LindaC, it's all in what you're comfortable with. Remember, I'm the person who has had a couple of house fires and so I don't ever light a fire in the fireplace and I refuse to burn candles. It's my own particular phobia... I do have an old Presto pressure cooker which I don't use a lot but I really like it for certain thins. Elery uses it to make beans, I'd prefer to just dump mine in the crockpot in the morning. I do use it to make chop suey for Ashley, even slightly tough round comes out fork tender. I don't like taditional chili in the crockpot, the ground beef "overcooks". I am a huge consumer of vegetables, though, and sometimes make a vegetarian chili that's delicious. Plus, like Chase, it gets used as a "warming" device for office potlucks, to keep soup warm and even to make oatmeal because I'm not a morning person and would never make oatmeal before I go to work, and I detest the instant stuff. Annie

I've never ever seen a slow cooker recipe include an instruction to preheat the cooker. Here's a slow cooker recipe I use for pulled pork: Pulled Pork Sandwiches 2-1/2 to 3 pound pork sirloin roast or boneless pork shoulder roast 3 tablespoons cider vinegar 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon ground cumin or chili powder 1/2 cup water 1 recipe homemade BBQ sauce (recipe follows) or 3-1/2 cups bottled BBQ sauce Hamburger buns (makes 10 generous servings) Trim fat from roast. Cut roast, if necessary to fit in a 3-1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker. Season meat with salt and pepper. In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup water, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and cumin. Pour over meat in cooker. Cover; cook on low-heat setting 8 to 10 hours or on high-heat setting 4 to 5 hours. Remove meat; discard liquid. (Note: I didn't discard the liquid, but mixed it in with the shredded meat as there was virtually no fat on the meat I used.) Using two forks shred meat; return it to cooker. Stir in 2 cups homemade BBQ sauce or bottled BBQ sauce. Cover and cook on high setting for 30 to 45 minutes or until heated through. Serve meat mixture in split hamburger buns. Pass remaining sauce. Homemade BBQ Sauce Combine 2-1/2 cups ketchup; 1 cup finely chopped onion; 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, 3 tablespoons bottled Pickapeppa or Worcestershire sauce; 3 tablespoons cider vinegar; 3 cloves garlic, minced; and 1/4 teaspoon bottled hot pepper sauce in a medium saucepan. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use immediately or let cool; cover and chill up to 3 days. Makes 3-1/2 cups. Source: Country Living Magazine via Linda (How To Cook a Wolf) Lori

I've tried a number of methods from essentially boiling it when you add a bottle of something or too much liquid and you wind up fishing around in this sludge to find the shrunken tough meat to sauces to other methods. Less liquid is better. The key, as Jim said is the proper meat. I like a chuck roast or a pork shoulder roast. They'll give off plenty of fluid. I like to put some onion on the bottom so it's not all gray on the bottom and it gets some flavor. Some put sacrificial veggies in there as a rack thinking it flavors the gravy, OK, maybe it does. But I like the taters on top in a drier atmosphere so it'll brown those babies and they're delicious. They'll give off moisture too so again, adding liquid is a recipe for soup. I definitely vote to brown the meat. Onions & garlic should be sautéed too if you want it better. People think a "slow cooker" is a magical chef that can make a lousy cook a good cook and eliminate basic cooking techniques a thought with which I don't agree but I digress. If you want it simple, put a can of mushroom soup on top of a piece of roadkill, sprinkle it with onion soup mix, make up some instant mashed potatoes and open a can of gravy. Serve with leftover green bean gasserole. (shudder) And of course if this is what you like, go for it and enjoy it, no need to bother bellyaching about it. I also firmly believe that you can easily overcook things in a slow cooker. You can easily boil/steam all the moisture out of meat, turn the vegetables into mush and I really think it's important to realize it's an appliance that needs to be properly used to achieve best results. I've had delicious meals from slow cookers and I've had what I wouldn't feed as dog food that was made in a slow cooker. Cook's Country this weekend did a show about using a pork roast in a slow cooker. Their emphasis was what I've found. Less moisture is better. Here's an adaptation using a beef roast

Sorry! I just saw there is another post asking the same thing. I should have checked first. Clare