I Don't Want To Spend This Much Time On Slow Cooker. How About You?

Slow Cookers


HOW WE TESTED
A slow cooker promises to be a little fantasy grandmother who sits at the kitchen all day cooking for you, but use the wrong
cooker and that fantasy could
fizzle. A cooker might run hotter than anticipated, drying out the food or turning it mushy, or slower than you want, so dinner is
not ready when you're. Then
There may be problems with hot spots, which make food cook unevenly. And what if operating your machine is so confusing that you
have to pore over the
Manual each time you use it?
For the perfect machine that would provide a properly cooked meal and be completely simple and intuitive to use, we went shopping.
Previous experience
Taught us that glass lids were a must, as they allow you to see progress without losing heat. So were oval-shaped crocks, as these
can accommodate large
Roasts and offer more flexibility than round crocks. We also wanted a generous 6- to 7-quart capacity. With these criteria in
mind, we rounded up eight
models priced from $39.99 to $148.71.
Slow cookers rely on covered moist-heat cooking, so of course we wanted to evaluate how well each model performed the classic task
of turning a tough
But because people use their slow cookers for much more than just braises and stews Nowadays, we would throw a few other recipe
challenges
at them, too. We chose recipes with a assortment of cooking times, using both low and high temperature settings. (Most recipes
give you the option to cook for a
Generally the choice is all about convenience, though fragile foods often require the low setting.)

We started by asking testers to evaluate how easy the slow cookers were to fill, set, turn off, and vacant. Only the lowest priced
model in our lineup had a
Manual controller (a simple dial, with no timer or automatic switch-off). We much preferred digital programmable cookers, which
automatically switched to

However, setting the programmable cookers wasn't always easy. We wanted intuitive controls, but many models had so many buttons
with such confusing
Layouts which our testers could not tell if they'd set them correctly. Then there was the "smart" slow cooker that conducted via a
phone app with such a pared-down
Control panel which it left most testers frustrated and bemused. Still Another cooker's controls let you set just even-numbered
cooking times (2, 6, 4, 8, or 10
Hours and signaled cooking progress with a cryptic set of lights. But one model in particular was a pleasure to use: Its controls
were unambiguous,
Each button clicked satisfyingly and lit up when pressed, and in a few seconds the clock began counting down so you knew it was
running.
Handling the slow cookers presented new challenges. Some handles became red-hot during cooking or were put too near the hot rim of
the home.
While we liked the three products in our lineup that had metal inserts were featherlight and that we did not have to worry about
cracking them, two of
them became too hot to touch. Surprisingly, the heaviest crock in the lineup, a ceramic model, was also the simplest to use. It'd
protruding handles that
Were easy to grasp and remained cool. We found that this cooker was the only model that held close to the advertised capacity of 6
to 7 quarts and was also the

Cookin' Good
It was time to begin cooking. First up: braising chuck roast to pot roast. Two versions produced mixed results, slightly
overcooking some bits and
Leaving others somewhat underdone and chewy. A third model never rendered the meat completely fork-tender, even after cooking.
We made delicate boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Our recipe calls for laying four breasts in a row across the bottom of the
crock. In three models
(two of which were guilty of unevenly cooking the chuck roast), the breasts loved the shorter, curved ends of the cookers cooked
too fast. They climbed
As large as 185 degrees, getting dry and rubbery, before the pair in the center reached the goal doneness temperature of 160
degrees. While cooking

In previous testings, we found that some slow cookers had a hot spot along the rear wall of the stove, which risked overcooking
Bigger cuts that pressed up against it. This time around we were happy to discover that this hot spot wasn't a problem, although
one cooker that unevenly cooked
Chicken breasts overcooked the turkey where it touched the ends of the crock. Again, cooking times varied, but all models finished
within our time
range of 5 to 6 hours on low.
Aside from the unevenly cooked chicken and turkey, all of the food was passable. But our front-runner produced equally cooked
meals each time.
Under the Hood
Why did some cookers run fast and others slow? Why could some cook food evenly and others not? To find out, we dismantled a
duplicate set of cookers
With the support of Gregory Thiel, a postdoctoral associate in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Here's what we found:
Most of our models are "traditional" slow cookers, where food goes to a ceramic stoneware crock that absorbs and transmits heat
slowly. These models
Had heating element strips made from chrome and nickel ("nichrome") wire that wrapped around a fiberglass strip that belted the
crock.
On, this wire heats up more or less ardently based on the wattage and the setting. This construction tends to make hot spots near
the element--
Particularly in the curved ends of the stoves, in which the element surrounds the food more tightly.
But two models with this belt-style construction actually did manage to cook food evenly, even at the ends. Opening up their
housing revealed thick, heatresistant
Padding and transparency heat shields packaged inside (the other versions were empty except for the heating element). The
insulation buffered the pot from
Contact with the heating elements, preventing hot spots; it also explained why these two models--among them our front-runner, from
KitchenAid--tended
To run a bit slower.

Coils embedded inside that also heat more or less ardently depending on the setting. This design encourages even cooking from end
to end, though the
Thin metal pots of these slow cookers (by Cuisinart and Ninja) cooked hotter and faster than ceramic-crock models.
The rest of the cooker was a hybrid design made by Crock-Pot, with a metallic crock and a conventional belt-style heater. Like the
other two models with metal
Pots, it cooked somewhat fast. The KitchenAid model we enjoyed so much has a useful feature: a detector that automatically
monitors and adjusts the cooking
Temperature so that it levels off and remains below boiling (ideally, food should remain at a simmer), helping additional guard
against overcooking food. Without
Such a detector, the temperature of the crock pot's contents will just continue climbing until it boils, whether set to low or
high, simply because the heat is on
(if set to low, it just takes longer to get there).
This was made apparent in our next evaluation: We tracked the temperature as each model heated 4 quarts of water over a period of
6 hours and then 12 hours
on low.
A Clear Winner
The KitchenAid 6-Quart Slow Cooker With Solid Glass Lid ($99.99), our former winner, handled every recipe with ideal results,
albeit a little slowly. Its
Thick stoneware crock, insulated housing, built-in thermal detector, and crystal-clear controls place a well-thought-out design at
your service--and at a
moderate price.
Stay-cool plastic handles, in addition to a brown-and-sear function which lets you skip using a separate skillet before
slow-cooking in recipes that call for it.
METHODOLOGY
We tested eight - to 7-quart slow cookers, preparing a variety of recipes using both low and high temperature settings and diverse
cooking times. We used
Temperature probes to map heating patterns, and a panel of testers evaluated how simple the cookers were to use and clean. We also
dismantled a set of the
Cookers to understand the placement and type of heating components they contained. All slow cookers were bought online and appear
in order of
preference.
Cooking
We prepared boneless, skinless chicken breasts; whole bone-in turkey breast; and pot roast. We assessed the texture and taste of
the food and rated the
Telephones on the uniformity of cooking. We did a final round to test the built-in browning feature, when available. We gave
highest marks to stoves that
Produced equally cooked, juicy, and tender foods each time.
Ease of Use
We evaluated how easy the cookers were to fill, set, and move, including the intuitiveness of controls, screens to monitor
cooking, weight of the
Crock, size and shape of handles, and whether the handles became hot.
Cleanup
We cleaned each version six times by hand and 10 times in the dishwasher (unless the guide instructed not to do so). We gave high
marks to versions that
Were easy to clean, with few nooks and crannies to trap food or water.
Out of 10 dishwasher cycles good as new.
Heating Patterns
To map heating patterns, we used temperature probes to monitor the temperature of every cooker's contents as it warmed 4 quarts of
room-temperature water