11 Foods You Should Never Put in a Slow Cooker
August 29, 2024
source: Reddit
Slow cooker recipes are amazing and everyone would want to come home to the aroma of food that has been prepared in a slow cooker. The heat wraps around the house and it is like the dinner has been preparing for you to come and sit down and eat it. I still remember the first time that I had the privilege of using a slow cooker. I had just graduated school, lived in a small apartment and was ready to prove to the world that I was independent. My mom gave me her old Crock-Pot which had been used to prepare food for our family for so many years. It became my most used appliance. Add all the ingredients and set it on low heat and in eight hours you will have your next meal.
But one time, I was craving for some hot and heavy meal and so I thought of preparing a beef stew. It required a handful of fresh herbs which I had chopped and threw into the pot, besides some crumbled bacon to give it a good flavor. I put the food into the slow cooker and continued with my activities looking forward to the tasty stew that I would eat later that evening. But when I got home it was not what I had in my mind to expect. Instead of a delicious and aromatic soup that I had in mind, I was given a kind of gray, rather tasteless and even slightly bitter meal that was not what I wanted to have. What I learned is that slow cookers are really useful in saving time but not all foods can be prepared in slow cookers. I discovered that there are some things you should never cook in a slow cooker.
Dairy
There are certain foods that are not suitable to be prepared in slow cookers and dairy products are one of them. Some of the dairy products such as milk, cream and cheese are known to curdle when cooked in a crockpot because of the long cooking time. Once I had a misfortune to put the cream into the soup at the beginning of cooking. Finally, I was left with watery and curdled liquid that had the cream at the bottom.
Seafood
Seafood is very delicate and can become overcooked in a slow cooker and this makes shrimp, fish or scallops become rubbery and not enjoyable to eat. Once I tried to make seafood stew in my slow cooker thinking it will make the process easier. What I received instead was shrimp that were overcooked and chewy and did not have that appealing texture to it. When cooking a particular dish, you may need to include seafood; this should be done in the final one hour of cooking.
Fresh Herbs
Some of the herbs that are used in preparing meals include parsley, basil and cilantro which are best used when fresh since they have a bitter taste when cooked on low heat for a long time. It is better to introduce them at the last steps of the cooking process so that they will not lose their taste. To bring out the real taste of herbs in your dish, use the dried ones, for the reason that they last long in the cooking process.
Alcohol
If there is one thing that is not to be done when cooking in a slow cooker, then it is to add wine or beer to a dish as it does add an extra dimension of flavor to it. The problem is the alcohol doesn’t get an opportunity to evaporate the way it would if the mixture was heated in a pot over the stove for instance. This means that your dish may develop an interesting, quite possibly unpleasant flavor of alcohol. If the recipe has a bit of alcohol, it is advised to cook the alcohol first on the pan then add to the slow cooker.
Rice
Do not prepare rice in a slow cooker. It has a tendency of sticking on the bottom of the pan and burn, making it to have a very poor texture that is neither fluffy nor crispy. If you want to prepare any of those dishes with rice, you should avoid adding the rice into the slow cooker as it is best that you cook the rice separately and incorporate it near the end of the cooking time.
Pasta
Also, pasta does not do well when prepared in a slow cooker. Under intense heat it becomes soft and doesn’t look very appealing to eat. I was able to learn this the hard way when I once tried to make lasagna in the slow cooker. The noodles became soggy and stuck together into a single massive portion that resembled a grayish. paste.
Leafy Greens
Some of the delicate green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale or arugula should not be cooked for long especially on low heat as they tend to lose their texture and become soft and watery. They end up as lumps that are not pleasant to the eye and will not improve the looks of your food.
Delicate Vegetables
There are some vegetables that do not work well in slow cooking such as zucchini, bell peppers and asparagus. They become soft and tasteless after quite some time of being cooked. These are some of the most sensitive vegetables; it is best to incorporate them towards the final stages of the cooking process.
Lean Meats
Some of the lean meats like chicken breasts or pork loin become very dry in a slow cooker and turn out to be tough and tasteless. Slow cookers are particularly suitable for gravy cuts, fatty cuts or beef chuck or pork shoulder, for instance because they become tender and juicy after a long time of cooking. If you have to use lean meat, then you should ensure that you add liquid or fats to increase tenderness of the meat.
Bacon and Crispy Ingredients
Searing bacon or onions with other food in a slow cooker may seem like a good idea, but by the time the meal is ready, the bacon or onions will be soft and not crispy. Some guidelines that can be followed include adding foods that are likely to become soft such as the crispy ones towards the last process of cooking or just before serving to enhance their crispiness.
Too Much Liquid
This one is a bit of a technicality, it’s not about a certain item of the list but rather the quantity of the liquid you are going to use. Slow cookers do not have much evaporation so if you put a lot of liquid at the beginning of cooking your food will be too soft. Starting off with a smaller amount is preferable.
While slow cookers are a great tool to use when making juicy and tender foods with rich taste and requiring no much effort, not every food is good for slow cooking. When using the slow cooking method for preparing a dish, ensure that the ingredients used can be cooked for long while the delicate foods which easily get overcooked should be sautéed on the stove.