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Author Topic: A crock pot is good for?  (Read 6042 times)

boulderbrewer

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A crock pot is good for?
« on: February 13, 2011, 10:16:07 pm »
OK, I'll call you crocks out. What is a crock pot good for?

It makes a broth, but I can make it in a quarter of the time. It killed my already dead quail, what a waste sorry partners.

Let us here what it is really good for!

Root veggies work, but were does the good stuff go?

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2011, 11:52:46 pm »
It's good for a lot of things, including chili.

But what it is really great for is having dinner ready when I get home after a day of work and after picking up hungry kids from daycare.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline phillamb168

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2011, 02:23:48 am »
Thing is you can't throw anything in there. My mom had a (smallish) recipe book devoted to crock-pot recipes. Most of them involved putting down a bed of rice or pasta, a lot of water or sauce, and some meat. Set and forget, and I always enjoyed the stuff that came out.

However, after putting down big bucks for a new Cuisinart "slow cooker" I have to say that not all models are created equal. Even heating and a well-made cooking vessel are really important. The Crockpot we had from when I was a kid was head and shoulders better than the cuisinart I have now.
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Offline dzlater

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2011, 04:44:43 am »
We did pulled pork recently, turned out pretty well.
Dan S. from NJ

Offline tygo

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2011, 05:28:30 am »
But what it is really great for is having dinner ready when I get home after a day of work and after picking up hungry kids from daycare.

+1

A roast in the crock pot isn't up to my weekend meal standards but it beats hamburger helper or frozen chicken nuggets when you get home with the kids.
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Offline corkybstewart

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2011, 07:24:34 am »
We have several of different sizes and they are very handy-just not for cooking.  They are great for keeping food warm at parties.  We'll use the biggest one for beans, the medium one for sauerkraut or stuff like that and the 2 littles ones are excellent for queso dip or barbeque sauce.
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Offline theDarkSide

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #6 on: February 14, 2011, 07:37:49 am »
My wife makes her spaghetti sauce.  We've also make pork tenderloin, bbq pork chops, beef stew, chili, sweet and sour chicken.

We use our from Fall-Spring, then it usually gets put away because we are doing everything on the grill at that point.

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Offline MrNate

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #7 on: February 14, 2011, 07:41:44 am »
Where's Cap?  ;D

The only thing I really use mine for is temp control for my sour mash. And frankly I'm not convinced it's all that necessary for that. But I'm not opposed to the idea in the way some people are.  ::)
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Offline bluesman

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #8 on: February 14, 2011, 08:58:10 am »
Where's Cap?  ;D

He loves his crockpot.  ;D

I like to use my crockpot when I'm entertaining guests as it works well for keeping food hot. I also use it for beef or pork roasts and the like.
Ron Price

Offline Slowbrew

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2011, 09:19:38 am »
We make pulled pork in one.  We also use it for beef or pork roasts as others have said.  Insert roast, add some water, cover with a package of Lipton Onion Soup mix.  Fill it up with potatoes and carrots.  Then go to work.

It's not high cuisine but it's pretty good to come home to.

Paul
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Offline jeffy

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2011, 10:50:17 am »
We make pulled pork in one.  We also use it for beef or pork roasts as others have said.  Insert roast, add some water, cover with a package of Lipton Onion Soup mix.  Fill it up with potatoes and carrots.  Then go to work.

It's not high cuisine but it's pretty good to come home to.

Paul

Makes the house smell so good.....mmmm pot roast......
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Offline kramerog

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2011, 11:32:17 am »
Pulled pork with super lean pork loin is great.  Chicken comes out too mushy for 8 hours of cooking.  I don't have much experience with it, but I plan on some stews with tough, but flavorful cuts of meat.

Offline euge

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2011, 11:39:34 am »
I agree they are most useful for keeping dishes hot and for serving.

However a pot-roast or something similar slow cooked does well. You can layer up pork-chops, cover with sliced onion and apple and pour a can of mushroom soup on top. Simmer for 6-8 hours... Dinner's ready!
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Offline hamiltont

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #13 on: February 14, 2011, 11:52:08 am »
A crock pot has it's place in our kitchen as well, for most of the reasons stated above.  I especially enjoy Pork & Kraut in it. Pork Roast or Chops (browned optional), season with S&P and a little caraway seed, spread the kraut over the top and then sliced onion, an apple or two (or apple sauce or apple juice). Sometimes I'll add 3-4 slices of partially browned bacon on the bottom if I have it handy.  mm mm mm goooood!  Cheers!!!
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Offline dbeechum

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Re: A crock pot is good for?
« Reply #14 on: February 14, 2011, 11:59:06 am »
I've always felt that one of the problems with most people's crock cooking is that they want to follow the dump and chase model with everything and that usually just leads to a soupy mess.

Whatcha gotta do is brown off a good portion of food first.

I made some bomb diggity chili the other night and before anything went into the crock I did the following:

Brown a pack of bacon
Caramelize onions in bacon fat (with some garlic later)
Brown the chili grind ground beef.
Take the juice that was packed with the diced tomatoes and a bottle of beer and reduce almost to a paste. Also use that juice to rehydrate the chile powder and oregano, etc.

All of that went into the crockpot and cooked overnight with 4 cans of beans (2 red, 1 pinto, 1 black).

Damn that was good.
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