Finally, success!

I really enjoy using slow cookers. I used them quite a bit in the 90s and had good results. Last year I picked up a couple and started slow cooking again. Well, whatever skills I had years ago seem to have left me. Everything I have tried has been an epic fail. I think a lot of the problem has been me trying to devise my own recipes. I decided the other day I'd like to try a pot roast. This time I bought one of those slow cooker seasoning packets at the grocery store and followed the directions religiously. It worked!! The roast came out great. My next attempt will be bean soup. I have failed at 3 attempts at this over the last year. This time I'm going to buy a package of Hurst 15 bean and follow the directions.

Glad it's working out for you. All of us have failures.

I didn't want to light the oven to make a pork pibil recipe this past weekend. So I used the crockpot. I expected it to be watery and I wasn't disappointed. I corrected it and it's fine now, but not after one failed attempt at correcting it.

How have your bean soups failed?

Hey Brian
The first had way too many beans, the second just tasted bland, and the third tasted terrible; way too many ingredients and seasonings.

I find simple is best with a bean soup. A ham bone or a few smoked ham hocks, a few bay leaves (not many) and salt & P. I always make bean soup after having boiled a smoked ham. The bone and the trimmings (Including the smoked hide) all go into the pot with some of the stock the ham boiled in. After the meat is falling off the bone I paw through it to keep the good stuff and trash the rest. Then I make the soup.

Thanks Brian, I'll give it a try.

an old thread,

but hey, as a woman, i cook.

I don't use my crockpot as much as i should. unless you count using one for crafting. But then I have a million and one different crafts that i like making and half that on my need to learn list, but that's a different subject. LOL

But a pot roast is one of my favorite things to make in it. I don't do anything fancy, but this is what I do.

I begin the night before, and pop the beef roast in the crockpot. I sprinkle on some salt and pepper and add some chopped garlic and a roughly cut up onion. If the meat is from the grocery store i don't add anything else, but if it's from the butcher I add a small amount of water. This is just because they can inject a certain percent of water into meat, and our butcher doesn't do that.

Then i cook it on low, starting the night before. Yes, that long on low. About 6-8 hours before serving the following evening, i take the roughly cut onion out and replace it with whatever veggies i want to add. The sky is your limit there, but if they are softer veggies add them later as they won't need as much cooking time.

The cooking time seems crazy long, but the meat is so tender and it just falls apart and has so much flavor to it by starting it on low the night before.

I don't normally thicken the juices to make gravy since the mister and kids don't seem to care one way or another. Except they care that there is enough juices to enjoy usually white basmati rice, sometimes whipped potatoes if i haven't added potatoes to the crockpot.

Even when i add root veggies to the crockpot, i never add green beans. those are best barely cooked so they still snap in your mouth with a little butter and a pinch of salt to bring out their flavor. They are just an awesome side for the meal.

The newer electric, computer controlled pressure cookers are great.

We use ours two or three times a week. It's not too often now that we use the slow cooker / Crock-Pot.

The instant pot is the one we bought last fall when it was on sale. It's kind of expensive relative to a slow cooker. It's the Swiss army knife kitchen appliances in a way. It has a slow cook setting. I use it for browning and brazing too. It makes perfect soft boiled eggs and stews and roasts that are as good as or better than the slow cooker in a literal fraction of the time.

I've looked at those pressure cookers often enough on Amazon. I just haven't pulled the trigger yet to buy one.

They are so much safer the the old school pressure cookers, and they need to be inspected often by the pros. Here in North Dakota the local USDA office will inspect and test them. My mother in law knew a lady that was killed by one when it exploded in her kitchen. I know my mother use to use the old school one every year but they scare me.

When i first saw the electric pressure cooker my first thought was how awesome it would be for canning but they are not really meant for that purpose and are more for cooking meals quickly in them.

But i have thought of getting one in the future just for one of my dogs. We serve a raw diet to them (currently 5, we just had to put our golden retriever down because of cancer) and one has the worst teeth possible. She wasn't always on a raw diet and have improved a lot since going raw. But she has an overbite, underbite ??? And her lower front teeth are pushed out further than the top jaw and are exposed and she has lost several because of that. She's also an aging dog as well. But she would rather starve than eat canned or kibble. (that's a whole different topic) So when she has issues with bone I've been thinking of getting a pressure cooker to soften them and make them easier for her to eat. Right now she doesn't, but I'm just thinking ahead.

I totally get the brazing that can be done in one, but I hadn't thought of browning in one. I'll be looking more into these.

Thanks Krissy, I tried your pot roast recipe and it came out great, way better than the first try I made at the start of this thread. The veggies I added were carrots and taters. I think a big key to the success was that I didn't add any water. As we ate it we seasoned to taste. Hnmmm, Krissy, North Dakota, say......... don't I know you?