(no subject)

[nolly]

I recently picked up a small, inexpensive crockpot. It's got multiple heat settings and a removable crock; it's not just a dip warmer. The problem is, all the recipes I can find are for much larger crockpots, and I don't have a good enough feel for what's right to be comfortable tweaking them for my 1.5 quart baby crockpot. Are there rules of thumb about liquid proportions? Other things I should know? Right now, I really want things more like "dump X amount of canned soup, Y amount of rice, and a chicken breast, set on low for N hours, eat"; I can get fancy later. WHat I don't know is reasonable values for X, Y, and N, and if that's likely to be an adequate recipe, or if i needs water/milk, or...?

Comments

[chris21718.livejournal.com]

X, Y, and N all must be integers, and must all be relatively prime.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Do I need to explicitly state that the desired outcome of the function is an edible meal + optional leftovers?

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

They do not necessarily have to be integers. It depends on the units being used. (Unless rice is being counted in grains, in which case it will be a large integer. At that point, the only effective difference between prime and non-prime is strictly a matter of personal obsession.)

[thechick.livejournal.com]

I have a medium 3-4 quart crock pot and I have found that recipes can be easily scaled. I tend to cut most recipes in half to feed 2 people and have a bit leftover for lunch the next day. Direct scaling works just fine. The only thing I have had a problem with is uncooked rice. The best thing to do is cook it ahead of time and add it for the last hour or so of cooking. Hope this helps.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

The problem is that soup cans don't come in, say, 3.25 ounce sizes, so when the recipe for the 6-quart pot calls for a 14 ounce can, there's guesstimating required, and i can't just eyeball it because I don't know what looks right.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

if a recipe for a crock pot calls for canned soup, don't use it. It's missing the point of a crock pot entirely :)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Cream of mushroom is a perfectly good comfort food ingredient.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

I was going to make the exception for cream of $FOO soups, since they are a pretty common ingredient in middle American generic cooking. And I used to use them a lot, but then I learned how easy it is to make your own and stoppped :)

Check out variation on new england clam chowder in crock pots and you'll see what i mean.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Cream of $FOO and close cousins are the canned soups I had in mind. If I had time and wanted to clean up after making my own, I'd just make the whole meal.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

but you are making the meal, just in a crock pot.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Right. Using one or maybe two dishes which will need to be washed afterwards. Making my own soup would add at least one more pot and more time I'd need to be present, unless I"ve got serious misconceptions. This (http://community.livejournal.com/what_a_crock/272987.html) is the kind of recipe I've got in mind.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

huh? but the crock pot is where you make the soup?

Looking at that recipe, some diced mushroom, flour, salt, and water would do it.

But, if you are really looking for an aswer for having cream of mushroom soup around, get a BIG restaurant can, open it, and freeze 3.5 ounce baggies.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

No, what I'm looking for is a way to keep myself fed and the kitchen usable when I have minimal time, energy, and spare cash. Minimal dish use because I don't have time and energy to wash much, and my dishwasher is useless. I'm usually already hungry when I get home, so trying to cook then doesn't work so well.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

If you're hungry, using the crock pot to make dinner isn't a good idea. its going to take hours.

Really, getting the large can and freezing in baggies/gladware is a great option.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

The idea is to start the crock pot in the morning so food is ready when I get home.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

It might clarify things if I point out that I mostly don't like soup as a main dish. SO making soup is not my goal, but making things that use cream of $FOO as an ingredient is A-OK by me, because I've had many tasty dishes like that.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

is okay, weve done lots of roasts, pastas, even bread.

I guess i'm trying to get you to think of it less as a microwave type of arrangement and more as a broadening of horizons- you can do all sorts of scratch stuff easily- even tamales and chili and mexican stews. Rice dishes are cake.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I know it can be used for all of that. But firstly, I need to crawl before I walk -- much less run -- and secondly, right now, I don't have time or energy for anything that requires a lot of prep or clean-up. 5 minutes in the morning is pushing it; I could maybe manage a little more in set-up the night before once in a while. The energy I have needs to go towards laundry and liutterboxes and general home maintenance. That's the current state of my health, and there's not a lot I can do about it.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

I totally understand that.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

1.5 quart is pretty small. you've got 48 ounces in there....

