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Crock pot help
ceres
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
I know crock pots are supposed to be the easiest thing in the world, but embarrassingly somehow I am managing to fuck it up anyway. I've only used it for beef so far as I don't eat pork. I've made meat in it three times, and all three have been messed up in at least one way.
First of all, tonight my meat came out very dry. I covered it with water like the instructions say, and the very second I removed it from the pot it was like shoe leather and I'm not sure why. Tonight's meat was a couple of lower-quality sirloin cuts.
Second, and this has happened every time, by the time it's finished cooking it smells really really bad. Like deeply sour, maybe even rancid. Usually I try to get a little fancy with the flavoring, but tonight I decided to just use the usual veggies (potato, carrot, onion) with some salt and pepper in the hopes of avoiding the smell, and it came out smelling the same way. I love onion and use it pretty liberally when it's called for, but at this point my only guess is that the onion is the culprit here. The thing is, when I was staying with my mom we did a pot roast, and we used the same combination of veggies but it didn't come out anything like this. It just smelled really good. Previous attempts on my own were with a brisket and a chuck round.
Trying to use the crock pot is a switch for me, as normally if I can't cook it in a frying pan I'm not interested, but I'm getting frustrated and I'm tired of wasting money trying to make this work when I have so far found the results inedible. Can anyone tell me what is going wrong, or maybe give me clearer instructions than the crock pot manual?
First of all, tonight my meat came out very dry. I covered it with water like the instructions say, and the very second I removed it from the pot it was like shoe leather and I'm not sure why. Tonight's meat was a couple of lower-quality sirloin cuts.
Second, and this has happened every time, by the time it's finished cooking it smells really really bad. Like deeply sour, maybe even rancid. Usually I try to get a little fancy with the flavoring, but tonight I decided to just use the usual veggies (potato, carrot, onion) with some salt and pepper in the hopes of avoiding the smell, and it came out smelling the same way. I love onion and use it pretty liberally when it's called for, but at this point my only guess is that the onion is the culprit here. The thing is, when I was staying with my mom we did a pot roast, and we used the same combination of veggies but it didn't come out anything like this. It just smelled really good. Previous attempts on my own were with a brisket and a chuck round.
Trying to use the crock pot is a switch for me, as normally if I can't cook it in a frying pan I'm not interested, but I'm getting frustrated and I'm tired of wasting money trying to make this work when I have so far found the results inedible. Can anyone tell me what is going wrong, or maybe give me clearer instructions than the crock pot manual?
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You'll get better results if you let it go for several hours at the lowest setting, assuming you have one with high and low settings.
The shoe leather problem could be either it dried out due to not enough water, or possibly it wasn't cooked long enough to soften it up?
As for the sour taste you're getting I'm really at a loss. The only thing I could maybe guess is that the enamel coating inside the pot might be coming off, which could lend some odd flavors to your food. Or maybe your water has issues that are only evident when it is simmered down for long periods of time.
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Also, brown your meat, first. Definitely helps with flavor and may help with the other issues.
as for the sour taste - at the very least, it's not the onions. it sounds like you're getting bad meat, frankly. some retailers are just lazy and careless and will happily keep meat until it's well past its prime - and sell it to you, time and time again. your best bet is to find the largest, most popular butcher around. it might take you a while to find the right place to reliably get great meat - it's actually harder than it sounds sometimes, despite how much of it we tend to eat - but it'll be worth the effort, and you'll save money on wastage in the long run.
The sour taste/bad smell isn't normal, you might try just throwing some water in your crock and turning it on to see if it happens again, to figure out if it might be your water or your crockpot. Otherwise it could have been a bad ingredient.
When I first got a crockpot, my mother gave me a small cookbook dedicated to crockpot recipes, from the Company's Coming series written by Jean Pare. While at times a little heavy on the canned goods, I've never had one of their recipes turn out poorly. They've got a number of their crockpot recipes posted for free on their site.
As far as making pot roast, this is what I usually do with strong success:
-1st, get a good cut of beef from your local grocery store and don't be afraid to spend a little more than usual. The good thing about a crocpot is that it makes a LOT of food, getting a 9-12 dollar cut of meat is usually what I anticipate for this kind of dish because in the end you have at least twice the amount of meals between the beef, veggies, and stock left over.
-2nd, brown it for several minutes in a skillet, make sure your beef is well seared before you put it in the crock pot, this will both enhance the flavor (especially if you are cooking in seasoned oil or with a dry rub) as well as lock in the juices as it cooks.
-3rd, use half red wine (or a medium bodied lager) and half purified water in your stock. This not only adds flavor, but also ensures your potential water problems aren't going to tint your flavors. For most crock pot recopies (especially pork and chicken) cooking with beer or wine is essential as it imparts a lot of flavor.
-4th, Don't overcook it. If the recipe calls for 4 hours on high, only do that. If it is 8 hours on low, only do 8 hours on low! While some crocpot recipes call for whenever you like on time (such as pasta sauces and certain stock dishes), overcooking a meat will give you mush, especially if you are adding carrots and onions.
