Have you ever wondered why crockpot recipes seem a little vague about the total cooking time?
Most, in fact, have a range of an hour, some have two hours, and you even occasionally run across a recipe citing a three-hour time span. Gasp.
And, personally speaking, I don’t think it’s of much help to notice a weak attempt to wobble it into workable shape by having tacked on “or until,” as in “until the gravy or sauce has thickened” or “until the meat is tender.”
Until those necessary whatevers have actually happened, dinner isn’t ready. It just isn’t, is it?
And an hour (or even more, twitch and shudder) of hovering over the bubbling pot, waiting for the “or until” doesn’t really cut it, not when the family is gathered around the table, bored and banging their utensils on their empty plates. Muttering while they starve, too.
Well, girls and boys, slow-cooking expert JoAnn Rachor is going to take a lot of this guesswork out of crockpot cookery for us, right this very minute.
Author of the new “Fast Cooking in a Slow Cooker Every Day of the Year,” she started her research with the purchase and testing of 25 slow cookers, discovering they didn’t all take the same length of time to cook.
Starting with a one-pound bag of navy beans, with the cookers all set on low, she ended up with three categories. The “average” slow cooker took 9 to 91/2 hours and needed 5 cups of water to cook the pound of beans. The “fast” slow cookers took 8 to 81/2 hours and required 51/2 cups of water. The “extra-fast” slow cookers only took 61/2 to 7 hours and used 51/2 cups of water.
This is exactly the test JoAnn recommends we do with our own crockpots. Then, hopefully and supposedly, the meal will be ready when we are.
“Fast Cooking in a Slow Cooker” contains 300 tested, low-fat, cholesterol-free recipes designed to fit almost any size of cooker, plus a wide range of tips and techniques to guarantee success. The book is available at the usual online booksellers such as www.amazon.com.
Now, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, let’s take a taste of this book:
Maple almond sweet potatoes
Peeled sweet potatoes or yams, cut into 1/2-by-1-inch pieces to measure 6 cups
1/2cup water
1/3cup crushed pineapple
3tablespoons pure maple syrup
3/4teaspoon salt
1/4cup sliced, slivered or chopped almonds
11/2teaspoons vanilla
In a slow cooker that is 21/2 quarts to 7 quarts in size, stir together the sweet potato or yam pieces, water, pineapple, maple syrup and salt. Cover and cook until the potatoes are soft. Mash potatoes and stir in the almonds and vanilla. Delicious, even if you do not add the almonds.
Makes 4 cups.
On low heat, the recipe will take 33/4 hours to 5 hours to cook. An “average” slow cooker will take 41/2 to 5 hours; a “fast” cooker will take 4 to 41/2 hours; and an “extra-fast” cooker will take 33/4 to 41/4 hours.
On high heat, this recipe will take 2 to 23/4 hours to cook. An “average” cooker needs 21/2 to 23/4 hours; a “fast” cooker will take 21/4 to 21/2 hours; and an “extra fast” cooker will take 2 to 21/4 hours.
Tips: The cooker may be plugged into a lamp or appliance timer to begin cooking up to 6 hours later. The potatoes may be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated in a plastic bag until ready to cook. The recipe may be cut in half and prepared in a cooker that is 2 to 4 quarts in size.
The Forum is always happy to receive your contributions and requests, so send them along to Judyrae Kruse at the Forum, c/o The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
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The next Forum will appear in Friday’s Time Out section.
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