[capozzoli]

I will but am I gonna get railed for putting beans in it? Its yankee style.

I have quite a few recipes for what I call chili. I make a black bean chili where I use tamatillos instead of tomato.
I also make a mole chili using cocoa powder. Good stuff! I love beans.

Ill post some recipes in the chili thread.

Know whats great?  a Carolina beef and black bean soup. Not chili but comes out great from the pressure cooker. 

[tubercle]

I use a pressure cooker all  the time. Used one last night for 1/2 mixture of white and pinto beans. I also do roast, sauces, etc..

I also do the crock pot thing though. Cube steak and brown gravy is hard to beat.

[majorvices]

My argument is; why cook a piece of meat for eight hours until it is completely dried out stringy and over cooked? The meat loses it flavor. I have never had an outstanding meal made in a crock pot. I wont say it was bad just 'OK'. So' many people have tried to convince me by serving me their special dish made in a crock pot and I am never impressed. Just turns it to mush.

If you slow cook with those results you are doing something wrong. Slow cooking is very much like braising - your goal is to "melt" the connective tissue into the meat. If the meat is dried out you cooked it too hot.

That said, I often do a slow cooker meal because I can bring the kids to Tae Kwon Do, get home and have a meal ready to eat. I am the main cook in the house. No one EVER complains about Roast Beef. Know that. 

[beerocd]

OMG, you are not cooking your corn beef and cabbage in a crock pot are you?

You gotta stagger the cabbage. Otherwise as you say.....mush.

-OCD

[capozzoli]

Oh man, I am all about brazing!!! I love braised short ribs and osso buko.

Braising is an art, a skill, a balance of temperature and time (a ballet) that is adjusted to accommodate the size and type of meat. I doubt you are going to achieve that in a crock pot. I dont know, maybe I am wrong? 

If I was able to get a good finished product out of the crock pot I still wouldn't use it. Cant seem to justify using $7.35 in electric to cook a $3.00 piece of meat. Especially when I can get far superior results in a pressure cooker using about $.35 worth of electric.

The way I see it there are two kinds of people in the world. The ones that use a crock pot and the ones that would not use a crock pot. The ones that use crock pots are the enemy. They are going to slow cook the earth until there is nothing left.

People that use crock pots are the same people that have an old rusting mustang on cinder blocks in the front yard. They sit on their sofa that is on the front porch and talk about how they been workin on the Mustang for the last 17 years. 

You guys know Im kidding right?

 Lets face it, debating is fun, and how many culinary and brewing things are debatable?

For sure the usefulness of the crock pot is.


 

[majorvices]

Oh man, I am all about brazing!!! I love braised short ribs and osso buko.

Braising is an art, a skill, a balance of temperature and time (a ballet) that is adjusted to accommodate the size and type of meat. I doubt you are going to achieve that in a crock pot. I dont know, maybe I am wrong? 

If I was able to get a good finished product out of the crock pot I still wouldn't use it. Cant seem to justify using $7.35 in electric to cook a $3.00 piece of meat. Especially when I can get far superior results in a pressure cooker using about $.35 worth of electric.

The way I see it there are two kinds of people in the world. The ones that use a crock pot and the ones that would not use a crock pot. The ones that use crock pots are the enemy. They are going to slow cook the earth until there is nothing left.

People that use crock pots are the same people that have an old rusting mustang on cinder blocks in the front yard. They sit on their sofa that is on the front porch and talk about how they been workin on the Mustang for the last 17 years. 

You guys know Im kidding right?

 Lets face it, debating is fun, and how many culinary and brewing things are debatable?

For sure the usefulness of the crock pot is.


 

I think the real problem here isn;t crock pots - it's that you are a Crack Pot. 

[Robert]

People that use crock pots are the same people that have an old rusting mustang on cinder blocks in the front yard. They sit on their sofa that is on the front porch and talk about how they been workin on the Mustang for the last 17 years. 

It's a Trans Am if you care! And we sit on the backseat of it  that's been removed and sittin on the porch that I swear I'm gonna put back in next month after I get 'er fixed up right!

[corkybstewart]

I love New Mexico in the fall.  I've got a pot of green chile pork posole on the stove and it's about dinnertime.

