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Crock pot cookbook?

11 years ago

I'm looking for a cookbook with simple crock pot recipes appropriate for someone cooking for one or two. For someone who's having trouble learning to cook rice. For someone who recently asked me what it meant to flake canned tuna. Seems to me I'm forgetting some "bible," an equivalent to Lorna Sass' PC books, but I might be wrong. Either way, recommendations requested.

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Comments (9)

prairie_rose
11 years ago
My favorite crockpot cookbook is the Company's Coming Slowcooker Recipes by Jean Pare. The scalloped potato recipe is so good I only do them in the crockpot now.

It's a Canadian book, but the cover says it was published simultaneously in both Canada and the US. If you can't find it on the book stand, you can go to their website at www.companyscoming.com
plllog
11 years ago
Make sure that the cookbook you get is for the kind of crockpot that the recipient has. The old cookbooks are meant for the old style crockpot that had much lower temperatures. The timing is way off since the government interfered...
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Stew pot is actually closer, Linda. The style we currently call "Dutch oven" is a flat-bottomed kettle with a lid added. And is, of course, with its heavy, heat-holding design, ideal for stewing. Kettles originally were round bottomed (and some had legs), designed primarily to be hung over an open fire; either from a tripod or a crane. They did not have lids. There was a point, measured in gallons, where a kettle became a cauldren, but I misremember it right now. Thirteen comes to mind, but don't take that to the bank. Dutch ovens, of course, had three legs and a deeply recessed lid so you could put coals both under and on top, to provide even, dry heat. They were used on the hearth, not in the firebox. In the first quarter of the 19th century, "portable" cast iron stoves became popular. Initially kettles were still used by removing an eye and setting the pot right in the hole, over the open fire. Eventually they began modifying the pieces, flattening the bottom and adding a domed lid. A chicken fryer has a somewhat different configuration; being relatively wide for it's height (for stability), and with sidewalls that slope more sharply than those of a skillet. Chicken fryers, too, have domed lids; many of which are of the self-basting type. Now, if you really want to know about hearth trivia, ask me nicely and I'll tell you were the term "hob nobbing" comes from.
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My brother had to start cooking for himself and my nephew very suddenly. My nephew was really too young to do much, and my brother worked full time, so dinners had to be quick and easy. One suggestion of mine that he took to quite well was to buy the family size packages of meat to save money, separate them into meal-sized portions, and freeze the meats in zip lock bags with marinade. That way, he removes a bag from the freezer before bed, and by dinner time the following day, he has pre-marinated meat to throw on the grill or under the broiler. I did get him a rice cooker, which he likes because both he and my nephew will eat rice plain or with just a bit of soy, which keeps the fat grams down (as opposed to most potatoes or noodles, which must have some butter or sauce). His girlfriend gave him a crock pot, and a crock pot cookbook which gets a lot of use as well. They also eat lots of salads, which they both like. I told him to cut the stem end off when he got the lettuces home, and soak them in a sink full of cool water for a couple of hours before draining them and putting them in a plastic bag with a towel to soak up any residual moisture, They keep nicely for a week or so that way, and he keeps a container of pre-cut salad vegetables in the fridge so making a salad is fast and easy. Planning is the key, all right. A couple of hours on the weekend, and the week can go much more smoothly.
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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
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My crock pot does not hold very much water, and so covering the ingredients with water did not amount to very much. The broth came out fairly intense, and so it actually needed more water. I took the turkey thighs out after 3-1/2 hours (approximately) and let them cool enough to handle, removed the meat for later use, and returned the bones and skin back to the pot for another four hours or so. I whacked the thigh bones in half before returning them. I made the split pea soup with in my pressure cooker with some of the stock, half an onion, 1/2 pound of dried split peas, one clove of garlic, about a cup of chopped celery, a couple of cayenne chilies (from my yard), some of the small pieces of turkey meat, and some vegetable soup base. After 12 minutes, they were more than done. The cayenne from my yard this year is particularly hot - it is a volunteer plant growing in a pot that used to have a Habanero chili in it, and I think it must be a hybrid of cayenne and Habanero. The chilies look like cayenne, but they are hotter than Habanero, and so I have to be careful when I use them. They dry on the plant, and so I can just harvest all of them and store them inside for later use, but I will have to label them as extra spicy. The good thing about the crock pot is that I can store the pot in the fridge, and so the excess stock is still in the pot. I'll probably freeze it, since it takes me a while to get around to using it, and I need to wait for cooler weather, which is not due for a while.
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morz8 - Washington Coast
11 years ago
I have my vintage version of Crockery Cookery (Hoffman) that I've used off and on many years, and a recipe book more recent that came with my Fagor cooker.

I hadn't thought about the timing being tied to the older cooker temps, and I do know the newer are hotter. I haven't had any issues with anything I've cooked though.

I think there are a couple versions of the book newer than mine, and one with healthier recipes from this author, but I don't know enough about the selection available in this cooking method to be able to compare for you. Much of the time I just improvise, and don't use a recipe at all other than for approximate ideas, combinations.
OklaMoni
11 years ago
Have you considered googleing for just the one that came originally with her/his crock pot?

Or, don't crock pots don't come with their own cookbooks anymore?

Moni
foodonastump
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks all. I guess the answer is that I was wrong, there's no Pressure Perfect equivalent.

I guess I'll head to the book store (if such a thing still exists!) and look around. I'll keep the above-mentioned authors in mind.

Moni - He doesn't have the recipes that came with it because I haven't bought or given him the crock pot yet. :) But good point!
lpinkmountain
11 years ago
You might try googling some of the blogs, quite of few of those authors have written cookbooks. You could sample their style online first before buying the cookbook. When I got my crockpot I perused some of the cookbooks at my local bookstore (a long-since closed Borders) and realized that there just weren't enough recipes in them to warrant me buying them. My mom got me the "Cooks Illustrated Cover and Bake" cookbook for Christmas, which has a chapter on crockpots but I don't think I have made more than one or two recipes out of that book. It's good, but I make mostly soups and stews in my crockpot. Being mostly vegetarian I don't make most of the really good crockpot recipes which are the slow cooked meats. Looks like Cook's Illustrated now has a cookbook for just slow cookers, I'll bet that would be good if you're not a novice. (I find a lot of their recipes fiddly but I can almost always figure out easier work-arounds for their techniques. Half the time they say do this or that and then "set aside" which you don't have to do, for example, you can keep using the same pot!). I get most of my crockpot recipes online since it is easier for me to pick and choose that way. If I was buying a cookbook as a gift I guess I would look for one that had good recipes but also inspiring photos.

This post was edited by lpinkmountain on Sun, Dec 14, 14 at 11:11
PRO
beesneeds
11 years ago
I have a few crockpot cookbooks on the shelf.

Crockpot cooking by Rival
Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery
Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes
Best Loved Slow Cooker recipes

I also have a couple of those little paperback cookbooks one finds on the shelf at the supermarket checkout line.
John Liu
11 years ago
If you head over to your local Goodwill store that has a decent book section, I can almost promise there will be ten or twenty crock pot cookery books for $1 each!
Jasdip
11 years ago
I second what John said, also tons of Microwave cookbooks, LOL!
Take a quick flip through the books and make sure that the majority don't use a "can of...." and package of onion soup mix!

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