Crockpot recommendation?

[vilasman]

I too have a genuine rival crockpot and I will too will atest that it does a wonderful job of cooking whatever I or my wife dump into it. It is a real gem. It's just that I also have the K/A slow cooker. It's bigger, has more settings for cooking and warming and it cooks food significantly faster than the Rival does. Same qualtity of cooking... just faster. We have never gone head to head cooking the same exact food, but we have started one dish in one and another dish in the other and the K/A finished a couple of hours ahead of the Rival.
I am working on getting my second K/A slow cooker now.

I made beef stew, stew beef, carrots, potatos, turnips, and a few other hard veges, and mushrooms, last week... started around 11:30 and by one it was done. I started the vegetable prep and browning the beef at 11:30 and was done by one

 

[VitaWright]

I am with most here. I prefer a Rival. They are the original and actually Crock-Pot is a trade name and they are the only ones allowed to use it. Everything else is just a slow cooker. I have had two Rival Crock-Pots. The first one got too small so I bought a bigger one and gave the small one to my bachelor brother. I love them. You can't do everything in them but it's awfully hard to ruin a meal in one.

 

[NisAznMonk]

That new Hamilton Beach that comes with the 3 diff size pots looks like a good one. You could use it for dips to large meals. I'm going to look at them at a store when I get a chance.

I've seen that one here at the AAFES Base Exchange (BX) and it looked really cool. I like how the pots were stackable to save space when storing it.

 

[bigjimbray]

Are you in the air force in okiniwa? at Kadena? when I was in the navy, my ship was home
ported and white beach, okinawa. I sure loved the food at the EM club. I use to have frog legs served to me every payday. and they had a spaghetti diner there that the sauce did`nt have any meat in it and it was fantastic. I sure would love to have that
recipe. back to the crock pots, I have always had rivel brand, I did get a hamilton beach
crock pot as a gift one time and after useing it for a couple of times I sold it in a yard sale. it took to long to cook anything. my vegetables were`nt cooked after 8 hrs. so
I got what I could out of it. I will stick with rivel.

 

[Petek]

Hamilton 3-in-1 Slow Cooker

Well, based on this thread and the rave reviews on Amazon.com, I went to Walmart and picked up a Hamilton 3-in-1 slow cooker. I already have a 20 year old 6 qt. model, but had been thinking of getting another with a smaller capacity. Price was $51.84.

Haven't used it yet, but noticed something unexpected. The lid has a small (.25") manufactured hole. Is this standard on newer slow cookers? It isn't mentioned in the manual. Perhaps it's used to prevent steam from building up when cooking on high?

First thing I plan to do is to heat some water for several hours on low and measure how hot it gets. I read in another thread that on some newer models the "low" setting is around 300 deg. F. If that's the case with this one, back it goes! Will report back on the result.

One other thing, Walmart had the Reynolds slow cooker liner bags at $1.99 for a box of 4. That's a good deal. I bought 4 boxes.

Pete K.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

On other slow cookers that I owned, there was no vent hole. The lids would chatter when steam built up. On my Hamilton Beach model, the small vent hole prevents that chattering and makes my kitchen much quieter.

Also, if you put liquid in your cooker to test, the temperature will never go above the boiling point of water (around 212" F. depending on your elevation). That is why water boils, to get rid of excessive heat. Even when you put meats in, the liquid that accumulates in you slow cooker will boil as it reaches the boiling point, again keeping the temperature down. I have no idea who said that the cooker heated up to 300 degrees with boiling water in it. But they are mistaken.

Now, if you put you slow cooker on low, with nothing in it, and let it heat for an hour or so, and place your thermometer in it, it may very well get up to 300 degrees. But that's not a bad thing.

In my HB model, on low setting, the liquid will not boil, but it is hot enough to cook the food. On high, the liquid boils gently. For that to happen, the temperature of the unit must be above 212. For it to happen in a reasonable amount of time, I would guess that something around 325 would be a good temperature to get things hot.

300 degrees is considered a slow oven, and a roast or bird placed in that oven, in a covered roasting pan, acts like a slow cooker. So 300 would be a good temperature for the low setting, I would think.

I am speculating here though.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[NisAznMonk]

Are you in the air force in okiniwa? at Kadena? when I was in the navy, my ship was home
ported and white beach, okinawa. I sure loved the food at the EM club. I use to have frog legs served to me every payday. and they had a spaghetti diner there that the sauce did`nt have any meat in it and it was fantastic. I sure would love to have that
recipe. back to the crock pots, I have always had rivel brand, I did get a hamilton beach
crock pot as a gift one time and after useing it for a couple of times I sold it in a yard sale. it took to long to cook anything. my vegetables were`nt cooked after 8 hrs. so
I got what I could out of it. I will stick with rivel.

Yep. E-3 AF member here @ Kadena AB. I wish I had the money to go out and eat the exotic food, but I have to save my yennies until payday. I'll splurge MAYBE twice a month

 

[sage™]

300 degrees seems too hot to me..esp for all day cooking..a chicken can get well done in a couple of hours at that temp.. I guess to test the temp of a slow cooker you could put cooking oil in it then measure the temp.

 

[Petek]

Also, if you put liquid in your cooker to test, the temperature will never go above the boiling point of water (around 212" F. depending on your elevation). That is why water boils, to get rid of excessive heat. Even when you put meats in, the liquid that accumulates in you slow cooker will boil as it reaches the boiling point, again keeping the temperature down. I have no idea who said that the cooker heated up to 300 degrees with boiling water in it. But they are mistaken.

Good point about the 212" F limit. After 9 hours on low, my new pot reached 210" F, according to my meat thermometer. The 300 degree figure for a setting of low comes from the recent thread Crockpot Help Needed (merged). That temperature (and 350" for high) was cited by Rival customer service, allegedly so that food would reach a safe cooking temperature more quickly. However, the posters in the other thread complained that the higher temperature caused their dishes to cook too fast.

So, I was concerned that my new pot might also be set to a higher temperature on low. Since the water didn't actually boil after 9 hours, it appears to be OK.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Pete K.