Steam canner?

[wyoDreamer]

Sometimes I feel like the USDA doesn't want us to be self-sufficient at all - and wants us to rely on the Industrial Food supply. I saw on the news this morning that there is a recall on Avacodos due to possible Listeria contamination.
Crockpots were wonderful and cooked great meals for many years, until the USDA decided that the LOW temp was too low and was a danger of allowing the food to spoil. Now they require manufacturers to up the temp of the low setting. I no longer use a crockpot because my old one broke and the new one burns food when set on high and overcooks things set on low...

 

[Marianne]

Sometimes I feel like the USDA doesn't want us to be self-sufficient at all - and wants us to rely on the Industrial Food supply. I saw on the news this morning that there is a recall on Avacodos due to possible Listeria contamination.
Crockpots were wonderful and cooked great meals for many years, until the USDA decided that the LOW temp was too low and was a danger of allowing the food to spoil. Now they require manufacturers to up the temp of the low setting. I no longer use a crockpot because my old one broke and the new one burns food when set on high and overcooks things set on low...

Slow cookers are weird. I had one like yours, my neighbor had one that was the opposite. She said that it took almost 24 hours to cook something like beans. Egads.

I have a new way of thinking because of our nomadic son. He's lived in areas where there is little to no electricity, absolutely no refrigeration and has eaten things that the USDA would have said to pitch. Yet millions of people have been eating like that for generations and they aren't dying off. All they do is bring that pot of food to a rolling boil for a few minutes, every 12 hrs.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

On this one, I think I will side with the complaint about low setting being too low. I have 2 crock pots, and both of them take FOREVER to bring food to a simmer on the low setting. I always have to crank them up to high for a few hours, then I can turn them to low. Case in point: Last night, I put a minestrone soup in my 5 qt crock pot at around 8 PM. I went to bed and left it on low. When I got up at 2 AM, the soup was hot, but no sign of a simmer. B/C it was quite hot, I left it alone. Hubby turned it up to high at 5:30 AM. It finally came to a boil after that. BUT, I have also burned stuff when crock pot left on high. I consider a crock pot safe to leave it on all day if I'm not home, but can't trust them to hold the correct temp.

 

[sumi]

I cooked a whole duck in mine a few days ago. I started it on the high setting and to speed things up, I covered the bird in boiling water. It took nearly 4 hours to come to boil. I phoned my brother at some point and mentioned that the pot is taking forever to get going and I'm starting to consider sticking the bird in the oven instead. He suggested putting it in the sun, that may be quicker (than the slow cooker) When it finally got going it did a great job though!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I used my crockpot 2 days ago to convert a frozen chicken and rice casserole into hot chicken-n-rice soup. It worked great for this duty. I needed to simmer the cooked thighs and legs to defrost them and cook them enough to pick all the meat off the bones.
I recently bought an Instant Pot. That one is going to take a little time to learn how to use.

 

[Hinotori]

The big issue with crock pots and low temps was actually because of beans. Kidney beans very specifically. They may soften and look fully cooked, but if they don't reach a certain temp it doesn't deactivate the toxins in dried beans. After soaking they have to reach 212° (boiling) for 10 minutes.

 

[Hinotori]

I got rid of my crock pot and rice cooker when I got my Instant Pot. I use it at least once a week.

Takes only a few hours instead of over a full day to make really good chicken stock. I try to extract all the collagen from them.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@Hinotori what all do you put in the instant pot for chicken broth? - besides the chicken and water of course.

 

[Hinotori]

I use chicken legs usually since we don't eat a lot of roasted chicken which would be better. Need good bone to meat ratio.

Chicken goes in with salt for about 30 minutes on high pressure. Remove meat from bones then toss bones, skin, and cartilage back in pot. I toss in half an onion, celery rib, and a carrot with that. Then I put under pressure for 1.5 to 2 hours.

 

[wyoDreamer]

It sounds wonderful! thanks, @Hinotori
I have a large package of chicken backs that I was hoping to make broth out of. I will have to try making it in the instant pot!