(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

[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.