Instructions

1. Thaw your meats before putting them in your crock pot. While some people argue that tossing a whole, frozen chicken in it is fine, frozen blocks of meat will result in unsteady cooking temperatures, risking bacterial growth or undercooked areas. Defrosting meats ahead of time will prevent this.

2. Crock pots cook slowly, which results in a minimum of evaporation. If your old recipes are not specifically designed for crock pots, reduce the liquid by at least 1/3. If you’re cooking soup, it is not necessary to reduce the liquid, unless you want a heartier soup. A good rule of thumb is to use the least amount of liquid necessary, no more than you would want the finished meal to have.

3. Put certain vegetables in the crock pot before others. Some vegetables cook more quickly than others. Putting soft vegetables into the crock pot too early in the day can render them mush by the time your cooking is done. Any canned vegetable, or soft, quick-cooking vegetables such as tomatoes or zucchini, should be added in the last hour of cooking. If you want to add frozen vegetables, bring them to room temperature first and add them in the last half hour. Otherwise, they will cool the contents of the basin down, slow cooking time and could bring the food below the safe cooking temperature of 140 degrees. Some spices, particularly fresh herbs, will lose flavor if stewed for long durations. For best results, season your meal in the last hour of cooking. If you don’t want your vegetable side dishes mixing with your meat drippings, fashion a foil pouch for them. Add your seasonings, butter or oils to your veggie pouch, fold the foil over to seal the pouch and slip it into the crock pot.

4. Use cuts of meat that have a higher fat content, which will result in much more tender meat after hours of braising. Cut them into large chunks for best results. For maximum flavor, you can sear or brown meats before adding them, however it is not necessary. Keep larger pieces of meats, such as roasts or whole chickens, elevated out of their own fat drippings with a wire rack, or on tin foil balls if you do not have a wire rack. Seafood cooks much more quickly than other meats; most seafood needs not be cooked longer than 1 or 2 hours. More than that, your shellfish will become rubbery and your fish will begin to flake away, fall apart and become the equivalent of fish oatmeal.

5. Watch when you're cooking tricky foods in the crock pot, like rice, pasta and dried beans. Too much liquid, or leaving rice in soups too long, can cause the rice to become over-saturated and mushy. Too little liquid, or in a hearty stew with grains floating on top, can result in hard grains being mixed in with your meal. Pasta can also cook unevenly and has a short cooking time. Dried beans, which take a long time on the stove top, can take far too long in a slow cooker. Consider cooking rice or pasta separately and serving your stews, meats and vegetables over them. If you want to cook beans in a crock pot, pre-cook them on a stove, or for a quick, easy solution, use canned beans.