All day crock pot cooking

FF

My gf and I are usually away from the house 10-12 hours a day on the weekdays. Getting home around 7-7:30pm doesn't leave much time for cooking so I'd like to just dump stuff in the crock pot and let it go all day.

However, most recipes I find to make don't require cooking that long (10-12) hours. Am I going to be stuck only using the few recipes that take that long to cook or will leaving something on low for a few extra hours going to be ok?

Also, if anyone has any recipes that may fit the bill I'd love to see 'em.

DHS Odium

Hmm, is there a crock pot model that allows a delay before it starts cooking? I know normally it's 4 hours for fast items, and 8 hours for the slow ones. In my experience, leaving it for 10-12 will make everything too mushy.

FF

No delay...though I suppose I could get one of those plug in timers.

Actually, why didn't I think of that before...

Thylacine

lol, I was actually about to suggest the plug in timer. I have one for my lizard's cage to turn the lights on and off, and it works just fine.

I'd just be careful though. You don't want to leave meat out more than 4 hours...but maybe it's okay if it's just a few hours and then it cooks, I suppose that would kill anything that might have started.

RUNN1NGMAN

The Washington Post had a whole thing on crock-pot cooking in the Food section a week or two ago--they had some recipes and pointers for the crock-pot newbs. It might help

Tomanta

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OP: Plug-in timer is probably the best bet unless you can find a crock pot with that as a built in feature, or can get home on a break to start it.

Sparticus773

My favorate dinner is crock-potted spaghetti sauce with a special ingrediant.

-hard boil a couple of eggs, and plop them into the sauce at the very beginning. By the time you are ready to eat it at the end of the day, the white of the eggs will be a delicious pink/red. the egg soaks in the sauce and it's flavor, crumble them up with your fork and enjoy.


sooo good.

YourFatAuntSusan

My favourite crock pot recipe is one of those little oven chickens you can buy, the 5-7lb ones. Drop it in the crock pot with a chopped up onion and a spice rub of paprika, garlic, pepper and olive oil. No need to add water as it will make it's own juices.

I leave the house at 8am and don't get home until 7pm. It's absolutely perfect. Mmmmm, I want to go make one now.

RUNN1NGMAN

Tomanta wrote: »

Do... do you want to sell us some adjustable dumbells, too?

Haha...what?!?

Tomanta

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

Tomanta wrote: »

Do... do you want to sell us some adjustable dumbells, too?

Haha...what?!?

Bah, the shills post has been deleted. Now mine just doesn't make sense. Not that it would make sense anyway unless you also saw the shill in the adjustable dumbell thread a few days ago, too.

Richard M. Nixon

One thing to be concerned about with using a timer is that once food is left out for more than I think 2 hours outside the food safety zone you get some mad bacterial growth.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/tipcon/picnice.shtml

Since crock pots keep it over 60C for pretty much the entire time, that's why they're safe. I would be extremely hesitant to leave something out on a timer like that. Food poisoning is no fun.

Edit; Many soups will survive just fine for a 10 hour ride in the crock pot. We've done some chicken soups overnight in ours.

DrZiplock

One of the joys of using a crockpot that is if you go a few hours over the guide times, who cares.

It won't really burn the food, it may just make things more tender.

If you've got a sauce, sure, it'll reduce it, but a few hours isn't going to kill anything on the lowest temperature.

It's a crockpot, my friend, just play until you find stuff that you like. Can't really go wrong at all!

LaPuzza

BBQ Pork Butt is a great choice.

bigpanda

LaPuzza wrote: »

BBQ Pork Butt is a great choice.

Yeah, I do this from time to time and it's pretty good. Just pick up some cole-slaw and some cheap ass white bread or buns to put it on and make sure to use a good bbq sauce that you like. Unfortunately I haven't found any sauce I like that's off store shelves, I usually have to buy it from a restaurant back home and have it shipped here. (totally worth it though)

But yeah, cut up some onion in big chunks and layer it on the bottom. put in the port butt, pour some bbq sauce on it and let it go. When you get back, pull it out, break it up and put it back in with the rest of the bbq sauce and give it another 15 minutes to heat though.

AresProphet

You can probably leave anything that's soupy on low for 12 hours or so without rendering it utterly inedible. I've done it with chili and spaghetti sauce, though I'd advise against trying it on anything with veggies in it unless you like mush. Potatoes might hold up, maybe.

Try it once or twice with something that isn't likely to dry out and burn (i.e. avoid pot roast). You might just need to add a little extra water to keep things from getting overcooked.

You're unlikely to burn your house/apartment down by leaving it on low for anything less than 24 hours with nothing in it, if you're worried about safety.

shutz

I don't know about other models or what the OP has, but my crockpot (which I got as a christmas present a few weeks ago, and used once, last week, to make a basic beef pot roast) switches to "keep warm" once the cooking is done. It's supposed to keep the food warm enough to prevent anything bad from developing, but without prolonging the cooking. Check your cooker's manual to see if it does this, it would probably be a better option than using a timer.

Also, a lot of recipes suggest "high" (short) and "low" (long) timings, and since most slow-cooker recipes tend to be even better when cooked longer, always go for the "low" setting. The pot roast I made used a 1kg slab of beef, and was supposed to take between 8 and 10 hours (I stopped it at 8 hours, and it was great, but I doubt the extra two hours would have adversely affected it.)