Inexperienced Crockpot User Asks: How Reliable is a Recipe's Cooking Times on a Crockpot?

[luxuria_oceanus]

I'm a new crockpot user thanks to my boyfriend's mom who bought me a crockpot recipe book for Christmas. Before then, I wouldn't have even touched one (though my boyfriend owns one) because I couldn't come to terms with the idea of putting something on to cook and not tasting/touching it until done. The recipes looked so good...and now I'm

Comments

[kamomil]

Rice is very easy to overcook in a crockpot. When experimenting, I put brown lentils and jasmine rice in my slow cooker and the resulting mixture was like glue - the rice had dissolved. Some types of rice withstand overcooking a bit better, but it's better to add rice towards the end of your cooking time.

You might be better off cooking rice in a rice cooker, if it is the main part of the meal.

Some recipes do not adapt well to the crockpot. I mostly cook beef stew, split pea soup and boiled dinners (bacon & cabbage/Jiggs dinner) Those cuts of meat, and veggies like carrots, rutabaga and potato, you can't really overcook them. If they cook 6 or 8 hours, they mostly taste the same.

Okay I re-read your post. Maybe your recipe book is not realistic, if you are trying recipes that are not working. I have gotten my recipes from the internet and they have worked okay. Mind you I only do those 3 types of recipes that I mentioned above.

Crockpots can vary as to their cooking temperatures, but the cooking times are usually so long (6, 8, 10 hours) that small variations in temperature shouldn't matter too much.

Hope that was helpful - good luck!

[captain_havoc]

Agreed! Cooking rice in the crock pot is like "advanced level" crockpottering. I cook things I serve with rice in my crockpot -- beans, meat, vegetables -- but always cook the rice separate, closer to when I'm planning to eat (or in advance!)