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A plea to the universe of cooks out there who love slow cookers! I am trying to use my slow cooker to ensure there is a meal ready for my hungry teenagers by 7 in the evening.  The food would need to be in the slow cooker for 6-10 hours.  So far my results have been disappointing - too much sauce, carrots look murky and sad, meat tender but oddly dry, all aromatic flavours have disappeared, and the dish seems to taste more of the ceramic liner than of any of its ingredients. I also had an unmitigated disaster yesterday trying to cook some large white Spanish beans (previously soaked).  10 hours later and they were still not completely soft.   What am I doing wrong and are there any tips for perking up slow cooker recipes?  Maybe I have been using bad recipes.

I’m not sure that I’m the right person to answer as I feel your pain! Or I have felt it. After some initial disasters with my crock pot, I’ve developed a few recipes that work well. One major issue is that older pots like mine cook at a lower temperature than the modern ones. So my suggestions work for me but I’m not sure how they would do in a modern cooler. Here are my top five recipes...

Lentil and tomato stew from smitten kitchen. I add a bit more liquid (stock or whatever) to make a soup. I cooked on low for about 6-8 hrs.
Heatwave carnitas from The Kitchn. They have since moved and slightly changed the recipe. It can be found by searching slow cooker carnitas I think. Use pork butt or even tenderloins.
I make salt beef in the crock pot. Once it’s brined and rinsed it cooks in there all day.
I found a couple of good recipes on food.com. Red lentil and carrot soup with coconut and family favourite crock pot chilli were both good.

For me, a lot of recipes I tried were terrible. So I have relatively few, but I do most of these about once a month or so. My advice: find a couple of things you like and do them a few times before branching out.

Thank you Eliza!  I have found 3 of the 4 recipes you recommend but not the family favourite chilli one.  I will work my way through them.  Your help is much appreciated.

I think that some of what you're experiencing is not user error! Slow cookers are a great tool but you have to know how and when to use them. My slow cookers are used every week for a variety of cooking, from legumes to baking.

• Aromatic types of flavours tend to dissipate over long cooking time. On the other hand, chilli powder would gain power. Here it's best to add some flavourful element last mintue, e.g. tomato paste or fresh herbs.


• Go cautiously on the liquid since it won't evaporate, or save your dish by cooking it extra with the lid off. Remember that vegetables will release liquid as they cook.


• Acid foods like tomato or some beans can leach lead from slow cooker's ceramic. If the taste is off, this might be a worry.


• I've given up on using the slow cooker for all but quick cooking beans. If the beans are old, it will take 7-10+ hours on high to soften them, even if soaked 24 hours with baking soda. This is when I pull out my pressure cooker most days for beans ready in 20 minutes - if they need longer, it's a question of 5 minutes rather than 3 hours!


• For rice, start it with boiling water and lay baking paper on top of rice to keep down condensation and help with even cooking.

I have found that America's Test Kitchen 'Complete Slow Cooker' is a breakthrough book of techniques/recipes and would recommend any ATK slow cooking book you can find (this one has the most recipes). All the best!

Dear SpatulaClark,

Thank you for being so kind and writing such a comprehensive response!!  Your advice is extremely helpful.  I will certainly look up the America's Test Kitchen book.  I am a Brit so that organisation is not that well known over here but through Eat Your Books I have discovered them.  I like their thorough explanations of why to do things a certain way.  Sometimes you really need the technical background!  I will try adding fresh herbs at the end, as you suggest.  Much appreciated XXX

Thank you Adewar, I'm so glad to hear that the information is helpful! America's Test Kitchen is not much known in Australia either, but I discovered them online and now their recipes have my No.1 trust rating...even their YouTube videos have been educational. Happy cooking!

Thanks for your help to date with slow cooker advice.  My success rate has improved a lot - thanks so much for all your good tips and recipe sources! The current lockdown has provided a perfect opportunity for experimenting more with this device.

I have to second "Not your mother's slow cooker" as being a great resource.  Many good recipes in there, plus lots of general advice for cooking with a slow cooker.

Also good is Rick Rodgers' "Slow cooker ready and waiting".  Though I am not sure that one is still in print? 

Things I always cook in slow cooker:  lentil and other bean soups. "roasted" beets to use in salads later. chicken broth. pot roast.

Cooked dry beans to use in other recipes (I never do on stovetop any more).  And I do use the slowcooker at least once a week!

I don't know about general tips, other than putting veggies in later to avoid getting too mushy, which to me voids the whole purpose of a slow cooker. However, I've made the "Bowl of Red Chili" recipe from Williams-Sonoma website in the slow cooker, and it's fantastic.

(It's not letting me add the link, not sure why)

I added the link to the recipe on the W-S site in MarciK's post above.

Slow-cooker recipes can be a crapshoot for me - even from the same author (for instance, I tend to have good results from Michele Scicoline's French Slow Cooker book, but not so much from her Italian Slow Cooker book.) In general I find the following to be true:

- Recipes with too many liquids tend to be super bland. Some of the best ones I've made had barely any liquid at all, and allowed the meat and vegetables to give off the bulk of the fat/moisture needed. (Great example: this recipe for Bargemen's beef stew where basically all the cooking liquid is thrown off from the onions at the bottom of the cooker.) So cut back on the stock/water in a stew recipe if possible.

- Browning meat is (nearly) essential. It does seem to defeat the purpose of throwing-it-all-in-a-pot-and-forgetting it, but most roasts and stews will really come out best if browned first to lock in the seasonings (and be sure to season them well). 

- Related to the above, a lot of the time I'll brown my meat and throw all the ingredients together in a plastic bag the night before, then dump it all in the slow-cooker before I go to work the next day. That seems to end up giving me more tender/flavorful meat since it has time to marinate.

Rick Bayless's Mexican Every Day books have some fantastic slow-cooker recipes!

Sounds like there is a good selection of slow cooker books! Being vegetarian, I don't use my slow cooker for meat. My top favourite, as mentioned earlier, is Complete Slow Cooker by America's Test Kitchen because of its many techniques and wide range of recipes.

Another book I can recommend is Slow Cooker Vegetarian by Katy Holder. I've made a few recipes and been really pleased with the timing and flavours. I also like the look of recipes I haven't tried yet! Mainly soups, risottos, Indian-style dishes, 'roasted' vegetables and layer bakes...with slow-cooker baked goods at the end of the book.

I also have a copy of Paulene Christie's Slow Cooker Central 2, which has helpful tips and ideas.

I want to say how much I appreciate the comments and experiences everyone is sharing. Although I am vegetarian I cook meat for my family and  I have found to my surprise that chicken wings cook very nicely in the slow cooker, and are evenly cooked, juicy and tender.   The America's Test Kitchen, Complete Slow Cooker, has a section with several chicken wing recipes in it. Some involve quickly finishing off under the grill.

I also had success with the Harissa Lamb Shanks recipe from the same book.  However the meat fell off the bones when I tried to move the shanks, so it became lamb casserole! 

Lockdown has been a good opportunity for me to test slowcooker recipes, as some of them require preparation in the morning, some at lunchtime.  

Stay safe everyone :)