Crock-Pot SCV655B Slow Cooker, Aluminium, 300 W, 6.5 liters, Black

Product Information

Some things may deter you from cooking. Having to transfer food from a pan to a pot, cleaning up or that annoying puddle of water you get from putting the lid down on the worktop. If that's you, you need this smart model. One of the best things about the Drew and Cole Cleverchef Pro is the app, which comes with a huge range of recipes at the touch of a button. Compared to a lot of multi-cookers the Drew and Cole Cleverchef Pro has an uncomplicated display that's simple to customise. A great choice for those who want a smart multi-cooker. Rice - Again, it’s very easy to get rice wrong in a slow cooker. If you’re planning on adding it at the start, you’ll need extra liquid and a low temperature setting. Slow cookers have got so much going for them, it’s hard not to love them. Not only will a good one save you time and effort in the kitchen, it’ll save you money too. Slow cookers transform cheaper cuts of meat into tender dishes and liven up economical healthy pulses, like lentils, beans and peas. Plus, while they can be on all day, it’s at such a low wattage that it will only cost pennies.

slow cooker 2023: Enjoy delicious, slow cooked meals Best slow cooker 2023: Enjoy delicious, slow cooked meals

The best slow cookers should be great at cooking both healthy meals for the week and joints of meat that need as much time as possible for the tastiest results. This idea is actually pretty old-fashioned, but it’s fair to say that the results are perfect for a busy home. This useful setting does exactly what it says: it will keep your food warm after cooking has finished. Generally, this is a setting you select manually on many slow cookers, while some more expensive models have an option to switch over to the keep-warm program automatically. Auto cook The first thing you need to consider with any slow cooker is its capacity – each will list its bowl size in litres. Bear in mind that this won’t translate to the same amount of food, as you shouldn’t fill slow cookers to the brim. This gap allows your food to bubble and simmer properly. The usable cooking space will be around three-quarters of its bowl size, for example, a five-litre cooker can accommodate around four litres of food. Slow cookers with digital controls may also have a delay start, which is ideal if you’re out of the house for more than eight hours. This means you can start cooking at a time to suit you – while it’s hard to overcook recipes with a lot of liquid, this gives more freedom with dishes that could potentially start to dry out. A timer is another handy feature – this will either turn the machine off after cooking or put it into a limited time keep warm mode.Many slow cookers come with a recipe book, or at least some recipes in the instruction manual to get you started. They should also give a guide on how to convert recipes for slow cooking – by reducing the amount of liquid, for example. Don’t have time to slow cook? Head to our best pressure cookers instead. How much do I need to pay get a decent slow cooker? You can activate a keep warm setting to keep your food ready for as long as six hours after your cooking mode has finished. The sear mode took only a few minutes to pre-heat and we were able to brown our onions before adding curry ingredients, which delivered a lot of extra flavour.The slow cooker's 'reduce' function was useful for bubbling away excess liquid after slow cooking. You can place the cooking pot in the dishwasher or wash by hand fairly easily. The Ninja Foodi Multi-Cooker also has a basket insert and can be used to air fry other treats when not in use as a slow cooker. Is this the future of slow cooking? We think so. As they're versatile buys, many of the slow cookers featured below have extra functionalities or accessories for steaming and multi-level cooking, with the cross-over between the best multi-cookers and slow cookers evident in both of our guides. If you're looking to cash in on as many features as you can, then look out for those models with different functions built-in.

Crock-Pot Chrome Slow Cooker, 6.5 Litre, Brushed Chrome

A smaller, round slow cooker is ideal if you’re cooking for one or two people, or aren’t fussed about having lots of leftovers to freeze. The advantage of this is not leaving all that lovely seared flavour behind in a pan, and it reduces washing-up. Finally, look for a slow cooker with a transparent lid, so you can keep an eye on your food’s progress. Lifting the lid of a slow cooker while it’s in use lets out heat and steam, prolonging cooking time. It’s always best to be able to see what’s going on without doing so. Are slow cookers easy to clean? Removing the need to sauté in a pan before transferring to the pot, the Sage Fast Slow Go is as useful for slow cooking converts as it is to experienced cooks. Functioning as both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, it includes sensors at the top and bottom to monitor temperature. This makes inconsistently cooked stews a thing of the past.For bulk family cooking, look for a stated capacity of around 6 litres (which translates to a usable volume of around 4.5 litres). This will feed five to eight people in one go, and it's ideal if you like batch cooking for the freezer. Slow cookers range in size from a compact 1.5 litres to a 6.5-litre bowl, so be sure to choose the right size for the way you intend to cook. As a rough guide, 1.5-3 litres will feed one or two people, 3-5 litres, three or four people and anything over five litres should suit a large family, with six litres or more ideal for batch cooks who like to fill the freezer. Alternatively, a larger cooker is great for those who like to eat what’s leftover for lunch the next day. Pasta - While some people cook pasta in a slow cooker (2% of slow cooker owners we surveyed) it’s difficult to get it right. If you’re planning on being gung-ho doing it anyway, you should either cook it separately and put it in at the end or only add it during the final hour of cooking. The bowl’s oven-safe, although it can’t be used on the hob, so you’ll need to sauté ingredients in a separate pan beforehand. It’s also not dishwasher-safe, meaning the relatively heavy pot has to be washed by hand – but for sheer size combined with affordability, it’s hard to beat. It sounds obvious, but an indicator light will show you instantly that your slow cooker is on and working. Not every slow cooker has one, especially the very basic models. Keep warm

Slow Cookers 2023: top cookers for soups, stews and Best Slow Cookers 2023: top cookers for soups, stews and

Design: Are you looking for a simple, budget-friendly option that just slow-cooks (but does it extremely well) or something more versatile that sous-vides, pressure cooks, bakes and roasts too? Do bear in mind that the more technological the slow cooker, the higher the price. Controls are very simple – you switch it onto high, low or auto. The latter is ideal if your dinner has finished cooking but you’re not quite ready, as it will keep food at serving temperature until you want to dish it up. It’s big enough for a family meal, but if you want to cook huge dishes, there’s a near-identical 6-litre Lakeland slow cooker, too. With so many different slow cookers out there, choosing the right one for you can be confusing. Here are a few questions you might want to consider.Much like the Morphy Richards, the pot is made of lightweight metal, so it’s easy to carry but doesn’t hold heat well when serving. The Tefal represents great value for money thanks to its multiple functions – in particular, slow cooking and rice cooking. If you're thinking of buying one of these handy kitchen gadgets, these are some of the important settings and features you should consider: Indicator light A slow cooker is a kitchen appliance that – in keeping with its name – cooks food slowly over a period of time. It's essentially a 'set it and forget it' kind of appliance, which makes it ideal for busy weeknights, or for cooking large cuts of meat. By slowly heating food to a simmer over several hours, the slow cooker method allows the flavours of ingredients to meld together, resulting in rich, tasty broths and tender meats. Basic slow cookers won’t get hot enough to sauté meat or vegetables, so you’ll need to do this in a pan before transferring the contents to the bowl. However, more expensive models offer a different one-pot solution. This can either be bowls that you use on your hob or in your oven in place of a pan (some will even be induction compatible). They will need to be moved to the slow cooker base. Machines with a sauté function for high-heat browning can simply be switched to slow cooking.