Thrift Store Find

[suzabelle7]

Yesterday, I spent $5 on a small Rival brand Crockpot at Goodwill.  It doesn't have any temp settings, and the crock is not removeable, but it looked like a good size.  I love my big crock, and I love having leftovers to freeze, but from time to time, I'd like to be able to just throw a couple chicken breasts or pork chops in and have just enough

Comments

[moonwalker]

You may have just found why someone gave it away.

[suzabelle7]

Thank you for your helpful, thoughtful response

[nwhepcat]

I'm not going to claim authority here, but I'm pretty sure you're not going to get water to boil in a Crock Pot. It's designed for low temperatures and long cooking times, which is great for making cheap cuts of meat edible. I'd certainly recommend looking up more info, but I think it's not automatically ready for the trash heap.

[khh1138]

OT Icon Love! The first character I really related to.

[nwhepcat]

Thank you! Me too, which is why she's on my forearm. (My writing hand, at that.)

[suzabelle7]

Everything eventually boils in all three of my other crock pots. Not a rolling boil, more of a rapid simmer, but still. And this was nothing close

[judyisis]

From what I hear, newer models actually get too hot too fast. Some people go out of their way to find old timey ones that ramp up low and slow. That being said, I have no idea what the optimal temp is, but I would get a thermometer and do some research were it me.

[khh1138]

Agreed - you may have hit the jackpot and found one of the old legitimately *slow* cookers.
In my new CrockPot (which sucks!) everything comes to a rolling boil, no matter what the setting (Hi, Lo, Keep Warm - it just takes a little longer to boil on lo and a little longer still on keep warm, but they all reach over 212 F). It's a joke. Everything cooks in 4 hours or less, which means there's no way I can start something cooking and go out for the day and come back to everything ready. I'd come back to a blackened pot of charcoal if I did that.
But with the old slow cookers, you could actually let it cook for 8-10 hours and it would be perfect.

[mbif]

Mine is the same way. I have a coworker that cooks on "warm" instead of "low," and I've reached a point of frustration that I'm thinking about doing the same thing. Just about anything I try cooks in about 4 hours on low, and it boils like crazy while it does. I have burned stew in it. STEW.

[suzabelle7]

It doesn't really look that old, though. No dated colors, the lid is plastic. If you're familiar with the Little Dipper, it looks very much like that, just larger

[theladylies]

I just did a quick check, and it looks like the average temp for a Rival crock is 195 on low and 205 on high. Water boils at 212. I'm not sure how accurate those average numbers are, though. It seems like there should be more than a ten degree difference between high and low.

Another source says 200 for low and 300 for high, so maybe your crock only heats up to low?

I'd make sure the lid fits well, so no heat is escaping. Worst case, you can always use it for recipes that require long hours on low.

[whc]

If you're a bit handy with electricity (or know someone who is), wire a light dimmer in series with a crockpot that's running too hot, to give complete control over the temperature.

Sorry, It won't help one that runs too cool.

[suzabelle7]

My other three crocks all definitely reach a rapid simmer, even on low. It's actually pretty irritating. I haven't gotten around to testing this one yet, but I'm not sure it gets hot enough to cook anything :/

[blk]

For comparison, I have three slow cookers: 6 qt, 1.5 qt, and .5 qt. The two smaller ones get much hotter than the bigger one; in fact, too hot for actual slow cooking. They're great for warming up dips and frozen soup in a couple hours, though, while my big crock is just right for the all day stuff.