Idle Food - Cooking!

[Twig]

It's a good thing you said that 'cause I definitely wouldn't have ever known they existed.

 

I have purchased both a blender and a slow cooker and they will be here in two days. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to use them for.

[Dewar]

The other option for slow cookers is to clean them immediately when you're done putting away the food. They're a pain to scrub if you let food dry on them for sure.

[jennegatron]

Big roasts are our go tos for our slow cooker.

Pork Shoulder w/ bbq sauce for shredded pork sandwiches

Pot roast with potatoes & carrots and onions

We also make carnitas with pork shoulder.

[YoThatLimp]

Tonight I brined some chicken breast and then threw them in the grill with some hickory wood chips and brushed on bbq sauce every few hours, so very good. 

[natellite]

Big roasts are our go tos for our slow cooker.

Pork Shoulder w/ bbq sauce for shredded pork sandwiches

Pot roast with potatoes & carrots and onions

We also make carnitas with pork shoulder.

 

Yep, definitely this for me, too. I'm doing a low-carb thing right now so I swap out the potatoes and carrots for celery and mushrooms, which don't hold up so well, but still taste fine. Get a 2-3 pound chuck roast, salt and pepper on all sides, sear it, put it in the pot on top of the vegetables, use chicken broth as your liquid - I usually just use a can from the grocery store - and cook on low for 8 hours. Good stuff.

 

Some people will tell you that a pot roast is impossible in the slow cooker because a roast necessarily implies dry heat, but these people are pedants and you can laugh at them in between mouthfuls of tender, juicy beefs.

 

You can also just throw a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in there with a jar of salsa (the cheaper the better for this purpose) and 4-6 hours later you shred it up and have taco and burrito meat for a week.

[YoThatLimp]

I am not sure why but slow cookers just have never worked for me, I just slow cook in the oven. I think I am bad about judging how much liquid I should add to the slow cooker. 

[Griddlelol]

I've never used a slow cooker before. Are they heated up by gas, or do you just plug them in to the wall and run off electricity? 

 

I want to do slow cooking stuff, but I hate the idea of putting something in my oven for 8 hours (it's gas and I'm paranoid about burning the house down). Also doesn't it end up costing a shit load of money if you've just got something running for 8 hours straight?

 

I basically just want to make pulled pork, because I love pulled pork.

[JonCole]

They're electric. They're designed to supply constant, relatively efficient, low heat for a long time. They usually have a big ceramic dish to retain heat fairly well.

 

It's kinda hard to get the amount of liquid in a slow cooker wrong unless you put none in there. Basically it has a lot to do with how much you want it to fall apart. For something like pulled pork, you're usually just fine with a cup of stock or something in the bottom to get the steam going and as not to overcook that particular side of the meat. Pulled pork is a particularly easy slow cooker thing, all you do is put in some sliced onions and garlic, a cup of stock, whatever seasoning you like (for me it's usually cumin, chili powder, maybe some brown sugar or barbecue sauce), plus a 5 lb pork shoulder and let it go for about 8 hours.

[Badfinger]

You can also just throw a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in there with a jar of salsa (the cheaper the better for this purpose) and 4-6 hours later you shred it up and have taco and burrito meat for a week.

 

I'm not much for jar salsa, but if you like this idea and you like spicy, smothering them in a can of chiles in adobo sauce is really, really tasty.

 

 

In general if you're doing "pulled something" in the slow cooker, you cook then sauce. So if you're doing a pork shoulder and you cover it in barbecue sauce of some sort, you're going to get those flavors but the sauce itself is going to break down. When you pull it, your protein will be sitting mostly in its own juices and whatever liquid you added, at which point you can add back more stuff to get that barbecue "look" and flavor.

 

My favorite rub is super similar to Jon's. 1 part salt, 2 parts paprika, 2 parts brown sugar. Add cumin when I have cumin. If you like vinegar bbq, do apple cider vinegar (or apple cider?!) for your liquid. Crock potting is great. You get real person cooked food by pointedly walking away.

[YoThatLimp]

I've never used a slow cooker before. Are they heated up by gas, or do you just plug them in to the wall and run off electricity? 

 

I want to do slow cooking stuff, but I hate the idea of putting something in my oven for 8 hours (it's gas and I'm paranoid about burning the house down). Also doesn't it end up costing a shit load of money if you've just got something running for 8 hours straight?

 

I basically just want to make pulled pork, because I love pulled pork.

 

Maybe a 1$ or two, I've cooked several and really never noticed a huge uptick in my gas bill, but yeah leaving the oven on for 10 hours feels weird, hah.

