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Winter indoor low and slow: Dutch oven. Slow cooker/crock pot. Pressure cooker. Three different ways to braise/stew.

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    Winter indoor low and slow: Dutch oven. Slow cooker/crock pot. Pressure cooker. Three different ways to braise/stew.

    And the results are just slightly different, too. For me, the choice of which to use is timing: when do I want to start? How much time do I have? When do I want to eat?

    I don’t use the slow cooker a lot, but I really do like tossing all that stuff in there right after breakfast, setting it to low, and revisiting it around dinner time. Plus, all day long the house smells wonderful! Two things. First, contrary to what you might think, you can dry out food in a slow cooker! Don’t set it on high and then let it go all day, then add an extra couple hours. Second, of the three methods, the slow cooker seems, to me, to give the least complicated results. The food tastes great. If you didn’t know it could be better, you’d be fine.

    The Dutch oven, to me, gives the best tasting food. If something takes 8 hours on low in the slow cooker, it takes 2-3 hours in the Dutch oven. Plus, you can use that son of a gun anywhere there is heat! Put it in the oven, put it on your gas grill, put it in the fire, put coals over and under it, hang it from a hook… get it hot, like 325°-350°, and check it in a couple hours. The same caveat applies for drying out the food, but because you’re not experiencing the time dilation of an all day braise, it’s easier to keep an eye on it. And, what happens in a Dutch oven is a really intense concentration of flavors, something you don’t really get in a slow cooker or on a stove top. Try it with your Sunday sauce some day, instead of simmering it on the stove!

    I use the pressure cooker for those times when it’s 4:30 and I want short ribs! My opinion is that the food is better than from the slow cooker, but not as good as from the Dutch oven. It does a better job of concentrating flavors than the slow cooker. But cleaning the pressure cooker is a PITA, compared to the other two. And it has a smaller effective volume when you allow for the space needed to build pressure. As with the other two methods, you can dry out your food here, too! Pay attention to the recommended cooking time.

    That’s my take on it.

    #2
    I mentioned in another thread, my wife making a beef burgandy style pot roast with the Instapot on pressure. Man it was good! She started to tell me about how to use it, and I laughed and said….nope, that is your cooker and you make it proud! And if I need to make a pot roast, it would be in the Dutch oven, as that is what I prefer to cook with.

    I think we still have a slow cooker/crock pot. But I don’t think we use it except for queso. I’d have to go hunt for it to see if we do have it. But prior to the Instapot, that was her go to and she did make some good stuff with it!

    but, I like my DOs mainly because it means I’m in the kitchen making something good and the process makes it fun!

    Comment


    • Mosca
      Mosca commented
      Editing a comment
      fzxdoc I just don’t like cleaning the IP. I’m pretty picky about it, and I clean all the little vent pieces, the gasket, etc, by hand after every cook. So I only get it out for stuff I think is worth it; for example, I’ll do rice in a pot on the stove, even though IP rice comes out great, because I can just put the pot in the dishwasher when I’m done.

    • fzxdoc
      fzxdoc commented
      Editing a comment
      Mosca , we clean the little vent cover piece, remove the seal and wash it, handwash the IP lid, and put the IP's inner pot into the dishwasher. I wipe down the outside of the IP with a Clorox wipe. Easy peasy cleanup with no other saute or simmering skillets, pans or messy cooktop to deal with.

      My husband, whose job it is to load the dishwasher, likes IP dinner nights the best.

    • Mosca
      Mosca commented
      Editing a comment
      fzxdoc I’ll give it another go, then.

      The kitchen is mine, from start to finish: cleaning, dishes, cooking, everything. In exchange, I don’t have to touch laundry.

    #3
    I have never had an Instant Pot. I am not sure I would need one. But after reading about Mosca's adventures maybe I would consider getting a instant pot.

    I have meals that I use the crock pot for and I have other meals I use the dutch oven for. I never have the same meal in either.

    Comment


    • Mosca
      Mosca commented
      Editing a comment
      I swear, it is worth it just for the short ribs that rival any we’ve had in any steakhouse in the world. I can decide at 4:30 that I want short ribs, and have them on the table, with vegetables and gravy, by 6:30.

      I use the slow cooker less and less, but I still like it for things that I’m used to using it for: winter pulled pork, and pot roast. Both of those would be great in the Dutch oven, but I’m used to doing them in the slow cooker.
      Last edited by Mosca; January 30, 2023, 10:15 AM.

    #4
    I either use a pressure cooker or a dutch oven. I loaned my slow cooker to my sister years ago and never bothered to get it back.

    Comment


    • shify
      shify commented
      Editing a comment
      Same - except I still have my slow cooker in the back of some closet somewhere. I think in ~15 years of owning it I have used it less than half a dozen times, and always to keep something like chili or mashed potatoes warm rather than actually cook in it.

    #5
    Finally got a Dutch Oven gifted to me, so far have done bread twice and am looking forward to trying a stew.
    No Instapot yet.

    Comment

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