5
General Cooking Advice
1. Cut root vegetables into small size as possible, preferably 5mm. as
vegetables take a longer time to cook in a slow cooker. Vegetables should be
placed on the bottom or against the sides of the bowl. Ensure that they are in
the hottest part and are completely immersed during cooking. You may like to
saute or partly boil root vegetables before cooking them in the slow cooker.
2. Trim excess fat from meat before cooking as the slow cooking method does
not extract fat away from the meat.
3. As a general guide,"HIGH" temperature requires 7 to 8 hours and "LOW"
temperature requires from 9 to 10 hours.
4. Browning food must be done in a separate pan before putting them to the
slow cooker. This helps to lock in juices and improves the color of the food.
5. Use hot liquid when adding stock to the slow cooker as this will reduce the
heating time.
6. Do not lift the glass lid to view the food. This will break the condensation seal
around the lip of the bowl by releasing the heat, and the seal will take some
time, 20 minutes (approximately) to form again thus making cooking time
longer.
7. Ensure that the food or liquid is only until half of the bowl.
8. When braising meat or vegetables in liquid(for example pot roasting), ensure
that the liquid completely covers the food.
9. Be conservative when adding strong flavored herbs and spices. The slow
cooking process retains most flavors and makes the taste very concentrated.
10. If you need to speed up the cooking process, select HIGH and it will reduce to
half of the recommended cooking time.
11. During cooking, start with a thicker sauce, the juices from the meat and
vegetables will make it thin. Alternately, turn the unit to HIGH and stir in a
mixture of corn flour and water 30 minutes before the cooking time hs
completed. Stir continuously until thickened. Be careful to avoid steam burns
in doing this.
12. When the cooking is finished, switch the control knob to the OFF position and
disconnect the plug from the power supply.
13. The slow cooker has a residual heat even if the switch is turned to OFF. If
some of the food is to be eaten at a later time, turn the control knob to WARM
and leave the cooker on.
