Slow cooker or Crock Pot?

Slow cookers are the ultimate braisers, allowing you to transform humble ingredients into 5-star meals while mostly ignoring them. With a control panel that rarely has more than four functions — low heat, high heat, warm, and a timer — it’s pretty basic.

It may surprise you to learn that the Crock-Pot® slow cooker debuted before WWII as a simple bean cooker. The appliance defined a new way for homemakers to serve an affordable, tender, delicious meal to their families. It used inexpensive cuts of meat and helped minimize time in the kitchen.

People tend to use the terms "Crock Pot" and "slow cookers" interchangeably, but they are not. Crock Pot is a brand name.

An inventor by the name of Irving Naxon put together a portable food heating device that consisted of an insert, a case, and a heating element, which allowed even heating of food inside the insert.

By 1940, Naxon got his patent for the Naxon Beanery.

It came about due to Jewish Law. the Sabbath, is a day of rest in which observant Jews aren't supposed to do any work.

Naxon's Lithuanian mother had told him stories about a bean-based stew she used to take to her village bakery in Lithuania to sit in their turned off ovens and bake all day. This meat and vegetable stew was called cholent. As the ovens were turned off for the Sabbath, the pot of cholent would be put in the oven, and that slow residual heat over the course of the 24 hours would be enough to cook the beans.

The stew would go on before sundown Friday night, when the Sabbath begins, and cook all the way until the end of Saturday services the next day.

From a humble bowl of bean stew grew a kitchenware empire.

The Rival Company from Sedalia, Missouri, bought Naxon. They turned it over to their scientists to develop into a production model which could cook an entire family meal, going further than just cooking beans. The cooker was then reintroduced under the name "Crock-Pot" in 1971.

It was marketed toward working mothers. You could put food in the pot before leaving for the office and come home to a cooked meal. The Crock Pot sold millions. The Crock Pot "cooks all day while the cook's away," a 1976 advertisement said. Crock Pots (or slow cooker made by a different company) surpassed the toaster as a preferred wedding gift. Soon every kitchen had one. Sales died down a little in the '80s, perhaps coinciding with the rise of the microwave.

Today, however, slow cooking is as popular as ever, it is estimated over 80 percent of USA families owns one. The original Crock Pot design has changed little over the years, but now the insert is removable, a major improvement.

By the late 70s, there were roughly 40 companies all making their own model of slow-cooker.

These days the slow-cooker is the busy parent’s best friend, a must-have appliance for families and single folk alike. The ability to “set it and forget it” means less time scrambling over the stove for dinner and more time with the family and friends.

As women began entering the workforce, Crock-Pots made it possible to serve families a piping hot meal after a hard day’s work.

The first Crock-Pot, which cost a mere $25, came with an 84-page cookbook with over 150 recipes. This price has not risen much: some of the lower-tech, basic Crock-Pots still cost about that.

Because the Crock-Pot draws about as much current as an incandescent lightbulb — much less than an electric oven — many families saw it as a way to save money on energy consumption during times of shortage.

In 1974, Rival introduced removable stoneware inserts, making the appliance easier to clean. The brand now belongs to Sunbeam Products, a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation.

Regardless of the exterior, each one uses an electric heating element to bring a vessel or crock — usually made of stoneware or ceramic – to somewhere between around 170°F for Low and around 280°F for High.

A basic slow cooker consists of a lidded round or oval cooking pot made of glazed ceramic or porcelain, surrounded by a housing, usually metal, containing an electric heating element. The lid itself is often made of glass, and seated in a groove in the pot edge. Condensed vapor collects in the groove and provides a low-pressure seal to the atmosphere. A slow cooker is quite different from a pressure cooker and presents no danger of an abrupt pressure release.

The "crock," or ceramic pot, itself acts as both a cooking container and a heat reservoir.

Many slow cookers have two or more heat settings (e.g., low, medium, high, and sometimes a "keep warm" setting); some have continuously variable power. In the past, most slow cookers had no temperature control and deliver a constant heat to the contents. The temperature of the contents rises until it reaches boiling point, at which point the energy goes into gently boiling the liquid closest to the hot surface.

At a lower setting, it may just simmer at a temperature below the boiling point. While many basic slow cookers still operate in this manner, newer models have computerized controls for precise temperature control, delayed cooking starts and even control via a computer or mobile device.

Heating element heats the contents to a steady temperature in the 174–199°F range. The vapor that is produced at this temperature condenses on the bottom of the lid and returns as liquid to the dish.

The slow cooker's lid is essential to prevent the warm vapor from escaping, taking heat with it and cooling the contents.

Every time you remove the lid of your slow-cooker, all of the heat that has been slowly accumulating to reach the desired temperature is let out, reducing the temperature. Each time you lift the lid you need to add 30 minutes (!) to the cooking time, so try to resist the temptation no matter how wonderful it smells.

Basic cookers, which have only high, medium, low, or keep warm settings, must be turned on and off manually. More advanced cookers have computerized timing devices that program the cooker to perform multiple operations and to delay the start of cooking.

Because food cooked in a slow cooker stays warm for a long time after it is switched off, people can use the slow cookers to take food elsewhere to eat without reheating. Some slow cookers have lids that seal to prevent their contents from spilling during transport.

The long, moist cooking is particularly suitable for tough and cheap cuts of meat including pork shoulder, beef chuck and brisket. For many slow-cooked dishes, these cuts give better results than more expensive ones.

Cheaper cuts of meat with connective tissue and lean muscle fibers are suitable for stewing, and produce tastier stews than those using expensive cuts. The long slow cooking softens connective tissue without toughening the muscle. Slow cooking leaves gelatinized tissue in the meat, so that it may be advantageous to start with a richer liquid.

The low temperature of slow-cooking makes it almost impossible to burn; even food that has been cooked too long. However, some meats and most vegetables become nearly tasteless or "raggy" if over-cooked.

Cooking the meal in a single pot reduces clean ups.

Note: The exterior casing that contains the electric heating element should never be submerged in water; clean up any spills with a damp cloth.

Can you put frozen [fill in the blank] in a Crock-Pot?

No. You cannot put any sort of frozen meat, chicken, pork, or any other frozen protein into a slow cooker without serious risk of food poisoning. The slow cooker takes way longer than the stovetop or oven to get raw ingredients past the food safety danger zone (between 40°F and 140°F). If you start with frozen ingredients, the heating process takes too long to ensure a bacteria-free meal. Best to thaw it in the fridge the night before.

Frozen veggies are also a no-no unless there’s only a small amount of a more delicate vegetable to be added in the final half-hour of cooking. For example, you could add a ¼ cup of frozen corn or peas into an already-warm cooker of stew. It will thaw quickly enough for safety (but may cool your dish more than you'd like).

Raw kidney beans, and, to a lesser extent, some other such beans, contain the highly toxic lectin phytohemagglutinin. Boiling destroys this lectin, but the far lower temperature of a slow cooker does not. This means that dry beans must be soaked in water overnight, after which the water must be discarded, and the beans must then be boiled for at least 10 minutes.

So please take note of this when using the modern day version of the Naxon Beanery.