A slow cooker is a piece of handy equipment in every kitchen; it significantly reduces the food preparation time and effort. Despite its effectiveness, you cannot cook everything with your slow cooker. Some foods are so light and cooked fast that using your crockpot will leave you with a messy and tasteless result. A practical approach to guarantee you tasty meals every time is to follow easy crock pot recipes until you understand which ingredients are best cooked in your slow cooker. To avoid a disaster, it would be helpful if you did not cook the mentioned foods in this article using your slow cooker.
Foods to Avoid Cooking in Your Slow Cooker
Lean Meats
You should avoid cooking lean meats with your slow cooker. The meat is more likely to turn tougher as you cook instead of attaining that smooth and rich flavor associated with slow cooking. Other meat classifications, like pork shoulder and oxtail become tender once put in the slow cooker without losing flavor or nutritional value. Lean meats include pork fillet and chicken breasts, and it is better to fry or grill them before putting them in your crockpot.
Raw Meat
You can observe a rich-in-flavored meat chunk by looking at its color. The golden color achieved after frying or roasting your meat delivers its depth of flavor, making your meat even tastier. However, cooking with a slow cooker cannot turn your meat brown because it cooks at a gentle and controlled temperature. If you plan to include meat in your stew, you can brown it before adding it to your cooker; it will maintain its flavor and texture.
Too Much Liquid
It would also be helpful to avoid cooking foods with excess water in your slow cooker. Slow cookers are excellent at moisture retention, meaning water evaporates slower than standard cooking equipment. Your end product is more likely to stock the excess water and lose taste even after cooking, which was not your expectation. If you use a recipe not explicit to crockpots, use half of the water required to ensure your food cooks well. There is the option of topping up the water if you notice the meal looks dry.
Delicate Vegetables
Your slow cooker also proves ideal in cooking hard root vegetables; it softens them while maintaining their nutritional value. However, some vegetables have delicate structures, and putting them in your crockpot will not guarantee a productive cooking session. Vegetable options like peas, courgettes, and asparagus will come out mushy if you try cooking them with this equipment.
Dairy
Another food type you cannot cook with your slow cooker is dairy. Dairy products have a delicate structure, and cooking them over long hours will lead to their composition breaking down. The Kitchen Community advises against adding cream, yogurt, or milk to any recipes involving a crockpot or prolonged cooking. If your recipe includes milk, you can add it in the final stages of your session and stir the mixture accordingly.
Seafood
Kinds of seafood are not that different from lean meats; they have simple structures and require some light cooking. Common examples of seafood include fish and shellfish, and you should avoid cooking them with your slow burner. Cooking these types of food over a long time will destroy its texture, taste, and nutritional value. However, seafood like octopus and squid might need prolonged cooking to tenderize their meat to perfection.
Some recipes cannot cook in a slow cooker because of specific ingredients. This article features food examples that will guarantee you an unsatisfactory result, and you should avoid including them in your recipe. You can use the shared information to improve your cooking skills and deliver quality and tasty meals to your family.