whole concept.

 

[tlee618]

Thanks for the update Rich, sounds like you might have found the perfect slow cooker!! Terry

 

[sudsmaster]

I just hope it lasts...

Another note: with the previous attempts, there was a wonderful aroma of the cooking chicken and fixings - except upon ending the slow cooking, the results turned out to be overcooked. With the HB and the temperature probe, there was nearly no cooking aroma in the room. But the results were much better than before - not overcooked. I did find I had to finish the veggies off on the stove top, but my main focus was getting the chicken done right, anyway, and the stovetop finish only took about 15 minutes.

There is some advice I read years ago that if you smell the food cooking - it's starting to overcook. The released aroma represents lost flavor/nutrition. Better to keep the aromas (and juices) in the food.