Teresa - suggestion: Why not try out your new cooker while hot weather is here? That way you can judge precisely how much heat comes from your cooker. I made the peach cake on a very hot and humid day here in Maine, and could not feel any added heat from my cooker. Good luck, and enjoy your new appliance.

There's a reason you cannot find a comparable cooker today. Those old cookers weren't safe. The problem is, those old cookers didn't get hot enough to cook food safely--so the newer ones are hotter to prevent the growth of bacteria. I don't think you're going to be able to find a new crockpot that cooks as slowly as those old ones do. And that's a good thing--your family's health is far more important. Look, why not adapt your crockpot recipes to FAST cooking. I haven't found a crock pot recipe yet that I can't convert into a 30 minute (or less) meal. The less time you run your appliances, the more energy $$$ you save. The faster you cook your food, the more nutrients and flavor you conserve. I'd rather cook 20-30 minutes in the evening, and serve my family healthy, fresh food, than save 5 minutes of my prep time and give them something that's been heating all day. Isn't that the complaint people generally have about cafeterias and other inexpensive restaurants? That the food has been sitting around and sitting around? If it's not good enough for you when you go out to eat, WHY would anyone consider that adequate for the family they love? Sorry, I get a little over-the-top about crockpots. It's such a wasteful (in so many ways) way to cook food, and I'm such a proponent of fresh, nutrient-packed dishes for my family, that I really become passionate when this topic comes up.

That's the way some recipes are written. I read some of the slow cooker reviews for a programmables slow cooker that said the majority of the recipes in the included cookbook called for changing the temperature part way through the process and it was ironic that this couldn't be done automatically in the "programmable" slow cooker. Even a cheap microwave allows you to program to cook at two different levels (such as defrost 30% power 10 minutes and then high 100% 5 minutes or cook a poached egg 40 seconds on high to get it started then drop to 40% for a minute to allow it to finish cooking slowly and evenly without exploding). Maybe I would use one the recipes at home on a weekend and it would be a convenience to not have to go back to the slow cooker to manually cancel the High stage after 3 hours and reprogram it for second stage that uses Low for the balance of the cooking when it could have been done automatically through the appliance's programming so easily.

Do you mean the 4 quart cooker? I have one that's even smaller -- I think it's for keeping sauces warm at the table. But I used to make things like a serving of Ribs in there, just cut down the ingredients. I did always wonder if it got to the right temperature. Was it really for cooking? Well it did cook and Nobody ever got sick from the single servings I made in there.