[Dewar]

I am not sure why but slow cookers just have never worked for me, I just slow cook in the oven. I think I am bad about judging how much liquid I should add to the slow cooker.

If you get really fatty cuts of meat (I like short ribs personally) then you don't have to put any liquid in at all. The fat will render and the whole thing will be immersed in juices by the time you're done. My mistake is always trying to put too much in and ending up with a stew. Recently, I've taken to being lazy and buying the packets of still-liquid Campbell's slow cooker sauces. Then it's literally just the meat, the sauce pack, and a few vegetables.

[Twig]

I'm not really a huge fan of big chunks of meat, to be honest. I like tacos and chili and other stuff, but just having a slab of pork... Doesn't sound that great.

[Dewar]

Well, you can pull the pork apart when you're done to make sandwiches and whatever, or slice the roast thin. It doesn't have to be eaten in big chunks just because it started as.

[Bjorn]

Pulled pork is one of the few things I routinely cook, and it's one of those great things where you can cook it on Sunday, and then have meat for sandwiches, tacos, nachos, whatever for the next week. 

 

Pulled pork tacos are really fucking good. 

[dibs]

What saucy stuff do you cook yours in Bjorn? The last recipe i followed worked textur/cooking wise really well, but the flavour was too much for me, and not the spices i really wanted. That's what i get for just following a recipe!

I'm thinking of trying a wholly unauthentic char sui type one.

[natellite]

Well, you can pull the pork apart when you're done to make sandwiches and whatever, or slice the roast thin. It doesn't have to be eaten in big chunks just because it started as.

 

In fact you will find that the pork literally falls apart at even the slightest touch! "Shredding" implies some degree of manual labor but after a crock pot roast it's really just running two forks lightly over it until it achieves the texture and consistency of carnitas.

 

(By the way, advanced pulled pork technique: after you shred it, lay it out on a large pan and put it under the broiler for a bit. Hot damn.)

[JonCole]

Advanced meat pulling technique - put it in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, run on medium for a few minutes. Not really necessary for pork, but good for stuff like chicken breasts. Really good tip with the broiler, would totally be good for making some crispy elements that are missing when you make pulled pork in a slow cooker.

[Badfinger]

I'm not really a huge fan of big chunks of meat, to be honest. I like tacos and chili and other stuff, but just having a slab of pork... Doesn't sound that great.

 

If you are purchasing a crock pot, you are explicitly making the culinary statement that all your meat will be reduced to delicious shreds. Outside of tougher cuts of beef you're not gonna have a choice if you let them sit long enough.

 

In fact you will find that the pork literally falls apart at even the slightest touch! "Shredding" implies some degree of manual labor but after a crock pot roast it's really just running two forks lightly over it until it achieves the texture and consistency of carnitas.

 

(By the way, advanced pulled pork technique: after you shred it, lay it out on a large pan and put it under the broiler for a bit. Hot damn.)

 

Oh my goodness.

 

I am absolutely breaking out the crock pot tonight.

[Griddlelol]

I'm not really a huge fan of big chunks of meat, to be honest. I like tacos and chili and other stuff, but just having a slab of pork... Doesn't sound that great.

 

My favourite meal is a big slab of steak on my plate. It's just prohibitively expensive to eat more than once a month. Pulled pork on the other hand is the opposite, it just falls apart. 

 

I've resolved to buy a slow cooker. Something like this. Not too expensive, and I'd probably save a lot of money as I'd buy cheaper cuts of meat.

[JonCole]

I'd just recommend getting one with a timer, unless you're absolutely sure that big cuts of meat will be your only medium. There are tons of slow cooker soup or stew recipes that necessitate a long but not too long (think 4 hours or so) cooking time that benefit from a delayed start from when I leave in the morning for work. Some people do a thing where if it takes 3 hours on high, they put it at 6 hours on low but I haven't had a particularly great experience with that method and some recipes even take a few hours on low.

[Griddlelol]

Oh that sounds like a good idea. I basically planned to throw something in before I go to sleep, so I can take some to work the next day, and leave plenty for my partner to make lunch with. They all seem reasonably priced though. 

 

I'm excited. I've been looking at recipes all day.

[Badfinger]

I am absolutely breaking out the crock pot tonight.

 

Half of a bone-in picnic shoulder later, I am pretty damn happy you decided to buy a crock pot, Twig.

[dibs]

I hope you have a freezer as well Twig, portions are big.

[Twig]

This thread is weird...

 

Anyway it should arrive tonight along with my blender. I don't have ingredients to make anything yet but I will come this weekend.

[Badfinger]

This thread is weird...

 

Believe it or not, there are things I am more passionate about than video games. Food is basically at the top.