I have a bit of a slow cooker issue. It's that I don't know *anyone* who goes to work and gets back 8 hours later, but apparently there are quite a few of them because most recipes have "Low" as a 6 hour cook.
Once I've left my house at 7:30 to catch the bus, it takes me Eleven hours to get home again. At that stage, any dish taking 6 hours to cook is nearly twice cooked.
My slow cooker can't be programmed to switch to "keep warm" after 8 hours, nor can it turn on at a programmable time. I do have a powerpoint timer, but I'm not sure about food safety. Raw chicken, sitting at room temperature for even an hour before cooking? Not so good.
I'm thinking about experimenting with frozen or partially thawed meat, so that it comes gently back to thawed state and is then hit with the heat, but I'm not sure of how frozen it needs to be, or how to judge the, erm, frozanity of any given piece of meat.
So I'm looking for suggestions and guides on how to slow cook food for rather a long time. I find cooking at night robs me of most of my spare time once dishes are done. I'm single and my housemate doesn't want to cook together, so I'm the only one who organizes my food. I'm thinking a combination of frozen meat and chilling the crock and ingredients the night before, combined with a 1 hour delay on cooking, MIGHT be the way to go, but I'm just not sure.
Once I've left my house at 7:30 to catch the bus, it takes me Eleven hours to get home again. At that stage, any dish taking 6 hours to cook is nearly twice cooked.
My slow cooker can't be programmed to switch to "keep warm" after 8 hours, nor can it turn on at a programmable time. I do have a powerpoint timer, but I'm not sure about food safety. Raw chicken, sitting at room temperature for even an hour before cooking? Not so good.
I'm thinking about experimenting with frozen or partially thawed meat, so that it comes gently back to thawed state and is then hit with the heat, but I'm not sure of how frozen it needs to be, or how to judge the, erm, frozanity of any given piece of meat.
So I'm looking for suggestions and guides on how to slow cook food for rather a long time. I find cooking at night robs me of most of my spare time once dishes are done. I'm single and my housemate doesn't want to cook together, so I'm the only one who organizes my food. I'm thinking a combination of frozen meat and chilling the crock and ingredients the night before, combined with a 1 hour delay on cooking, MIGHT be the way to go, but I'm just not sure.