-5th, Make sure your veggies are well washed (especially the potatoes). I've had a bad potato taint an entire dish on more than one occasion. Smell them before you add them to the dish, and if they smell henky toss them. With most roasts I pass on potatoes for carrots, onions, bay leaf, sometimes turnips or occasionally a few types of asian root veggies (like Japanese radish) or Bok choi added in the last five minutes before serving. When I use potatoes, usually I make mashed and serve the roast and some of the stock on top.
As for being tough, eh, no matter what kind of meat you use, it's almost entirely caused by cooking it wrong. With meats you'll want to put the fat on top, so that it renders through the meat as it cooks and keep it moist. Browning the roast is a good idea too. Lightly butter a pan and sear all the sides for about 30-60seconds each.
Not sure how much water you put in, but typically you want to be about halfway up the meat with it. Last but not least, don't ever cook on high. Cook on the lowest setting for as long as you can. Don't use the "timer" on the crockpot to know when it's done. It's done when it's done. But most of the times that's 6-8 hours, always on the lowest setting, never use medium or high.
Even if it isn't a "slow-cooker" type cut of meat, it should still cook in a slow cooker relatively easily. People smoke lots of types of meats, that's basically the same as crockpot cooking without the moisture.
This is actually how my girlfriend and I do corned beef and cabbage, turns out pretty amazing, so, I imagine a sirloin would as well with this method.
Rest your meat on the veggies.
Also with Bowen's suggestion above, I don't think my meat is ever completely submerged, usually about halfway. I think I usually stick with about 1.5-2.5 cups of liquid with something like a 4 pound pork butt/ beef roast or 2 pounds of chicken breasts
I use it pretty much exclusively for chicken and pork now. Cook chicken/pork with a little water, spices, liquid smoke, booze. Wait 6-8 hours, drain, shred and add BBQ sauce.
Put in chicken breasts with a can of enchilada sauce, wait 6 hours or so, shred it, add some sour cream and have chicken enchiladas or put it on nachos.
Cook chicken breasts + chicken broth, shred, add bottle of franks red and some sour cream for buffalo chicken dip
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Something like a meatloaf you'd probably avoid adding liquid, maybe brushing it with some ketchup or BBQ sauce just to keep it from being completely dried out. Obviously a meatloaf in the crockpot you'd also want to top with bacon.
If your meat is a bit more gamey, like a corned beef brisket, yeah, you'll want a lot of water because it'll turn into rawhide when it's done even at low heat.
For the weird smell, I'd try two things. First, give the crockpot a good scrubbing, just to make sure there's nothing lurking in there. Second, try filtering your water. I don't know what kind of water you've got in your house, but if it's got sulfur in it, that could give you a weird taste and smell. As an alternative to filtering the water, you could also try using a can of beef broth instead of water.
I've done pot roasts with and without the vegetables. I've never noticed a strange smell or taste either way, so I doubt they're causing the problem, but you could try doing the meat on its own just to eliminate the variable.
When I do a pot roast in the crockpot, I do this:
Ingredients:
3 to 4 pound chuck roast
1 can beef broth
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder (not garlic salt)
water
Put all the ingredients in the crockpot. Use enough water to bring the level of the liquid to just below the top of the meat. Set the crockpot to low. Cook for 8 hours minimum. 10 hours is better.
I've tried browning the meat first, but by the time it sits in liquid all day, I find that the browning has washed off. I think using the beef broth gets the same or better flavor without the hassle.
By the way, the liquid from that recipe makes great gravy if you seperate the fat and add some sort of starch for thickening.
Cut of meat will have alot to do with how your food comes out. I generally suggest you pick a cut of meat that has a decent amount of fat on it, but sometimes its just a bum piece of meat.
If you want to experiment, try a chicken dish and see if the smell is still there. If not, then your beef was bad.
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But I agree with many folks above, the type of meat you use is very important. Sirloin isn't fatty enough. Chuck is your best bet if you're not using pork. Maybe you're cooking it too long, or not have enough liquids? Are you just setting it to high for the entire time? Some recipes call for high for 1-2 hours, and then 6-7 hours on low.
Sometimes instead of adding loads of water, we'd throw in a can/bottle of good beer and other jams/sauces to help break down the meat and add flavor.
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To start with, I think I'm going to run a few controlled experiments with the crock pot. Tonight I'm running it on high (for speed) with just bottled water to see if I can reproduce the smell. If that doesn't do it, I'm going to try the tap water (filtered) we've been using. If that doesn't get it either, I'm going to try beef stock. If that doesn't do it, I have to face the fact that it's something I'm putting in there I think.. I'm just not sure what.
I feel like it would be less trouble to just buy a new crock pot, but if that's not it then I haven't fixed anything.
