If you are pressed for time, a crock pot can be your best friend. The best part about crock pot cooking is that it so incredibly simple. There usually isn’t much more to it than adding the ingredients and turning it on! Nonetheless, here are a few helpful crock pot tips that are good to know.

How To Cook With A Crock Pot

The first tip about crock pot cooking comes before you have even purchased one. If you can, try to buy a crock pot with a removable liner. This will make clean up much easier. All you have to do is remove the liner and wash. Once you are ready to start cooking, follow these crock pot tips for the best success:

• Choose cheap cuts of meat. Though this advice but seem counterintuitive if you are trying to cook a high quality meal, it does make sense. Cheaper cuts tend to have less fat, which means they will do better in the crock pot. Cooking meat in a crock pot generally takes around 8 hours of cooking on low, which means that even a tough piece of meat will turn tender in the crock pot.
• You may be able to essentially dump your ingredients in the pot and go, but remember that there are some good general rules to follow about how you place the ingredients. It takes longer to cook vegetables than meat, so they should be placed where the pot is the warmest – the bottom. Meat goes on top. Some crock pot recipes will have specific layering instructions. Follow them.
• It will be tempting, but try not to open the lid! Every time you lift up the lid to take a whiff of your delicious crock pot creation, you will lose up to 30 minutes of cooking time. And when you’re hungry, those 30 minutes can feel like an eternity.
• If you are very pressed for time in the mornings and want to assemble your crock pot creation the night before and refrigerate it, make you sure you take the fact that your food will be cold into account. Cold food will take longer to warm up than room temperature food, so make sure to give your meal sufficient time to cook. Food is ready and safe to eat when it is tender and its temperature has exceeded 165 degrees.

Source:

• “Frequently Asked Questions”, Crock-Pot.com