Then may I suggest a Dutch Oven? Brown the meat in a little bit of fat...oil, bacon grease whatever. Brown slowly so all sides are nice and browned. add a chopped onion a clove or so of crushed garlic, about 1 1/2 cups liquid...either beef broth wine, beer veggie broth or a mixture of some of the above and scrape up the browned bits in the pan, cover and place in a 225 oven for 3 or 4 hours, depending on the size of the piuece of meat, add your potatoes after about 1 1/2 hours....and I like to add carrots too at that time. Thicken the gravy with a slurry of a little more broth/wine and flour and serve with the meat. Much better than cooking it to mush in a crock pot. Linda C

Hi handy jemdandy, Even with a regular crockpot (which one wouldn't consider using as suggested), what with the heating unit being somewhat below the pot, and the pot having a thick wall and all, and being fairly high to the rim ... one'd have to turn the thing on quite a long time before need in order to achieve the warmth that you suggest ... ... or so it seems to me. With my old crock, that didn't work on "low" and on "high" took about 48 hours all told to soften the veggies ... one'd have to turn it on a day (or two?) ahead, I think, to achieve anything like that level of warmth at the point of contact. just thinkin. additional thinkin ... guys don't sit, do they? Oh, right - as I've said for years - civilized guys sit down to pee. Or, as a former parishioner lady, who had a husband and a couple of boys, said years ago ... it they weren't going to sit to pee - they cleaned the bathroom. She (a fairly heavy smoker, died about three years ago - that's right: lung cancer). ole joyful

How about a (mild, if they need that) chili verde? Pork loin, cubed and braised; sauteed chopped onions and sweet peppers; a few spices; and salsa verde (or blendered tomatillos); some garlic & salt (use the salt that is half potassium-salt -- since the sodium problem is in part imbalance of those anyway). It's a bother to prep (due to the braise/sautee) but once prepped, all the ingredients freeze well, throwing it in the crockpot is how I cook it anyway, it's basically "meat with a watery sauce" in nature so it's very filling but can be dropped onto anything else (e.g. rice, beans, pasta). It's low-sugar naturally, and only has the sodium or msg you add. PJ

I believe you can as they are made of the same stuff. I think nylon. I use both all the time. Love them. Sue