Crock Pot Cooking

The slow cooker or “crock-pot” has been much maligned. Trendy for a long time in the 90s, it suddenly spawned cookbooks called “Not Your Mother’s Slow- Cooker Recipes” and, like the microwave, the slow cooker was relegated to two or three dishes: pot roast, spaghetti sauce and soup.


The major complaint is the sameness of everything cooked in a slow cooker. This is a legitimate complaint but only if the cook wants to just dump everything in the slow cooker in the morning, plug it in, and come home to dinner completely ready. Just a few preparation steps can make the difference to something everyone groans about or something everyone raves about.

We are all familiar with the positives about crockery-lined slow electric cookers. There is no preparation mess to clean up at dinner time and so the kitchen is clean and serene when you need that the most—the dinner hour. There is no scorching or drying out of food that is being held, the nutrition is still in the vegetables just as in steaming and microwaving and retains not only vitamins and minerals but juiciness and flavor as well.

And, best of all, the variety of recipes and flavors is endless. Almost every monthly woman’s magazine sports at least one and usually more recipes using the crock-pot. It makes delicious main dishes, but few people realize that it also makes great side dishes and even desserts.

Here is a dinner that is a different version of an old comfort food: meatloaf. Not only is this delicious, but most of the dinner is in the pot; just add a green vegetable and/or a salad.

Glazed Meatloaf and Potatoes (adapted from The Crockery Pot Cookbook by Lou Pappas)

3 mild (sweet) fresh Italian sausages
2 eggs
½ cup 1% milk
2 slices whole grain bread
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. beef stock base
1 small onion
1-1/2 pounds very lean ground beef
¼ cup catsup
1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 large potatoes
2 Tbsp. soft butter

Prick sausages with a fork in two or three places. Simmer in water to cover for 10 minutes. Drain. Place eggs, milk, bread, salt Worcestershire, dry mustard, stock base and onions in blender container. Cover and blend until smooth. Place ground meat in mixing bowl. Pour in blender contents. Mix until smooth. Pat half of meat loaf mixture in the bottom of a sprayed crock-pot. Cover with sausages. Top with remaining meat loaf. Pat to seal. Combine catsup, mustard and brown sugar. Spread over meat. Peel potatoes. Cut in strips. Coat well with butter and place around meat. Cover. Cook on high 1 hour. Reduce to low for 6 hours. Serves 8.

Here’s an interesting old recipe that works great for a breakfast food or a dessert in the winter.

Indian Pudding

3 cups milk
2/3 cup dark molasses
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. nutmeg
¼ cup butter
1 cup milk

Grease a 2-quart casserole that will fit inside your slow cooker. Heat 3 cups milk and molasses in saucepan on top of stove. Mix cornmeal, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually stir into hot milk mixture. Add butter. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, about 20 minutes or until thickened. Pour into casserole. Pour 1 cup milk over pudding; do not stir. Cover baking dish with foil. Place on metal trivet or rack in bottom of slow-cooker. Add 1 cup hot water to pot. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

One morning when I was dashing out of the house for an all-day event in the Twin Cities, I decided to make some chili to come home to. I didn’t even have time to defrost the hamburger, but I thought “What the heck, I’ll just try it” and put the frozen meat in the crock-pot; dumped the rest of the ingredients in and put the slow-cooker on the automatic setting (goes from low to high, back and forth, during the cooking). When I came home, as expected, the meat was cooked in one lump. I opened the pot, broke the meat up with a meat fork and a wooden spatula and cooked it for about another 15 minutes. It was absolutely the best chili we’ve had. Here’s the complete recipe (the best I can remember since I sort of dumped in what I had at the time)

½ pound lean ground beef (you can use more but we were trying to cut down on red meat)
2 cans chili beans in mild sauce
1 4-oz. can chopped green chilies, undrained
1 14-oz can tomato sauce
2 cups tomato juice
1 Tbsp. chili powder (or to taste)
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. sugar

If meat is defrosted, you can break it up in the crock pot (no need to brown). Just put all the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot on low or automatic for at least 6 hours. This will tolerate more cooking, if necessary.