using your slow cooker
1 Follow the recipe and place the
ingredients into the cooking pot.
2 Place the cooking pot into the base
unit.
3 Place the lid in position
4 Select the desired setting ie High or
Low and then plug into the power
supply.
5 Allow to cook for the desired time.
6 After cooking, switch off and unplug
the slow cooker.
The following times are a guide only
and will vary according to the type
of food being cooked
Low Setting will gradually cook
food during the day or throughout
the night and takes approximately
8 hours. This setting can also be
used when cooking more delicate
foods which would benefit from a
slightly lower rate of cooking such
as baked apples, poached fruit.
High Setting will quicken up the
cooking process compared to the
Low setting with cooking times
between 3 and 5 hours.
Keep Warm Setting – Use this
setting once food has been cooked
to keep food warm. We
recommend that food is not kept
warm for longer than 1 hour after
cooking and then switch off after
use.
hints on using your slow
cooker
1Prepare and use ingredients at
room temperature rather than
straight from the refrigerator.
However ingredients such as meat
and fish should not be left out of
the refrigerator for longer than is
necessary, so remove from the
refrigerator just to take the chill off
and keep covered with cling film or
plastic wrap.
2Cut root vegetables such as
carrots, onions, swedes etc into
fairly small pieces as they take
longer to cook than meat.
3Cut each type of ingredient into
even sized pieces, this will assist
with even cooking.
4Browning the meat and sauteing
the vegetables first in a separate
pan will help to remove a certain
amount of fat from the meat and
also improve the appearance and
flavour of both meat and
vegetables. However this is not
essential.
5 Do not lift the lid more than
necessary during cooking as this
will cause loss of heat and
evaporation of liquid. It may be
necessary depending upon how
often the lid is removed and for how
long, to allow an extra 20 minutes
to half an hour cooking time.
6 Cooking always takes place in the
cooking pot. Never place food
directly into the base unit.
7 Never plunge the hot cooking pot
into cold water immediately after
use or pour boiling water into an
empty cold cooking pot. Subjecting
it to a sudden change in
temperature could cause it to crack.
8 After several months of use the
glaze on the cooking pot may
become crackled: this is common
with glazed stoneware and will not
affect the efficiency of the slow
cooker.
9 If you are adapting recipes from
conventional cooking you may need
to reduce the amount of liquid
used. In slow cooking liquid does
not evaporate as quickly as with
conventional cooking although a
certain amount of liquid is
necessary to help the transfer of
heat.
10 Never fill the slow cooker more than
2/3 full.
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