I've got 2 sizes, one is a 5-quart and the other is 6.5 quart. The smaller one gets more use. I make pork roasts, beef roasts, ribs, chicken and rice, as well as chili and spaghetti sauces. I love my slow cookers.

a crockpot.... you fill it and forget it and go about your business. Or, if your oven is full you have more cooking space.

Crockpot Chicken. skinless chicken thighs, Newmans Sockarooni.

OK....I ordered one too. :0) I'd been meaning to replace mine.

i have a large older model and a newer 13/8 "flatish" one i could actually do without a crockpot at all as my favorite uses are to make bone broth and to cook bone in chicken breasts on the porch in the summer (no smell and no heat....) but that could be done in the oven or stove top i have a pretty big kitchen and i do find they take up quite a bit of space.....

I use my crockpot outdoors in the summer, to keep from heating up the house.

I'm trying to remember what I read about the older, (I don't remember how old) about crock pots not getting hot enough and causing foods to spoil...Jasdip...I bet you know what I'm talking about.

And...Jas was that your BBQ ribs in a crock pot I saw not long ago over in cooking?

There's a problem with slow cookers if using raw beans, like kidney beans, pinto beans, etc. They contain a toxin called lectin that at a minimum can lead to food poisoning. It's neutralized by soaking the beans for a good while (like overnight) and then cooking the beans in boiling water for like 15 minutes. Uncooked beans put into a pressure cooker will seem "cooked" after X number of hours but the temperature doesn't get high enough to make the toxin safe.

If using canned beans, there's no problem other than the general one that the food needs to be at higher than 160 degrees during the cooking session to kill bacteria in the ingredients (like chicken or poultry, if used) and to avoid the growth of bacteria in the dish. Yeah, it's maybe not worth it.

Elmer, another discussion on cooking dried beans if you're interested: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5037032/save-boiling-water-from-cooking-dried-beans?n=21

I had a crockpot, but rarely used it. Don't really care for stewed food though I can understand why so many find them attractive.

Cindymac, thanks. I think there's some misinformation and well intended but wrong suggestions in that thread.

At the risk of going too far into a subject for which my information is limited, I believe the chemicals in legumes (beans) that cause flatulence are non-digestible sugars that wind up getting fermented by gut bacteria. Beano has an enzyme that helps in the digestion of this substance and that's how it serves to reduce flattulence.

Lectins are proteins and are toxins. Consuming beans that haven't been properly cooked at boiling temperatures results in food poisoning-like symptoms. Enough said, that should be clear to everyone.

Cooks Illustrated recommends pre-soaking beans in salted water. Yes, essentially brining them. The salted water is rinsed off before cooking but this process makes the beans creamier when cooked.

I understand most people like them, and I have one also, but I seldom use it. I prefer cooking on top of the stove. I am home all day, so I have plenty of time to watch a pot, and a good heavy pot is my preferred way to cook anything that needs to cook for quite awhile. I say "quite awhile" because I don't like anything that is over cooked. I have seen people cook things until it is little more than mush. And I like texture in my food, and nothing cooked one second longer than it has to be. But, hey....I have been out of step with the rest of the world my entire life...so this is nothing new.

Mamapinky, I believe some of the older ones just had Off and On setting with nothing in between so they were considered not safe for a lot of foods. My West Bend is about 7 years old ( which I consider old) but has low to high settings with everything in between. Even though I am always home when I use mine, it is so handy when I just want to fix my dinner ahead so I can clean, do laundry, mow the lawn, etc. And have my meal cooking away! Which reminds me that I am getting hungry for crock pot cabbage rolls!

Uncooked beans put into a pressure cooker will seem "cooked" after X number of hours but the temperature doesn't get high enough to make the toxin safe.

Slow cookers and pressure cookers are two different things, temps in pressure cookers I believe get quite high.

Mamapinky, modern slow cookers have a high setting, it will heat up relatively fast and kill bacteria, and some (like the one I just ordered) can be programmed to have a period of high heating and then drop back down to lower temps for a long slow cook. Older slow cookers would tale a very long time to heat so the slightly warm environment would be a place where bacteria could multiply.

Oooh, big typo/mistake. I used the wrong word Lucille, thanks for pointing it out. I won't go back to change it (that's bad form) but I didn't intend to say anything about pressure cookers, that's a subject I know NADA about. I meant slow cooker.

Yeah, I just canned a bunch of black beans in a pressure cooker a week or so ago, there are actually specific safety guidelines by the NCHFP and if followed, the heat from pressure cooking kills bacteria.

Lucille,

We make it gluten free so we can share with granddaughter who has Celiac disease.

