
A little bit about Crockpots from Wikipedia:
A slow cooker (often referred to as a Crock-Pot, though this is registered trademark for specific manufacturer’s type of slow cooker) is a countertop electrical home appliance that is used to cook stews and other dishes containing water at relatively low temperatures, with correspondingly long cooking times (several hours). Many recipes simply call for the ingredients to be put in the cooker with little preparation. The slow cooker can then safely be left to run unattended, making it a convenient cooking method.
Pros and cons
- Hard to overcook - In a slow cooker, the temperature is low enough to avoid badly overcooking food even if cooked for far longer than necessary. However, meat may become nearly tasteless if overcooked. Some foods are better cooked at temperatures below boiling. In particular, the tough connective tissues of meat are broken down without affecting the texture of the meat.
- Nutrition -Cooking with a slow cooker does have some disadvantages. Vitamins and other trace nutrients are lost, particularly from vegetables, partially by enzyme action during cooking. When vegetables are cooked at higher temperatures these enzymes are rapidly denatured and have less time in which to act during cooking. Blanched vegetables, having been exposed to very hot water, have already had these enzyme rendered largely ineffective. Since slow cookers work at temperatures well below boiling point and do not rapidly denature enzymes, vegetables tend to lose trace nutrients. Green colors are retained better when vegetables are cooked quickly as plant cells are less likely to lose acids.
- Food safety - Slow cooker temperatures are lower than in most other cooking methods, and cooking times are correspondingly longer—typically 5–9 hours. Food must be heated to a temperature of at least 140°F (60°C) for safety; a properly functioning slow cooker must heat food to this temperature. As with any cooking method, cooked food must not be left at warm temperatures for long.
Frozen food should be defrosted before slow cooking. Defrosting should either be done at a low temperature to inhibit bacterial growth (i.e., in a refrigerator), or done quickly (i.e., in a microwave oven). Otherwise bacteria may multiply while the food is heating but has not yet attained a safe temperature to inhibit growth. Some bacteria produce toxins that remain in the food after the bacteria themselves are killed. Most, but not all, toxins are destroyed at high temperatures; the toxin produced by bacillus cereus is one important exception, although the micro-organism itself is killed by heat.
Some foods contain toxins naturally. Many, but not all, of these are destroyed by cooking at slow cooker temperatures. However some legumes are toxic when cooked at slow cooker temperatures, especially kidney beans, and can cause food poisoning.[1] To avoid this problem, such ingredients should be boiled for 10 minutes beforehand.
Perpetual stews (pot au feu, olla podrida) should never be maintained in slow cookers, as slow cookers do not typically provide sufficient heat to compensate for frequent additions and removals of food; nor do they cook quickly enough to cook newly added food thoroughly before the next withdrawal becomes likely. This relatively slow recovery of temperature after an addition or withdrawal may cause safety problems. Removal of the lid lets heat and moisture escape, prolonging cooking time and giving microbes the chance to grow.
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