Ask Chef LJ

[naiad]

I have acquired a 6-quart slow-cooker (thanks wotw!). I need a cookbook! So far the only slow-cooker cookbooks (say that five times fast) I've found rely heavily on velveeta cheese-like product and cooked chicken. wtf? Doesn't having to pre-cook the chicken kinda defeat the purpose

Comments

[beowabbit]

I've never pre-cooked anything before putting it in the crockpot. I'm afraid I don't have a cookbook recommendation, but I get most of my recipes either from googling for something specific or from the what_a_crock community.

(Actually, I get a fair number of my recipes from just throwing meat, veggies if I feel virtuous, salt and spices, and some random liquid like apple juice or soy sauce or beer or water into the crock pot and cooking all day on low. So far, this extremely anarchistic method has not failed me. Pre-marinated pork tenderloin works well this way.)

[catya]

i know more about crock pots than slow cookers...

[beowabbit]

Crock-Pot® is a trademark for a brand of slow cooker. So you know exactly as much in absolute terms about slow cookers as you do about crock pots. :-)

[catya]

oh funny! i had no clue. :) i thought slow cookers were actually different beasts!

[aroraborealis]

Crock pots are simply brand-name slow cookers.

[dancingwolfgrrl]

I don't know if it's actually any good, but the title makes this seem potentially promising. (And, to be fair, so do the excerpt you can read and the user reviews.)

PS

[beowabbit]

PS - The “External Links” section at the bottom of the Wikipedia Slow cooker article has links to recipe sites.

[dr_memory]

IIRC, Alton Brown ("Good Eats") did an entire show on slow-cooker techniques. Foodtv.com has the recipes, but it'd be worth digging up the actual episode for the discussions of technique.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/topics/text/0,2677,FOOD_22924_36144,00.html