You'll be better off with scratch ingredients, canned soup is already done, crock pot is pointless. once carrot, half a stick of celery, 1/4 cup of rice, 8 ounces of meat, and fill the crock pot up after all that is in with boxed stock. you might need some salt.

If there's trouble with the chopping, make it a 3/4 cup of mixed frozen veggies.

that's a basic starting point.

1/4 cup of rice is going to turn into roughly 2/3 cup of rice. so adjust accordingly if you like a stewish soup.


1/3 cup rice, 4 tablespoons tomato sauce, a 1 pound piece of chuck roast, 1/2 cup water (not totally sure about that, have to watch it the first time and adjust) and some diced vegetable stuff would also make a good one. season that plenty, though.

Most 5 quart crock pot recipes canbe cut to 1/5, then add a pinch here and there depending on ingredients- crock pot cooking is not an exact science like baking. That's by design :)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I got a small one because there's only one of me and I don't like having a lot of leftovers. Also, it was cheap, and the medium sizes are harder to find.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

no problem with the size. Just making sure you know the limits. one of the problems is you have to keep an inch rim for bubbling, and that affects your quantities more than it would a 2.5 quart

[strigine.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm totally in the same boat! A coworker got me a wee!crock for Christmas and now I'm trying to figure out what to put in it. I'll let you know if I find any recipes for that size!

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

I adore cooking with crockpots, because you don't HAVE to measure any of the ingredients right (that being said, note that I usually come out with rather watery sauce... but that's what flour is for!) I usually cover or almost-cover the stuff I'm cooking with liquid (potatoes, in particular, tend to come out undercooked for me otherwise), and that's the only real rule of thumb I use.

My favorite recipe is for slow-cooked galbi (note that when joyce tried it she used more like 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1/3 cup sugar). Of course you can replace "beef short ribs" with your meat of choice, though it is really spectacular with the short ribs.

Another one I quite like is the following:

(First, put in some sliced potatoes and/or carrots if you like those.) Dump some chicken breasts into the slow cooker and just barely cover with some combination (usually 50-50 for me) of white wine and 'chicken broth,' which usually for me is made with bouillon cubes. Also I've been using white grape juice instead of white wine, since that's what we often have on hand. I also usually add some onions and mushrooms at this point. Add salt, lots of pepper (yum!), garlic, and some sort of other spice (thyme is a good one). Tell the slow cooker to cook for however long it thinks it's supposed to. Eat.

It's even better if you brown the chicken first in a flour coating, but you don't have to.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I'll keep an eye out for suitable pork ribs, since beef and my digestion don't get along. Thanks; those seem suitably easy :)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

Tell the slow cooker to cook for however long it thinks it's supposed to.

my slow cooker thinks it should cook until i tell it it's done.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Huh. my slow cooker won't cook for more than 6 hours on "high" (I've never tried putting it on low). So... cook it for 6 hours, then.

[kshandra]

There was a discussion in what_a_crock about smaller-capacity slow-cookers not too long ago. I'd definitely check out the community if you haven't already.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't know about it -- thanks!

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

Cooking is more of an art than a science. And what I mean by that is, of course, that it's not necessarily a thing most of the time where "Dump precisely 1.25 cups of canned soup, 2540 kernels of rice, and 1.5 chicken breasts, set on low for 2.37 hours, eat" is what it is. I think the recipes just make it seem that and for some things (meringue?) it appears that way.

It's like what I'm learning about music. I've been playing the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen (from Shrek) from the sheet music with my little quartet. Was doing some practicing on my own and B pointed out that I wasn't doing the exact timing as given on the notes. I was following the notes and doing the timing and length based on what I could hear in my head. Well, it turns out that musical notation isn't a precise science either. Chances are the original composer wrote it for guitar and it eventually got turned into notes. But notes you sing are different than notes you follow beat for beat. So really I was originally doing okay (better than okay?) even if I wasn't following precisely what it said.

Now that being said there are some cooking things that are precise. Rice, and other stuff do have to be timed pretty right. You also wouldn't want to cook rice in the soup but add it later when it's time to eat it (or it soaks up the liquid.)

Anyway my point is---just try it. If you put in a can of soup and a pre-cooked chicken breast and let it simmer for all day what's the harm that can come? ;)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know -- and for a lot of thing, I know enough about how it's supposed to be that I can eyeball it. The slow cooker is new to me.