[beerocd]

I dont know, maybe I am wrong? 

If I was able to get a good finished product out of the crock pot I still wouldn't use it. Cant seem to justify using $7.35 in electric to cook a $3.00 piece of meat. Especially when I can get far superior results in a pressure cooker using about $.35 worth of electric.

People that use crock pots are the same people that have an old rusting mustang on cinder blocks in the front yard. 

Oh, you're way off this time. I think I can cook the whole cow for 7.35 in electric. And the car in my yard keeps it out of the landfill, provides cover in case of a gun fight, cuts down on greenhouse gasses cuz I have that much less to mow, and when the trunk is full of cans I know I've got about $10.35 coming to me from the recyling center. $3 for the meat and the rest for the electric.

And I can't believe you cook on electric! I'd be converting that right away - no control over the heat. Gas is instantaneous - I'd never serve food to anyone else that was cooked on electric due to lack of overall control and an iffy final product. Some of the worst food I've ever had was off an electric stove.


-OCD

[capozzoli]

LMFAO!!!

You guys are great!

I do cook on electric and it almost kept me from buying this house. There is no gas in this hood.

But Ill tell ya true, I changed my mind. I got one of those porcelain top electric stoves. I think it is a Profile. Awe man is it great. It does get hot right away as gas does, and I have more control and more evenly distributed heat on the pan. Only draw back is the heat doesn't go right down, stays hot for a while. You have to remove the pan from the burner. No big deal.

But no crap, much better than a gas burner. In fact they make these stoves with gas. I think it is a burner under the porcelain and it conducts the heat the same way. Clean up is a snap too, it is a sealed surface.

[lonnie mac]

I love New Mexico in the fall.  I've got a pot of green chile pork posole on the stove and it's about dinnertime.

Gawd to be back in NM... I lived there for 9 years.

Now... I cook EVERYTHING on lump. So I don't really know what all you people are taking about!

[majorvices]

LMFAO!!!

You guys are great!

I do cook on electric and it almost kept me from buying this house. There is no gas in this hood.

But Ill tell ya true, I changed my mind. I got one of those porcelain top electric stoves. I think it is a Profile. Awe man is it great. It does get hot right away as gas does, and I have more control and more evenly distributed heat on the pan. Only draw back is the heat doesn't go right down, stays hot for a while. You have to remove the pan from the burner. No big deal.

But no crap, much better than a gas burner. In fact they make these stoves with gas. I think it is a burner under the porcelain and it conducts the heat the same way. Clean up is a snap too, it is a sealed surface.

I bought and used a porcelain stove in my old house and it really was a great stove. No where near as good as the gas stove I have here though. You're lying to yourself if you really believe that porcelain is better (or even just as good) as gas.  

[bluesman]

Yeah...When I bought my current house the first thing I asked for was a gas cooktop. It's the bomb diggity dawg. 

Once you go gas you'll never go back. 

[capozzoli]

I have worked with "high end" gas stoves. I have worked as a line cook on commercial gas stoves.  I have used several kinds of gas stoves.

My electric burners are as good as gas, better cause there isnt a ring of concentrated heat. It is heated evenly across the whole surface of the pan. I have the extra large burner and the bridge burner. The only thing that bothers me a little is I have to remove the pan from the burner if I want the heat to stop immediate.

A regular residential gas burner does not even come close.

Would I rather have one of these?

http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/images/2078e.jpg

Hell yes!

But if it aint one of those, it aint cookin no better than my electric stove.


What reasons do you think a gas range is better?
  

[Pawtucket Patriot]

I prefer a gas cooktop because it is easier to control, IME.  Plus, there are techniques that one can achieve with gas that simply aren't possible with electric.  E.g., roasting peppers over the open flame, finishing omelettes by tilting the pan over the flame after you've folded the omelette (a technique Julia mentions in Mastering the Art, as I recall).  Also, I suppose it depends on what type of gas cooktop you're using, but gas can heat just as evenly as electric if you've got a burner that has both an inner and outer ring.  I've never owned my own cooktop since I don't own my own place, but when I do buy my first house, it will have a gas cooktop.

P.S. I detest crockpots.