crockpots and/or hot meals

Rhino

hey guys, should I get a crockpots?

Debating points:

a) I'm not good at cooking
b) I enjoy hot meals
c) I do NOT enjoy burning down my house while my food cooks unintended.


from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crock_pot

"Vitamins and other trace nutrients are lost, particularly from vegetables, partially by enzyme action during cooking."


How much is lost? Can I prevent this lost o vitamins and/or trace nutrients? Are they just burned up or are they "in the water"" ? If I make a stew are all the good stuff in the juice/water ?

Any other options for hot tasty meals? I like hot meals (see bullet point B above).

Daedalus

Dude, what did we tell you about Wikipedia?

Yeah, the vitamins end up in the broth, depending on what you're cooking. I mean, they don't just fucking disappear. Or they stay in the food and Wiki is full of shit. Depends on the dish. It's the same effect as cooking something on low heat over a stove, really. In any case, this is why you drink the broth when you make soup.

Crock-pots are some kind of divine gift to cooking. You throw shit in there in the morning and you have food waiting for you at night. Then you throw oatmeal or whatever in there at night and breakfast is ready. Everyone should own at least one.

Rhino

The Warlock wrote: »

Dude, what did we tell you about Wikipedia?

??

I don't remember. What did you tell me?

Rhino

This site:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/M1182.html

Says this:

A slow cooker can improve the nutritional content of our meals. The slow cooker cooks foods slowly at a low temperature so vitamins and minerals of foods are retained.

which one is it?

contraband

when you cook something hot sometimes, it denatures the proteins and essentially warps and fucks up the active site that binds to the molecules all up in your body, and with a denatured active site it can't bind like it should, and thus you don't get the nutritional value from the proteins

the proteins don't disappear, of course not, but you don't get the benefits of eating them

makes sense if you cook something at a lower heat it won't denature the proteins and thus more nutritional value will be maintained

i like crock pots, stews are easy and delicious and warm

buy a crockpot. i wouldn't leave it stewing unattended, but they're basically zero-maintenance save for a cooking timer.

Rhino

contraband wrote: »

when you cook something hot sometimes, it denatures the proteins and essentially warps and fucks up the active site that binds to the molecules all up in your body, and with a denatured active site it can't bind like it should, and thus you don't get the nutritional value from the proteins

the proteins don't disappear, of course not, but you don't get the benefits of eating them

makes sense if you cook something at a lower heat it won't denature the proteins and thus more nutritional value will be maintained

i like crock pots, stews are easy and delicious and warm

buy a crockpot. i wouldn't leave it stewing unattended, but they're basically zero-maintenance save for a cooking timer.

"Vitamins and other trace nutrients are lost, particularly from vegetables, partially by enzyme action during cooking."


Thanks, but the wiki disagrees with you. Can you update the wiki so that it agrees with you?

rockmonkey

Whichever way it leans I don't think it's a big enough issue to worry about unless you plan on eating every single meal out of the crockpot.

Using it to cook 4-5 meals a week seems like a grand ol' idea to me, you can make stew, chili, all kinds of nifty appetizers like cheese dip or those lil' smokies.

Just remember that it's almost the end of March and depending on where you live if it gets real hot during the summer months you might not feel like eating heavy stews and chili on a real hot day.

EggyToast

Dude, you say you like hot meals but you don't like cooking. Cooking alters food -- that's why it tastes different and has a different consistency from raw. Don't worry about minute changes in the chemical composition of certain nutrients. Just keep this in mind -- cooking changes food, otherwise we wouldn't cook it.

Crockpots are great, you just need to have time to set them up. As in, I can cook a pot of chili on the stove in about an hour, and it's good. The same chili takes about 3-4 hours in the crockpot, simply because of the lower temperature, and I still tend to fry some elements up beforehand (meat, onions). They're very good if you like stews and saucy things, but you still gotta spend time getting a recipe together, chopping things, etc.

KingMoo

Rhino wrote: »

a) I'm not good at cooking
b) I enjoy hot meals
c) I do NOT enjoy burning down my house while my food cooks unintended.

a) can you stick a chicken in a pot?
b) don't we all
c) so is it the food or the house that you're worried about? I wouldn't worry about either. Crockpots are like little pieces of heaven... and heaven doesn't burn down people's houses.

juggerbot

If you live in an industrialized country, you really don't have to worry about vitamins and minerals. If your not going hungry, your getting enough.

I love my crockpot. You can find entire cookbooks devoted to just crockpots. A lot of them are pretty repetitive, but easy enough to do. Here's a favorite of mine.

Beer Brats

6 brats
oil
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
a can or two of beer

Heat up oil. Add brats and garlic. Brown each side of brats. Pierce skin of brats. Cook them a minute or two longer to absorb flavor then transfer to crockpot. Add beer until about 2 inches over brats. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Yum.

Snake

If I'm not mistaken don't crock pots take hours to cook foods that are not fully cooked already? The wife and I wanted to try one of those ready-to-cook crockpot meals in the frozen section and the directions said to cook for 7 hours.

AlyceInWonderland

Snake wrote: »

If I'm not mistaken don't crock pots take hours to cook foods that are not fully cooked already? The wife and I wanted to try one of those ready-to-cook crockpot meals in the frozen section and the directions said to cook for 7 hours.

Yeah...that's why you prepare it in the morning and let it cook through out the day.

I've been using a crock pot for years, and it's perfectly safe to leave it on and go do stuff through out the day.

MuddBudd

I like my crockpot but I honestly don't think I've used it since I made mulled wine at thanksgiving.