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using a crock pot for making sauce, safe?

wertach zone 7-B SC

12 years ago

After reading and responding to a few posts on making sauces, apple, tomato, pear etc. I got to thinking that what I've done for years may not be safe?

I use my crock pot to boil down the sauce so that I don't have to worry about it burning and/or stand over the stove stirring.

After running the sauce through the food mill. I put it in my crock pot on high. After it comes to a boil I remove the lid and put a spatter screen on top to keep out critters, but let the steam escape. Stirring every once in a while.

When it gets to the right consistency I either freeze or can it.

I think it is safe?

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Comments (7)

digdirt2
12 years ago
It actually boils? Most crockpots won't boil. They simply don't get hot enough to bring it up to 212 degrees. So in all the past discussions here about this question the recommendation is to cook it down in the CP if you wish but then it has to go into a pot on the stove to bring it up to temp for putting in the jars.

Dave
calliope
12 years ago
My old crockpot never did come to a ripping boil, but they must be making the newer ones a little differently. When I set my new one (I won it at a cooking demonstration ;-) on high it does boil, bubble and splash. My old one, I just rendered it down and then transfered over to a pot to finish off, but my new one appears to be able to do it ready to jar up on the high acid foods.
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wertach zone 7-B SC
Original Author
12 years ago
Mine boils, not rapidly, I checked the temp one time while making vegetable soup and it was 224 degrees.
morz8 - Washington Coast
12 years ago
In looking for a possible replacement crock pot (dinners) for my 1980's brown West Bend bean pot style, the complaint I keep coming across is that the new ones get so much hotter than the old - indications are they've tweaked the minimum low temp to a safer hotter heating over the years.

My old one looks like heck, but works, and I keep using it while I continue to look for a comparable updated model. Maybe they are better for canning prep now, are not quite as 'slow'.
wertach zone 7-B SC
Original Author
12 years ago
Mine isn't all that new, probably 10 years old. Kinda ugly, I just replaced the knob on the lid with one for a kitchen drawer. It is a Rival brand, oval shaped, I forgot the capacity. But it is big enough to put a whole turkey breast inside. It has 3 settings High will boil, low will slow cook, and it has a warm setting that is perfect eating temp.

Speaking of turkey breast, I partially thaw a turkey breast in the fridge overnight , about 18 hours usually. Put it in the crock pot the next morning with the cavity up. Pour a can of Golden mushroom soup in the cavity and turn it on high for 2 hours. Then switch it to low for 4 hours. It turns out perfect!
pixie_lou
12 years ago
* Posted by wertach 7 SC (My Page) on
Wed, Sep 28, 11 at 12:01

Mine boils, not rapidly, I checked the temp one time while making vegetable soup and it was 224 degrees.

You may want to check your thermometer since water boils at 212.
wertach zone 7-B SC
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes Pixie, I know that water boils @ 212F, or 100C. It was a typo, should have been 214F. Thermometer is correct I have checked it against 3 others that I have. I think the reason that it doesn't come to a rolling boil is the configuration of the heating coils within the crock pot, it heats mostly on the sides.

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