fedward, tumbling

tbridge:

I have an unnatural hatred for Crock Pots.  They represent to me all of the final product of cooking, without any of the fun or work.  Open some cans, put in some meat, and presto change-o, 8 hours later you have something that is technically edible.  Sure, it’s still just a bunch of canned shit combined, which you could probably create on the stove in under an hour.

I love the prep of cooking for real, I love chopping and sauteeing, I love making sauces, I love braising and grilling and broiling and baking and steaming and blanching and boiling and brining and all those awesome techniques.  Crockpotting seems like a shortcut to a result based on laziness and canned goods, and that seems like nothing I want to eat.

I’m not really one to leap to the defense of a slow cooker, as I share much of Tom’s hatred of stereotypical crockpot “food” and I opposed the introduction of one to our small kitchen (as much on lack of storage space grounds as technical ones).  My biggest issue with crockpot “food” is that it turns out I loathe the taste of canned cream of mushroom soup; the secondary issue is that in just about every case I’ve had to brown meat before cooking it via some other method (braising, roasting) and if I’m already getting one pot dirty, why get another one dirty too? What do I gain?

But now that we have an actual Crock-Pot® slow cooker (given to us as a gift) I’ve come to appreciate it for one reason: it maintains low, even heat without the hot spots of the electric burners in our kitchen. It also allows me to cook things low-and-slow without the heat and energy bill of having the oven on all day.  I’ve made chicken soup from scratch with less effort than would have been required on the stove (where things are likely to burn if I don’t keep stirring) and on Valentine’s Day I braised short ribs in the slow cooker, cleaning up after the prep, taking some time off, and then making risotto on the stove and fresh bread in the oven. There’s no room in the oven for both bread and a Dutch oven, so I couldn’t have made that meal without the slow cooker.

I’d be happy never to be served somebody’s canned-everything crockpot dish again, but I have to admit (somewhat reluctantly) that I appreciate having a slow cooker around.