If Only Life Could Be That Simple...: Crock-Pot - The Original Slow Cooker

Friday, July 27, 2012

Crock-Pot - The Original Slow Cooker - Review

3:01 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

About the Crock-Pot® Brand

It all started in August of 1970 with a simple bean-cooker: a glazed brown crock liner, white steel housing and aluminum lid. What the Crock-Pot® brand did first was expand the cookbook to offer a real practical variety of dishes for the bean-cooker. The brand then redesigned the product’s outer wrapper and added handles and a glass lid. By associating the crockery liner with its pot-like shape, out came the name Crock-Pot® slow cooker. This slow electric stoneware cooker introduced a new category of appliances to the trade in January 1971 and revolutionized the way Americans cooked for their families.

A Crock-Pot® slow cooker combines old time principles to produce exceptional flavor, nutrition and economy cooking. Success breeds imitators, and Crock-Pot® slow cookers are no exception. You’ll see the word ‘crockpot’ and may presume it’s the original brand of slow cooker. But if it’s spelled ‘crockpot’ without a hyphen and ® then it’s not a Crock-Pot® slow cooker.

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I have owned a couple of slow cookers throughout my adult life. A smaller one and a larger one. It's one of those appliances that I can't and won't live without. When you are a busy mom, whether you work outside of the home or you work in the home, your days can be hectic. After a long day of working, the last thing I want to do is think about cooking supper. The husband is hungry, the kids are hungry, and so am I but, there are more times, than not, that I have been turning to packaged meals, which means the lack of good old fashioned home cooked taste. That's where I pull out my ever so trust worthy slow cooker.

I have had my slow cooker for many years and it was on it's last leg so it was time for a new one. The wonderful people over at Crock-Pot so graciously sent me the Crock-Pot Smart Pot Slow Cooker to test out and review. Crock-Pot is a well known, trusted brand for top of the line slow cookers. My previous slow cookers had your basic low and high settings. I wanted something different so I decided to go with a programmable slow cooker.

What I really like most about the programmable slow cooker, versus the other, is that you have different settings besides low and high. You have your 4hr, 6hr, 8hr, and 10 hr settings. Depending on what you're cooking that day, just set it to the desired cooking time and off you go. Once the time has elapsed, the slow cooker automatically jumps to the warm setting to keep your food nice and warm until you are ready to eat. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have lost track of the time and either the food overcooked or was slightly undercooked.

I decided to fix one of my families favorite recipes. The recipes says to cook on low for 8 hours. Can you guess just how easy it was to cook this meal and go?! I set the time to 8hrs, didn't think twice about it and by the time we were ready to eat, it was already on the warm setting and just waiting for us to chow down!

**As with most slow cookers, please be careful when handling as the unit gets pretty darn hot.

Jarden Consumer Solutions’ Crock-Pot® brand offers a full-line of slow cookers, accessories and replacement parts.

WHERE TO BUY: You can purchase your own Crock-Pot slow cooker directly from their website HERE or you can find a retailer near you by clicking HERE.