Simmer Down

The slow cooker is a blast from the past, and a boon for the modern kitchen

By Laura Leon

Somewhere recently I saw an article touting the top food trends of 2007. First among them was slow cooking, which at first I thought was a reference to the “slow food” movement, which was begun a few years back as a resistance to fast food and a rescue of local and regional traditions. Then I saw the illustration, that of a squat ceramic cookpiece with a glass top, and I realized in an ah so moment that this is the return of the Crock-Pot.

Look back in your past, at least if you’re in your 40s, and you’ll probably remember your mother extolling the virtues of the Crock-Pot (which is a registered trademark; in cookbooks and on Web sites, the device also is commonly referred to, generically, as a crockpot). The energy crunch and recession of the early ’70s gave my parents carte blanche to re-option the ways of their Depression-era youth. Soon, our formica counter in our kitchen was home to an unwieldy monstrosity that we were warned to stay away from, and under no circumstances, ever, were we to open the lid. Fear of imminent explosion was enough to keep her ever-hungry brood away—no easy feat, as we were usually furtively sneaking spaghetti sauce or chili while either simmered away—but it also gave rise to our inherent suspicion over both the device and whatever came out of it, even if it did taste good.

When I struck out on my own, my mother gave me those three devices every girl needs with which to conquer the world: a coffee maker, a mixer, and a Crock-Pot. While the first two wore out before long, the Crock-Pot sat in a closet, over time joined by the many cookbooks Mom sent along to help me use it. The books themselves were simply ghastly, unappealing in their proud-to-be-low-budget way, and the recipes therein were similarly awful-sounding. Lots of Velveeta, canned soups, and powdered packets, as I remember, made up the bulk of the ingredients list. At some point, I just threw the Crock-Pot in the trash can.

Then, years later, here I am with four kids, two travel soccer teams, a full-time job, a rule about home-cooked meals, and very little time. My Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine gave me the first idea, that perhaps ridding myself of the Crock-Pot had been unwise. During the holiday season a few years back, an issue included four recipes to be cooked in what is now more commonly known as the slow cooker. (Besides the trademark issue, this marketing shift may also reflect that fact that the word crockpot sounds, well, silly. Or maybe it’s the similarity to Betty Crocker.) Still, the device is a large ceramic cooking pot, which is inserted into a sort of canister, often decorated with Amish or ’70s-looking flowers, though more and more is made of stainless steel. Today’s slow cooker comes in different sizes, but generally speaking, it’s a big, cumbersome piece of equipment.

So, I bought one. And while it made me somewhat nervous to leave the device on, unattended, for up to eight hours, it more than proved its mettle when our tired and famished family returned late one night from a soccer game. There, in front of us, was the handy slow cooker, its glass lid nice and steamy, and all around us was the aroma of a very good dinner. Suddenly, busy weeks with evening soccer games became cause for hauling out the slow cooker; but while everybody liked the results, I soon got bored with my four Everyday Food recipes.

Only very recently has it become somewhat easier to find recipes for the slow cooker that I would even consider. By that I mean recipes for the types of food I would normally make, or, in my mother’s words, “fancy schmantzy.” In other words, hold the canned cream-of-mushroom soup, etc. Slow cookers are very good for turning lower-priced cuts of meat like beef brisket or pork shoulder into amazingly tender, even elegant dishes, but people of my generation aren’t necessarily adept at translating a “regular” recipe to something that works in the slow cooker. After asking several “old timers” (sorry, sis) and other foodies for advice, I’ve determined that, in translating a recipe for use in the slow cooker, the amount of liquid needs to be reduced by almost a quarter, and fresh herbs by half. Still, there’s the tricky timing factor.

While I continue to work that one out, I have been lucky enough to begin finding better recipes in a variety of sources. Everyday Food typically has at least one if not two issues per year that contain a few, and the Food Network’s Web site lists hundreds of possibilities. In sorting out what works and what doesn’t, I find I’m getting closer to the source of what cooking is about, about understanding the very nature of ingredients and how they break down. Interestingly, my explorations with the slow cooker have inspired me to reread whole sections of Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking, especially those that relate to how meats and vegetables break down with heat.

I’m constantly amazed at the utter simplicity of throwing into the crock wedges of onion and potato, stewed tomatoes, whole garlic cloves, rosemary, salt and pepper, and beef chuck, turning the darn thing on, and coming home hours later to a sumptuous stew. OK, full disclosure: With meats like beef and pork, I prefer to brown first in olive oil atop the stove, just because I like the looks and taste of the nice brown crust that envelops. I sometimes do that with vegetables, particularly if I’m doing a vegetarian main course. And with regard to just pushing a button, depending on when my family is going to eat, I might get everything ready to go, then have my husband stop home from his nearby office to flip the switch at the appropriate moment.

Regarding those vegetarian main courses, I lucked into a handy cookbook for such recently, and began trying some of the recipes out on my family. The black-bean chili and vegetarian lasagna were remarkably moist and velvety, but some recipes were too dry. Once again, my slow cooker is goading me into research—in this case, figuring out how to add or replace the moisture and flavors that, in other recipes, might come from the juices of meat proteins. One part family cook, one part mad scientist.

A recent Gourmet magazine features an article by Jane Smiley in which she writes about how her Crock-Pot inspired her to use up odd tidbits of cheese and potatoes in her larder. She, too, has made a few culinary missteps along the way, but more often, has been happily rewarded by a meal fit for a queen, with very little effort. Interestingly, I also recently came across an article called “Fast Slow Cooking,” and had to laugh—why would one wish to instill a misguided sense of urgency in the art of slow cooking? While it was some sort of urgency that brought me to the point at which I considered, and then purchased, my slow cooker, its underlying purpose has been to provide us with a richly deserved reward, combining nurture and virtue with a big helping of yum, at the end of a long day of doing other things. This is not your mother’s Crock-Pot, but then again, in a certain very real sense, it is.

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