Slow Cookers

If you've never used slow cookers, you owe it to yourself to try this fabulous time saver.

Whoever thought up the idea of slow cookers deserves a cook's Medal for Convenience Award. Although they've been around for a long time and have been in and out of style a few times over the years, slow cookers are still with us, making one part of life's many tasks - cooking - a heck of a lot easier.

If you've got one stuck away in garage storage, consider bringing it back to active kitchen duty. Here are some reasons to tempt you. You can cook chili, soup, a roast, corned beef and a host of other dishes in this handy appliance.

Slow cookers operate at low temperatures, cooking inexpensive cuts of meat slowly, retaining natural juices and producing a tender result.

In the heat of summer, your oven just makes the kitchen hotter, while the heat generated by slow cookers is hardly noticeable. The low cooking temperature allows a lot of latitude in cooking time, unlike the stove top or oven.

You save on electricity because slow cookers don't use as much as a conventional oven cooking the same amount of food.

If you've got a pot roast going when you leave the house, you needn't panic if you're delayed an hour coming home. Your roast won't be overdone.

The best of the slow cooker's many virtues is the fact you can almost literally toss the ingredients into the pot, plug it in and go to work.

You come home to a delicious fragrant and homemade meal which you simply dish out. It doesn't get much easier.

Here's a list of the basic rules for use:

1. Whatever the size of your cooker, fill the pot between one half to about two thirds of capacity.
2. Vegetables should be placed in the bottom of the pot, with the meat on the top.
3. If possible, begin cooking on the high setting for an hour, then reduce heat to low for the remainder of the cooking time. This method gets the temperature up quickly, important when cooking meats.
4. Once you've started cooking, avoid removing the lid. Slow cookers take a while to get to cooking temperature, and removing the lid lets out moisture and heat, extending the required cooking time.
5. Dairy products and fish or seafood should be added only in the last half-hour of cooking. Ground meat must be cooked on the stove top before adding to the pot.
6. Any food you put in the cooker must be defrosted, never frozen.

That's about all you need to know to make a delicious meal that cooks itself. You can opt to create your own basic recipe or go online for hundreds of terrific recipes. Slow cookers are one of the cook's best tools. Treat yourself to one of these appliances – you deserve it!