There's nothing quite like a home cooked meal, but between work, childcare and household chores, it can be hard to find the time to put a delicious dish on the table every night. A slow cooker is a busy person's best friend, allowing you to come home to a lovely stew or curry without having to do too much prep or spending too long in the kitchen.
But while a slow cooker is a versatile kitchen gadget, it can't be used for everything! To avoid a culinary crisis, we've put together our list of 11 foods you shouldn't put in a slow cooker.
Foods you shouldn't put in a slow cooker
1. Lean meats
While slow cooking turns tougher, sinewy joints of meat (think beef shin, oxtail, pork shoulder) into tender morsels, lean cuts (chicken breast, pork fillet, fillet steak) cook down to tough leather. It’s better to leave these pieces of meat for frying or grilling.
2. Raw meat
A crockpot’s gentle heat means meat will never get a chance to brown, but it’s the golden colour from frying that gives it depth of flavour. If you don’t want your stew to taste bland, brown the meat first, then put it in the slow cooker.
3. Too much liquid
Slow cookers are excellent at retaining their moisture, so pouring in too much stock or water will mean your casserole tastes insipid.
If you’re using a stew recipe that wasn’t written for the slow cooker (and please do – it’s a great idea!), reduce the liquid quantity by roughly half. You can always top it up during the cooking time if it looks dry.
4. Delicate vegetables
Long cooking is great for softening hard root veg, but it's a brutal treatment for delicate vegetables like courgettes, asparagus and peas, and will render them mushy. Wait until the end of the cooking time to add them in.
5. Too much spice
Resist temptation to get silly with the chillies — fiery ingredients become increasingly hotter the longer they’re cooked, so only sprinkle them in at the beginning if you can take the heat! For everyone else, it’s best to stir them in at the last minute.
6. Dairy
Prolonged cooking of dairy products causes them to separate. Adding milk, cream or yogurt to crockpots at the beginning of cooking is a sure-fire way to wind-up with a grainy, watery mess at the end. Stir it in once the recipe has finished cooking.
7. Too much booze
As mentioned before, slow cookers don’t evaporate much liquid, so putting large glugs of wine or beer straight into to your crockpot is not a great idea.
Alcohol needs to evaporate a little to taste appealing and not acrid, so try reducing it in a separate pan on the hob first.
8. Meat that has the skin on
Skin-on cuts of meat need the dry heat of roasting or grilling to crisp up. Cook them in a crockpot and you’ll end up picking unappetising, flubbery bits of skin out of your casserole.
9. Soft fresh herbs
Unless you’re using woody herbs like rosemary or thyme (and if you use these, use them sparingly as they’re potent), cooking soft herbs like basil or coriander for too long will obliterate their delightful fragrant properties. Stir them in just before serving.
10. Seafood
Just like lean cuts of meat, fish and shellfish need to be cooked for a very short time or risk being destroyed. The only exceptions are squid and octopus, which can benefit from a slow braise to tenderise them to perfection.
11. Pasta and rice
It might seem like a time-saver to bung these staple ingredients in with your slow cooker stew, but doing so will turn your hard work into a gloopy, congealed mess — they’re too starchy and cook too quickly.
It’s wiser to cook pasta and rice separately once your dish is close to being done, and serve them alongside.
Best slow cookers for 2022
Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Air Fryer Dehydrator
Crock-Pot Slow Cooker
GreenPan Slow Cooker
Sage Fast Slow Pro Slow Cooker
Russell Hobbs Slow Cooker
Judge Slow Cooker
Salter Write-On Chalkboard Slow Cooker
