Hurricane Katrina evacuee Kathy Curry of New Orleans put a turkey breast into a slow cooker as she prepares her Thanksgiving dinner in the bathroom of her hotel room at a Days Inn November 23, 2005 in Camp Springs, Maryland.
With the advancement of technology, household chores like cooking have been made easy because of the latest inventions that ease these harbor's difficulty.
One of the innovations that does not need so much attention while doing its job in the kitchen is the slow cooker that enables housewives and home chefs to serve hearty soups and other dishes. However, because of slow cooker mistakes people unconsciously commit, it shortens this magnificent machine's life.
According to Slow Cooker Perfect, slow cookers usually have heating elements at the base or surrounding the device and are used to slow cook or maintain the temperature of a soup or a dish to prevent you from going back and forth the stove just to reheat your meals.
Here are the slow cooker mistakes you need to be mindful of to take proper care of your helpful dive in the kitchen.
Removing Lid Frequently
Of course, when you are cooking, even with not using the slow cooker, you might frequently open your cookers' lid. Love Foods notes that this practice is not suitable for the meal and slow cooker itself. The Kitchn shares that slow cookers work by trapping the heat inside and opening it most of the time to make the cooking slower.
Read also: Slow Cooker Hacks You Haven't Tried Yet
Too Much Liquid
Eat This Not That points out that adding the liquid depends on the recipe. They add that adding too much liquid to every recipe can result in too much leftover once the cooking time is up. To explain this, they add that you get a lot less evaporation in the slow cooker than the stovetop or oven, resulting in too much liquid to your dish.
Overcrowding
If you have a big device, you might result from overcrowding your ingredients in the slow cooker. Reader's Digest notes that some components like meat need space to cook evenly, and the indication that you put enough heart in the slow cooker is that you can still cover your slow cooker, and it still fits snuggly on top.
Dairy products
If you put dairy, you might put it in the slow cooker immediately to melts and combine while the whole dish cooks. The Kitchn shares adding milk, sour cream, and cheese will make them curdle. Love Foods recommends putting these ingredients at the end long enough for the ingredients to be heated for 30 minutes.
Adding all ingredients at once
Eat This Not That notes that usually this is done because people expect the slow cooker to cook them all at once. But the addition that this is a misconception because it is better to layer the ingredients over time to get better textures and flavors. Love Foods notes that sometimes adding them all at once will result in uneven cooking, which is not suitable for a meal.
Keeping in mind these slow cooker mistakes will make you improve your dinner this winter heartier and more enjoyable with the whole family. Slow cookers are a great help in the kitchen so take care of them to maximize their function.
Related article: Slow Cooker Recipes That are easy to Cook
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