8 chicken thighs, skinless, boneless

14 oz crushed tomatoes

10 oz Rotele with chilies

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 tbs rustic herb seasoning

2 red bell peppers

1 sweet onion

4 large carrots, thick slices

1 cup leaf spinach added during last hour

we served over spaghetti squash

Merlot wine (for adults)

My crockpot is well over 20 years old. It has the low, high settings. A green ceramic pot in the heating part of it. I have made great bean soups for many, many years without problems. I do soak the beans overnight. When I make the soup, I cook it on low for 9-10 hours. I have a number of crockpot cookbooks and none say anything about having to cook beans on high for so long then low. Mine works great. I don't see replacing it until it stops.

Most pots cook at 250 F on high. Plenty enough heat for beans.

I love my new Bella multi cooker with pressure cooking option and my aroma cooker. Both have a saute setting which allows browning in the pot prior to cooking. Great features. I lost all of my slow cookers in the flood but I had one that had a base that heated and the pot sat on the heating base. It was awesome. I got it right after we got married and it was still going strong. I may get another one sometime.

It was like this one.

https://www.amazon.com/84905-Oblong-Versatility-Cooker-5-Quart/dp/B001AH5H0A/ref=sr_1_35?ie=UTF8&qid=1515898671&sr=8-35&keywords=hamilton+beach+slow+cooker

Does anyone here use the crockpot bags? My daughter-in-law says they make it so much easier. Just curious.

Thank you for that link Raven. I think I'll order that tomorrow as I don't want to leave my warm bed to get my credit card now. I like the red one too. My west bend works great but the inside Is getting somewhat scratched even though I try to be careful.

We use the liners. Husband does the dishes and won't use the crock pot without them. LOL

The crock pot if less costly to use than an electric stove. The current for an electric stove is a 220 line. Your crock pot plugs into the 110 outlet. Watch an electric meter spin itself silly, even when the stove is on low. Using a crock pot is like leaving a night light on. It's financially the better choice.

Electricity is measured (and billed) by watts. A heating coil of a given size and heat output will use the same amount of watts (and so cost the same to use) heating a given pot whether using a 110 supply or 220. For a cooking container of the same size, whether it's heated by a slow cooker using 110 or an electric range using 220, the power used should be the same.

I dislike when people do this but this was a topic with not a lot of information so I did a Google search and found a U Conn extension article suggesting that the amount of energy used with an oven vs a slow cooker would be about the same. It's one person's view and it may or may not be correct.

Are crock pots economical?

Elmer I'm just curious, why would you dislike a Google search for factual information?

Brushworks thank you for the yummy recipe.

I would feel pretty safe leaving my crock pot cooking overnight or when I leave the house. I would not do same with stovetop or oven.

Natesg I occasionally use a crockpot but never use the bags. I just don’t think cooking in plastic is safe. (I don’t microwave food in plastic containers, or run plastic storage containers through the dishwasher, either.) Plus I don’t like the extra waste it generates. I have no problem cleaning the crock - if necessary, I usually fill it with hot, soapy water and leave it for a little while.

I'd never spend the money on liner bags. I despise the wastefulness of those and other one-use, and cleaning items.

I'm trying to think what I cook that would stick/burn so bad that a quick soak and scrub wouldn't clean the liner.

Our hydro (electricity) rates are high, and I absolutely refuse to use the oven except on weekends, and only if I'm making something in a large casserole or several items. That's why we love our counter-top oven so much, it's 110 volts vs 220. Big difference.

Jasdip.....what Elmer said is correct. Your charged for the kilowatts you use, not the voltage. Remember the formula pie? P = I x E That is.... power equals current times voltage. Your stove needs more voltage because of all the burners that could be used at one time. If your only using one small burner(1000 watts) verses one crock pot(1000watts) the electric bill should be the same.

I'd never spend the money on liner bags. I despise the wastefulness of those and other one-use, and cleaning items.

I respect your decision but I often use one use items- aluminum foil over roasts, lots of parchment paper for pizza, cookies, and baking, those one use wipes when the grand baby comes over. A little more convenience as one gets older and one's energy declines can sometimes be helpful.

I've used the one use cooking bags at Thanksgiving sometimes and the amount of time it saved was amazing.

I'm not trying to change your mind and I respect your choices, I'm just offering my perspective.

I too use foil, and re-use it. It's seldom dirty enough that a quick rinse can't make it usable again to cover pet food containers, etc.

I also use parchment paper and try to get a few uses out of it before tossing. I don't and won't use the swiffer type cleaners, and the flushable toilet bowl pads, etc etc.

"Elmer I'm just curious, why would you dislike a Google search for factual information?"

It's a pet peeve for me and perhaps not for others. Too often when people do this 1) they represent the information as being of their own knowledge when it's obviously not, and 2) too often people cite questionable or unauthoritative sources, without critically assessing the veracity of the source, and apparently with the attitude of "if it's on the internet, it must be right" and 3) many don't realize that an internet search matches words only, not context, and such a finding involving just a word match (when the reader doesn't really understand what the matched material is saying) often leads to cites of irrelevant information.

