Quoted message said:. . .I did notice that some of the people who posted reviews did mention that their unit cooked too hot even at the lowest setting, but I just dismissed this to there are always people complaining just to complain, even if they never even bought the unit... <
Unfortunately it is true that crockpots being manufactured these days
generally cook hotter than they used to. I think there was some flap
about some of the foods not reaching a high enough temperature quickly
enough, so their solution was just to up the mininum temp (CYA).
As far as I can tell, the older minimum temps are fine *as long as*
certain things are not done which will keep all or part of the food at
an unsafe temperature for long (like foods which are not thoroughly
thawed before crockpotting, or foods which have been thawed at room
temp. or left out awhile... it's also suggested to cut up any really
thick solid foods and to turn the pot to high for an hour to up the
temp quicker before going to low:
There's more info here from the USDA:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_013106_01/index.asp
And here's a way to test your particular slow cooker for proper
temperature:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/info-u/nutrition/BJ627.html
Quoted message said:. . .Do the directions mention this? . . .<
Not really <g>...
Actually, we've been having a discussion about this on another message
board also... here is something I wrote there:
The first crockpot I had from long ago was good ("Crockwatcher"😉...
unfortunately, the lid broke at some point, and I haven't found another
lid or other contraption that will be fairly airtight to replace it
with, and which also won't allow the smell to escape all day (which is
hard to deal with, and esp. if you're hungry).
I bought a second crockpot (Proctor Silex), but have not been happy
with it because the same recipes just didn't work as well in it... the
meats/poultry especially tended to dry out too much. After reading a
lot of reviews on crockpots (and slow cookers) at amazon.com, I
discovered that most slow cookers manufactured these days tend to cook
hotter than the older models, so it's hard to really cook foods at the
nice low temp that's good .... boo hoo. I later found another old one
at a garage sale (an old Rival crockpot), so I'm about to try that it.
Quoted message said:. . But there were even more reviewers who said the unit worked perfectly, no overheating at all. . . <
I think this varies some between brands, but also depends alot on what
exactly is being cooked... some things can simmer for hours and still
be fine, but others will suffer.
Diane B.