THe worst that can happen? The house burns down. More likely, the food gets so burned on to the crock that I can't get it off. Also, I have no food ready when I want to eat.

[snippy]

A tried-and-true "recipe" I've used a lot is:

2 frozen chicken breasts
1 bottle your favorite Italian salad dressing

Cook on low 6 to 8 hours. Serve over or with rice or noodles. Or add some potatoes at the beginning: either whole baby potatoes or large chunks of potato. Chopped onions are good in this too.

I suppose you could do this with the canned cream of $FOO soup, but I'd add at least a can of water or milk too.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Where did you find a 1.5 quart with multiple temperatures? I've been trying to find one to do overnight oatmeal in...

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Target, $9.99. Low, high, and warm, IIRC. I"ll check the brand info when I get home, but I think it's a store brand.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Brand is Chefmate.

hmm

[thespatula.livejournal.com]

a quick amazon search brings up this book: http://tinyurl.com/2yvj3o

Re: hmm

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Already on my wishlist.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Keep us posted once you pass the getting comfortable stage and get to the getting creative stage!

[justeps.livejournal.com]

Those of you who remember the days when I used to host room parties at cons know I'm particularly fond of 5-qt. Crock Pots ... they're the perfect size for #10 cans. Since most of these parties were held several hundred miles from where I live--i.e. flying distance--it didn't make sense to transport them. I simply bought a new pair (one for meat, one for non-meat) each time, and either gave them away, or sold them at a substantial discount to local fans at the end of the con.

A couple of years ago, for some inexplicable reason, those Crock Pots disappeared from store shelves. I could still find larger ones, and smaller ones, but not the "classic" 5-qt. round variety.

Costco is offering $10 off a 5-qt. oval Crock Pot + Little Dipper combo this week, and that was enough incentive to go pick one up. (Thanks for the "nudge.")

Now, I feel obligated to get my paws on some Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners...

[moontoad.livejournal.com]

Nolly,

The easiest thing for the meat + grain + cream of soup= dinner is to just take the amount of meat you want, put it in with the amount of grain and add enough liquid to cook the grain. So, for a meal, no leftovers put in one chicken breast, a half cup of rice, 1 cup of liquid. Take the can of cream of, dump it into a measuring cup to see how much you have, top it off with enough milk to make your fluids be at least one cup. You might need more to adjust for the loss of moisture due to steam. I would add more until you've made the recipe often enough to know what you need to fidget with and change. This should solve your "how much do I use" beginner's dilemna. Adding vegetables can add fluids to your meal. For instance, if you toss in mushrooms, be aware that shrooms have a LOT of water in them so they will leak and then eventually cook off. If you put them in and don't adjust for the fluids you might have too much liquid in your meal and make it soggy rather than thick and creamy. If that happens, turn the pot on high and cook it uncovered a bit to dry out the shroom juice if you want it sooner rather than later. Otherwise you can just turn it up and let it simmer until it has cooked off and looks drier. It will be easier to start with meat and grains until you have that perfected, then add vegetables.

Some of the high water vegetables that are good for crockpot meals are summar squashes (yellow or crookneck squash, zucchini) and bell peppers as well as mushrooms. They are juicy, so when they heat up they release that juice and it spreads throughout the meat and grain that is in the crockpot, making it especially flavorful. You can make a sort of stuffed green pepper dish in the crockpot by using PRE-BROWNED ground beef. Raw ground beef itself is not a good meat to use in a crockpot. It takes too long to heat up and actually cook through safely. However, you can brown a few pounds of beef and put them in gallon ziploc bags. Take out a cup or so of meat, add a half cup of rice, mix in a small can of tomato sauce, top off with beef broth and seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, etc), chunk up a green pepper and you have a really tasty meal.

Summer squash is a easy to remember as a juicy veggie if you just remember that they are vegetable forms of melons! So, zucchini is like cucumber which is like watermelon which is like canteloupe which is orange like butternut squash which is a winter melon (hah! winter squash). I like slices of zucchini simmered with chunks of italian sausage in beef broth with a lot of Italian seasonings and bright bell peppers in red and green and yellow served on fettucini with a liberal amount of parmegiano romano and that can work out in the crockpot too, on high for a few hours to cook the sausage then low for the veggies, it would work well for a saturday meal while running errands.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That's just the kind of informeation I needed!