If anyone has any other ideas, keep them coming. I would certainly feel better if the device was defective somehow. :P
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i'm assuming your meat's frozen, then? i mean, i'm really sensitive with taste and smell so if i've bought meat and use it more than a day later, it pretty well invariably tastes or smells off to me. did you freeze it right away? how are you defrosting it? it's also possible that the long, slow cooking revealed bad meat when quickly frying it (especially if it's masked by some kinda marinade) might not be so bad.
i'm convinced it's your meat that's the problem... in case you didn't notice. i don't think you'll learn much from heating up plain water, but if you try a basic veggie stock - carrots, onions, celery, salt, pepper, maybe some dried mushrooms - and are getting a flavour that's anything but benign, you can start thinking about your equipment. but i don't reckon that's a likely problem. worry about your product. the most delicious steak in the world might be cooked over hot coals on the back of a dung-crusted shovel. it's the produce itself that ends up in your mouth.
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Personally, I hate crock pots, so I'd just do the former.
Is there something specific you want to do with the meat that you got a crock pot for, ceres? Almost anything a crock pot can do you can replicate with foil, a cookie sheet and a conventional range.
The reason i hate crock pots is that they can & will absolutely ruin some pork dishes, like ribs. My God. I used to know people that would stick whole racks of ribs into their damn crock pot and let it cook for 6 hours. "Fall right off the bone!" "Yeah. Too bad they taste like rubber because all of the flavor was left in the stew that's sitting at the bottom of the fucking crock pot."
You probably shouldn't judge a device on how it gets used by people who are apparently doing it wrong. I use our crock pot at least once a week, usually more often than that. Last week I did ribs for the first time. 1whole rack that got a dry rub I like and a thin coating of a homemade barbecue sauce. Cooked for, yep, 6 hours. At the end I took the liquid from the crock pot and reduced it down on the stovetop, then used it to lightly baste the ribs which went under the broiler for about 20 minutes.
Were they as good as the ribs I do on my smoker? No, but they were better than expected and something I would absolutely make again when lack of time to monitor or weather conditions make using the smoker impossible.
I do all kinds of stews and soups in the crock pot, along with dishes like pulled pork or chicken, pork chops in fruit compote, pasta sauces with meatballs and sausage, macaroni and cheese or sloppy joes for our little guy, and so on... As long as you're willing to put in a little extra time at the beginning to brown your meat if necessary, or soften and brown onions, garlic and aromatics, you can make plenty of great, tasty dishes in a crock pot.
I'd never used one prior to August of last year, when we bought one to use while waiting on all of our kitchen utensils and supplies to arrive after a very long move. Now it's something I wouldn't want to live without. Being able to prep a good meal early while my son is napping and not have to worry about keeping him entertained while cooking and away from sharp knives or hot pots or ovens is reason enough.
Next up: exploring options for the pressure cooker
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I skimped out on the one with the timer and it frustrates me at least once a month.
as long as you follow a few simple steps you can create a tasty, cheap dish out of almost any kind of meat in the crock pot. my rules are:
-buy fatty. pork shoulder, 80/20 ground beef, chicken thighs or drumsticks, that sort of thing. chicken breasts are to be avoided.
-add veggies. you know how most recipes for a stock call for carrots, celery, onion (or even leeks, shallots, and mushrooms)? in a crock pot, they basically turn into stock
-don't use too much liquid. this can be tricky to judge, but remember: raw stuff releases moisture when cooked. onions release a bunch, so do most fatty cuts of meat. you don't want it totally submerged by the end
-par-cook. brown your roast; brown your beef and drain the fat; brown your chicken breasts.take the 10 minutes to do this before throwing it in the crock pot, and you'll be rewarded. ( if you have time, roast your root veggies. trust me on this one)
-spice liberally. long, moist cooking breaks down a lot of flavors. spices help build them back up. dried herbs are fine, fresh ones lose their freshness in that environment.
-make enough for leftovers. this is the most important part. because the only thing better than getting an effortless meal out of your crock pot, is getting three or four. you can always freeze it!
I got a small 3qt crock pot for $7 a few years ago on Black Friday at Target, you can find some good deal next week. Get thee a new crock pot!
If you go for a new one I use this basic slow cooker and it has been extremely reliable and we've made many successful dishes in it. Lack of a timer is a bit of a pain but not a big deal.
Typically when cooking meat, I'm using either pork shoulder or chuck roast. Sirloin really isn't a good cut for slow cooker, you want something cheaper, with some connective tissue and fat. I splash some olive oil in the bottom of the dish, put in some roughly sliced up onion to sit the meat on top of and then add a couple of cups of stock. Unless you're making stew there's no need to submerge your meat.
I tend to apply a spice rub the meat and brown it before putting in the slow cooker. It adds some nice flavour.
Oh yeah, and for breakfasts, steel cut oats in the slow cooker is awesome.
It sounds like a moldy contaminant to me. Spritz it with a little dilute peroxide, wash and dry it, and then put it in the hot sun on a dry day (lid off).
Then wash it again.
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