Nesco Roaster Recipe Method???

11 years ago

Love my Nesco & I've used it for years and years but I've never carmelized onions or made soup in it. So, I want to use my good old liquid ingredients but make in in my Nesco for the first time.

That's because I sold the house and along with it I sold my heavy duty cooking pot that I could saute in and then pop in the oven for the onions to carmelize.

So, here's the text or use the link to the Nesco recipe. I have 2 questions regarding the method only.

Will the onions caramelize this way or not? Otherwise I will do them the oven or stove top method.
I take it that the cover remains off until the very end of the instructions and not on at all for the onion portion. Is that what you see too?

Preheat Nesco Roaster Oven to 425F.
Melt half the butter and add enough onions to cover bottom of cookwell. Cook until softened stirring frequently.
As onions cook, add more until 5 cups have been cooked.
Then add other half of butter and continue adding remaining onions until all 10 cups are cooked.
Add salt and flour, stirring constantly to thicken.
Add bouillon and brandy. Stir well.
Reduce temperature to 400F.
Cover and cook 30 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350F. and continue to cook 1 hour. Serve with parmesan cheese.

To slow Cook:
Follow directions above until all ingredients are mixed together. Reduce heat to 200F. Cover and slow cook 6 to 8 hours.

Thanks - from an old cook!
Donna

Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco

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Comments (2)

teresa_nc7
11 years ago
I have made chicken noodle soup in my Nesco, but not onion soup. I think it would be worth a try to do onion soup in the Nesco, but you may have to baby it more than you would like to be sure the onions don't burn. First off - spray the cooking well with non-stick cooking spray, because I can tell you that dried onion burned onto the sides of the pot are a bear to get off. Now I always spray the cooking well before I add anything to the pot.

This might be worth an experimental try to see if it works - it's just onions, not an expensive cut of beef.

Just my .02 cents worth,
Teresa
cynic
11 years ago
First, I NEVER will use cooking spray anymore. I ruined my porcelain cookwell with that garbage, along with some bakeware. It destroys the seasoning on the cookwell and puts a shellac-like coating on there that needs to be essentially sandblasted to remove. Hideous stuff. Use oil. It really is not a big amount of effort. Or put the oil in a sprayer if you must have "spray". Heat the cookwell and oil it, you'll cut down the sticking tremendously just like the old porcelain roasting pans. One of the biggest mistakes made with an electric roaster is not seasoning the cookwell properly. Sadly, few if any recipes mention this.

The recipe you have there I have a big disagreement with and that is to use butter only. Butter will burn at high temp. Either use oil or at least mix oil with the butter to raise the burning point. I think you'll be happier with the results.

Caramelizing onions is essentially a pretty basic operation. You take onion, fat and apply heat to it for a "long" time (relatively speaking). The Nesco will apply heat nicely. You could also take the cookwell and use on the stove and put it in the oven if you're used to doing it that way, or put it back into the heatwell to finish off.
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My first thought was an expander ring too! There's times I put foil over the top of the roaster and the lid on to hold it in place when I want all moisture in there. But using it as the lid, well, essentially it'd be like putting foil over your oven door and leaving the oven door partly open. I think it could work but you'd lose a *lot* of heat and it'd affect the cooking. I'd try to cut off the bottom of the bird a bit or cut it into pieces and cook the pieces. Or maybe drop it on the floor a few times or sit on it to flatten it out a bit! ;) 22# is about the max for an 18 qt Nesco. One other thought is Rube Goldberg, jerry-rigged thought. You could take the cookwell out, use a large aluminum pan in it, top it with foil and invert the cookwell as a lid. You'd still probably lose a lot of heat & steam but not as bad. Another possibility is by removing the cookwell it might give the depth you need. I would not cook the food directly in the heatwell though, definitely use a pan or line it with several layers of heavy duty foil. Are you using a rack? Maybe eliminate the rack?
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Nesco Roaster Recipe Method???

Comments (2)

teresa_nc7

cynic

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