Took me 5 years to figure out I was overfilling my slow cooker every damn time

I used to load that thing to the brim with cheap cuts of beef and whatever veggies were on sale. Figured more food meant more meals, right? One night last winter I was making a pot roast for a potluck and only filled it halfway because I ran out of carrots. The meat came out fork tender in like 4 hours instead of the usual 8. My buddy Dave who cooks for a living took one bite and asked why my stews always tasted boiled before. That's when it clicked I was basically drowning everything in liquid and packing it so tight nothing could cook right. Now I keep it to 2/3 full max and use way less broth. Has anyone else been doing this wrong for years before realizing? What else am I missing about basic cooking?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicecooper2d ago

Bit dramatic calling it five years of your life wasted over a slow cooker. You figure out one thing about meat and now it's a revelation. People act like they discovered fire when they learn not to cram a crock pot full. Plenty of folks fill theirs to the top and their food comes out fine, just takes longer. If you were drowning it in liquid that's on you, not the cooker. Dave probably said something once and you ran with it like it's gospel.

tara_jones942d ago

@alicecooper you're acting like this is nothing but overfilling a slow cooker really messes with how heat circulates. The steam needs room to move around or you basically steam everything instead of braising it. I had the same issue for years until my mom watched me fill one up one time and told me I was treating it like a storage bin not a cooking pot. She showed me that keeping it between half and two thirds full lets the heat wrap around everything evenly. Less liquid too, like you said, just enough to come up halfway on the meat. Once I stopped drowning everything suddenly my roasts stopped tasting like boiled socks and actually got that fall apart texture you want.