I was reading Deeli's tips for using a slow cooker. I have received one recently that someone didn't use and I just wondered if they use a lot of electric? Many thanks Deeli for sharing another great tip.
By helen from United Kingdom
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This is a google search, which gives you lots of information. They use about 250 Kilowats to a 4k conventional oven, and I think the meals are just great.
I hope this helps. You can also find more recipes than you will ever need at
southernfood.about.com/
PBP
The slow cooker is the best invention and every kitchen should have one. The food comes out great and delicious. It makes the house smell wonderful and it uses very little energy. Not to mention it is safe to plug in and leave for work, run errands, work outside.....you get the picture.
An easy receipe for beginners to try is spare ribs or country ribs.
I separate the ribs or cut the country ribs in half cause they can be pretty thick. Season with salt, pepper and garlic then saturate them with your favorite bar-b-q sauce. I cook them on high for about 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 hours. I check them periodically and add more sauce if needed.
Slow cookers are wonderful. I need to tell you that the old ones from the 1970's have a different wattage than the new models. So, you need to make sure that the recipes correspond to the correct size and age of model. The older models take longer to cook, and the newer models cook faster, so the newer recipes can't be left alone for 12 hours (a benefit of the older models) while you are at work because the food will burn.
Great question, Helen! :-)
My particular slow cooker is 300 watts. The wattage for yours should be somewhere on the cooker. If it's not on your cooker let me know the make and model and I'll find out for you. :-)
No offence, Poor But Proud, but there's absolutely no way a slow cooker could ever use 250 kilowatts in one usage; not even a standard oven could use that amount - LOL ;-)
Anyway, here is how you figure out the kilowatt usage for it. I'll be using my cooker of 300 watts kept turned on for 8 hours as an example: 300 watts times 8 hours of usage divided by 1,000 = 1.2 kilowatt hours. So my cost for use for those 8 hours in the area I live is about .04 cents total (less than 1/10th of one cent/penny) ; basically a slow cooker is very, very economical.
I am sorry I don't know how to convert .04 cents into Euro but I think (not sure) it would be somewhere between .02 or .03? Oh, and it just dawned on me that you might use amps/volts instead of wattage as a standard? If so, I at least do know how to convert that. ;-)
And thank you very much for the compliment about my idea of using a slow cooker to make a home smell yummy :-)
I was told its about the same as a light bulb, if that simplifies things? Do you all brown your meats first ?
Libsmum, you are so correct that browning the meat before placing it in the slow cooker indeed makes a difference in the flavor! The reason is when the meat is browned it goes through a sugar and protein chemical change that enriches and seals in the flavor (there is a scientific term for this reaction but I can't remember what it's called right now). The juice and bits that remain in the browning pan will also enhance the flavor of the overall recipe if you deglaze it and add it to the slow cooker too ;-)
I feel guilty now that that I didn't mention browning the meat in the instructions for a couple of the slow cooker recipes I've submitted here at ThriftyFun. It seems I wrongly assumed everyone knew you should brown the meat for ultimate flavor :-( Even ground or precut meats should be browned first.
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