So when I share search-sourced information, I will usually cite the source and offer a caution, as I did above. Most others don't do that.

Nicole, Watts are the measurement of energy used for electricity and to be more specific, it's Watts = Amps x Volts. For a given heat-producing appliances of the same wattage (as comparing a 1500 Watt hair dryer, a Euro 220v version vs an American 110v version), the amperage of the 220v version will be half the amperage of the 110v version . Same heat produced, same electricity consumed.

Nicole, I'm talking about using the oven, not a burner. The oven generates far more amperage, kilowatt usage than plugging something into an outlet.

Elmer.......Power is measured in watts. Current is measured in amps. PIE is a valid equation.

Jasdip......the topic of this discussion...IS "Crock Pot vs Stove top."

Current is the flow. If talking about how much electricity something uses, current doesn't answer the question, it is watts, as you said but also as I said.

Think of a pipe in a hypothetical. A pipe that passes 2 gallons per minute has twice the flow of a pipe that passes 1 gallon per minute. If using either to fill a 4 gallon bucket and asking how much water is being used, it's 4 gallons no matter which pipe fills the bucket. 4 gallons= watts, the quality used. 1 or 2 gallons per minute equals the flow, amps if talking about electricity.

As with the 1500 watt hair dryer, at 110V it's 13.6 amps. At 220v it's half that, 6.8 amps. Leave both on for one hour and it both will use the same electricity 1.5 kwh, kilowatt hours, the same either way. How much is used is volts x amps = watts.

Elmer....my formula...PIE...is old. It's taught in college. I took ac/dc circuitry.

I believe you. For me, it was college physics (before I changed majors) in which formulae were stated using the terms of measurement. Amps, volts, and watts are all such terms, while in your PIE formula, each of the terms seems nebulous/non-specific.

I think of crock pot cooking as either braising or long time simmering. I prefer oven braising to crock pot cooking. It's a texture thing. The crock pot is good for fall apart things like pulled pork and other meats but not so great for pot roast in my opinion. I do baked beans in my crock pot but the recipe uses canned beans not dried. I also make spaghetti sauce in my crock pot.

I always brown meats before putting them in the crock pot.

I have several sizes I use for potlucks and entertaining. All my pots have the removable crock and they are all the type that surrounds the food with heat rather than from the bottom. The biggest failure one can have with when using a crock pot is not filling it to the correct level so the heat surrounds the food evenly for lack of a better word.

Great for soups, meatballs, dips, pulled meats, keeping things hot and even hot drinks like cider. But for meals I prefer the range and oven.

We don't use the crock pot for very many things, but it does make the best refried beans ever.

I use mine a lot. Removable crock. The settings are low, high or warm. I just made a big pot of chili yesterday. When I was working we would often have pot luck luncheons and the office would be filled with crockpots. Once we made baked potatoes in a crockpot and everyone brought an assortment of toppings for a baked potato bar. That was great.

Said it before and I'll say it again. Can't see any rationale to a Crock-pot over a roaster oven. One-trick pony verses a portable oven. Does everything a slow cooker does and way more. And does it better. Has full temperature control verses too hot or too cold. Best thing I did was toss the slow cookers in the trash. Only regret is I didn't do it sooner.

Took a look at those roaster ovens and they are nice, but I don't see them filling the niche that slow cookers have. Most of the roasters I saw were 16-28 quarts, I don't need something that large to use, clean, carry or store, the 6 quart slow cooker is exactly what I want.

But I'm glad that you found something that works for you.

I also looked at those roaster ovens. Crock pots are more for making a couple of meals for a working couple. I NEED the variable digital cooking temps, delayed start and early shut off. Easy to clean exterior(the paint is coming off mine). The clamp on lid for transport, nice!

I'm excited, it should arrive today! I have a rack of pork ribs & spicy BBQ sauce I'll throw in tomorrow. No regrets!

Whole chicken in crock pot this morning. Sprinkled with brown sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper. Already has an appealing aroma.

Finished the chili last evening. Delicious.

I use mine all winter long, mainly for chili and various soups. I love coming home to a great, healthy meal--and the house smelling so good.

Amazon is saying there is a delay on my crock pot because of the weather. I'm really looking forward to getting it but I want the drivers to be safe more than I want my crock pot today.

I have my pressure cooker filled with boneless skinless chicken breasts currently. Some will be shredded for Mia. The broth and some of the meat will be used for us for dinner either as a chicken noodle and veggie soup or chicken and dumplings. Have not decided yet.

My new Hamilton Beach crock pot arrive yesterday and it is amazing! You can program it to cook on high for a while and then on low for the rest of the time. Early this morning I started the pork for pulled pork this evening.