A slow cooker is a countertop electrical home appliance that is used to cook stews and other dishes containing water at relatively low temperatures, with correspondingly long cooking times (several hours).

Many recipes simply call for the ingredients to be put in the cooker with little preparation. The slow cooker can then safely be left to run unattended, making it a convenient cooking method.

The modern slow cooker was developed by Rival Industries with the trademarked name Crock Pot. This name is sometimes used informally to refer to any slow cooker. Rival purchased and refined the design of a bean-pot called the Beanery from Naxon Co. of Chicago.

A slow cooker consists of a lidded round or oval cooking pot (typically 10 in (25 cm) across and similarly deep) made of glazed ceramic or porcelain, surrounded by a housing, usually metal, containing a thermostatically controlled electric heating element.

The lid is often made of glass so that users can see the contents without having to remove it, and is not hermetic. The ceramic pot, often referred to as a crock, acts as both a cooking container and a heat reservoir.

Slow cookers come in a variety of sizes, with capacities starting as small as 16 oz. and going up to several quarts.

Recipes intended for other cooking methods must be modified for slow cookers. Often water must be decreased, as cooking at higher temperatures requires enough liquid to allow for evaporation.

Some slow cookers are supplied with recipe booklets; many slow cooker recipes are to be found in cookbooks and on the internet. A small number of cookbooks seek to make complete dishes in a slow cooker using fewer than five ingredients, while others treat the slow cooker as a serious piece of culinary equipment capable of producing gourmet meals.

With some experience, timing and recipe adjustments can be successfully made for many recipes not originally intended for these cookers. The long, moist nature of the cooking method gives good results even with cheaper (and tougher) cuts of meat--in fact, cheaper cuts often have more flavour.

Please follow the links below to discover our list of tasty slow cooked meals.