Crock pot season

[lindaj]

After many months of me complaining about the lack of inexpensive pot roasts (or, indeed, any pot roasts at all) at my local grocery store, they finally appeared last week. So this morning, the crockpot came up from the basement, and in went the roast, some of the root veggies that Boston Organics has so kindly been sending us, a couple of bottle of nice beer remaining from a recent party, and more or less the last dregs of the fresh herbs from the herb garden.

Dinner will be waiting for us when we get home. Yum!

Comments

[eccentrific.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a crock pot recipe that was hurt by being left on for longer.

In my experience, the times in the recipes are often low, and a few more hours are needed to get things really well cooked.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Well, the bulk of my crock pot experience is really chunk-o-meat/veggies/seasonings, so I can tell you about that. For a basic pot roast (beef or pork), I've found that if I put it on high while I'm at work, even with travel time, it's fine as long as I don't get overly delayed, and I eat as soon as I get home. If I do get delayed, the meat can be a bit tough and dry. I've also found that if I put it on low, it's not quite as falling-apart-cooked as I'd like it to be. The ideal is to start it on high, and turn it down to low mid-day. Today I left a note for terse_scribe, asking him to turn it down when he gets home.

For pork, which is usually quite fatty, I've also put it in on low before I go to bed the night before, then I switch the liquid in the morning, add the vegetables, and continue on low all day.

I've also done the "hunk-o-meat, bottle of BBQ sauce" thing, which makes a really great approximation of the pulled-pork style of BBQ...and so simple! I'll get bulky rolls and make sandwiches, served with cole slaw. However, if you do this with pork, you really want to do the overnight thing first, because there will be way too much fat otherwise, and it's hard to separate it out from the BBQ sauce.

The only other things I've done in the crock pot are spaghetti sauce, chili, and stews. For stews, I usually heat things up on the stovetop before dumping it in, to give it a head start. Those things can go for a good long time.

I really don't have experience with other types of recipes, though I probably should get some. I wouldn't worry about meat getting tough if you're cooking things on low. Veggies might get a bit mushier than intended, but that may not be the end of the world.

If you find any good recipes, let me know!