It’s National Slow Cooking Month!!

January is National Slow Cooking Month. In the north, most people have covered their grills. It’s cold and we want warm comforting food when we walk in the door at night. Enter the slow cooker.

History

The Crock-Pot was invented in 1940 by Irving Nachumsohn. Nachumsohn invented this slow cooker to cook cholent, a traditional Jewish stew eaten on the Sabbath. (source: OneCounry.com)

Types of Slow Cookers

In the home, slow cookers range in size from 2 cup size to, usually, 6 quarts.

You can buy them as stand alone units, a strip of them all in one heating unit, or as part of a multi-cooker unit such as the iPot.

Most Slow cookers today have a separate insert that can be taken out to wash the “crock.” The older styles where the liner did not come out were very difficult to clean as you could not submerge the base.

The heating dials have changed, too. Some have just a low and high. Some have have low, medium and high. Some have an “auto” setting which starts at a higher temperature, then drops when the unit reaches a certain temperature. Others have a warm setting so you can keep your food warm and not overcook it. And still others are my favorite type – with a dial so you can choose the temperature.

What Can Be Made in a Slow Cooker?

You can make many foods in a slow cooker. Things that you don’t even think possible. Oatmeal started in the evening before bed will be ready in the morning. Pie filling, cobbler, and bread pudding can be made in a slow cooker. Mac & Cheese, Lasagna, salsa, apple butter, meatloaf… You can make many, many things in the slow cooker.

Recipes

Recipes are very easy to find for the slow cooker. A google search will lead you to thousands and thousands of recipes. There are Facebook groups just for slow cooker recipes. Friends are a good source. If you know you like similar foods, if you’ve tasted their food, often they will share their recipes.

I’m going to plug a Facebook Group that I’ve belonged to for a couple years. It’s part of the “Debbie’s Back Porch” group of Facebook groups. It’s called Cooking From Scratch on Debbie’s Back Porch. It’s a closed group, but joining is easy. If you decide to join any of the porches, read the rules. There are hundreds of recipes in the files. In addition, people will post recipes they’ve created or tried.

My Favorite Beef Roast Recipe

I wanted to give you our favorite slow cooker recipe. Next Sunday is Sunday Supper Day (yes, I know it’s Sunday Supper Month, too). You have time to get the SHORT ingredients list. The recipe as posted is keto friendly!! Just don’t serve it on the hard rolls.

We used to make this recipe many Sunday mornings as I could quickly set it up in the morning and when we returned home from church, it was done. It is SO easy that you won’t believe it. I always shredded the meat and served it on hard rolls, but you could easily eat it as a roast. I never needed to thicken the sauce, but you could if you want gravy.

Isn’t that easy??? It was one of our favorite meals. I hope you like it.

Happy Slow Cooking Month!!

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