Hello kitchen freaks, I'll tell you, soft meats like butter, legumes with a unique flavor, cooking while you sleep, while you're at work or while playing petanque ... pay attention to this video because I'm going to explain everything about the pot Slow, crock pot or slow cocker or whatever you want to call it, let's start. The slow cooker is an electric appliance that cooks slowly for several hours depending on the recipe. It works from room temperature and gradually warms up. It has two functions low and high, in both it will reach a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, the difference is that in the high mode it will arrive more quickly than in the low mode . Some pots also have the WARM function, and it is used to keep food warm when serving, but be careful with this mode because it continues to cook. In other pots they also have the AUTO function, in this mode during the first hour it is in high mode and after that time it goes into low mode, I will explain later that we are almost always going to cook in low mode . I have to make a clarification with the slow cookers and it is that it has nothing to do with the low temperature cooking technique, that is a different technique that we will see later in amazing recipes, but it has nothing to do with these cooking pots. slow, it was just to make it clear. Look, I have this pot that I have disassembled so that you can see how it is inside because this is something very very simple. This type of pots always have a normally glass lid , a ceramic glass, you have to be careful with it and this ladies and gentlemen is practically "ojalata", this is bad metal and this aluminum, this part of here where we introduce the glass It is the resistance that will heat the glass, here it is connected and this is what makes us warm. The power for this 8-liter pot is 320W in high mode and 160W in low mode- I don't know if you've ever seen a way inside but this is what it has. super simple. I wanted to tell you something about the slow cooker brands , the main brand is Crock Pot and there are others like Cecotec, Russel Hobss, VonShef, Amazonbasics ... even Amazon also has slow cookers, here I have for example Andrew James and I have Kralstein, There are some brands that are not even known to their father ... what happens with this a slow cooker ... it is super easy to make it, my advice, personal opinion and as this review is not paid for by anyone, because in freakish recipes we tell what we want because nobody pays us ... I give you my honest opinion, I would not go to the most expensive brands, for a simple reason that they are all super similar. They are for made in china, so if the Chinese himself does not make them, he and his cousin make them ... I'm going to show these two of mine from different brands, look at this is the Andrew James and notice, the handles, glass, the tape, it is exactly the same as the Kralstein, handles, glass and tape is that there are two copies, only the brand changes ... I do tell you that these brands are no longer found by anyone, for me they are manufactured in the same site and each time they change the brand. The problem with this is that in the event of a breakdown you can already call Andrew, who will pick up the phone for us, that is why I assure you, that is why anyone who is afraid of breakdowns, of problems with the machine itself, will not have an adequate technical service. For example, CROCK POT is going to have it but it is much more expensive, that is, you decide that, in my case you can see that these cheap brands work perfectly for me , we continue with the tutorial. Now we have the doubt of which slow cooker to buy, because you always have to buy the one that best suits your needs, your way of cooking, we will have to look at several things, for example the size, you have to take into account for how many people cook, if we cook more and then store in the freezer for example or if we usually have guests in our house, all this must be taken into account. The most common rounded sizes because depending on the brands vary a little, they are 1.5 liters for people between 1 and 2 of 2.5 liters for two or three people of 3.5 liters for three or four people of 4.5 liters for 4 or 5 people of 5.5 liters for 5 or 7 people of 6.5 liters six or eight people and the largest of eight liters between 8 and 12 people. We will also have to look at the shape, oval as we have here or round shape. I am in favor of oval shapes, why? Well, as simple as that we can put whole pieces of chicken, pieces of loin, ribs ... even molds to make a sponge cake. Another important piece of information to choose from is whether we want a digital or manual slow cooker , because always, always, always, always manual, I explain: The first thing would be that digital cookers, as in this model, have more electronics, therefore they have more possibilities of suffering Failure and second and the most important thing for me is that we can connect slow cookers to plugs with programmable digital or analog timers or even have smart sweets, well in the manual pot we will not have any problem. We plug the slow cooker into our programmable socket, we will put it on low and when it has to be turned on it will turn on and when it has to turn off it will turn off. We will not be able to do that with the digital pots and you are going to check it right now, looking at the smart plug or the timer would give way to us but we have to activate it, give it a time and press the mode we want. For this reason we will not be able to give our digital slow cooker a start because we will always have to make a selection. The timer plug can only turn it off but we will have to be there to turn on and put the data. With this type of manual days we would simply program the time and it would be plugged in the way we left it and it would turn off at the programming time, we can even give it some time later to heat the food before we get home. And with smart plugs through a mobile phone we could activate it from work. How much do slow cookers consume? that's what everyone is afraid of, because they associate that a slow cooker has many hours of operation and is going to spend a lot and we are going to lose a lot of money. Well, nothing is further from reality, you just have to do the calculations and I explain very easily how to do them. You have to calculate the consumption, we only have to take the power in kilowatts, for example this model in low mode consumes 160w that converted to kilowatts is 0.16. That is the power, because now we multiply it by the hours that it will be working, for example eight hours. We already have that consumption data and now how much do we have the price per kilowatt hour? You look for it on the internet the price in your country. In Spain, for example, at night, which is when I cook, it is around 20 cents of a euro, since we multiply that data by the previous consumption data and the result will give us the actual expenditure we have had on this pot. To give you an idea of an eight-hour stew in low mode in Spain, we are going to pay 25 cents, that is, a very little, this spends much less than an oven, an induction hob , a vitroceramic hob ... you can do the calculations with the power of your devices. In other words, remove the erroneous idea that this device is expensive for its consumption because that is not the case. Well we have everything decided, we have bought our slow cooker. By the way I am going to leave in the description of the video several links to different slow cookers so that you can review them. The first thing we have to do when we have the slow cooker at home like any kitchen appliance is to wash it, simply with soapy water and a scouring pad. Clean the lid, clean the ceramics and above all be careful with the glass, it does not slip and it will fall, because if it falls it will crack and goodbye today to the slow cooker. With regard to cleaning after making a stew or any recipe, you have to always, always, always let it cool down, because a sudden change in temperature if you put it under the tap to wash it can cause our glass to fracture . Despite the fact that many manufacturers allow them to be washed in a dishwasher, I always recommend manual washing. And for example, if broth has been spilled inside, every time it spills into the area where the glass is, look, you see that they are small spills. You can always clean it by remembering first to disconnect the appliance from the power supply and then clean it with a soft cloth , I tell you the truth that I don't even clean it because it doesn't bother me and you run a higher risk, maybe some water will run off. Inside the screws or if they rust, if it bothers you a lot, well, we clean it with a damp cloth and a little soap and then leave it very dry. How to cook with a slow cooker? Well, everything has its tricks and its adaptation period, we have to adapt to this pot, there will be recipes that need a little preparation, such as soaking some legumes, browning the meat, evaporating the alcohol of some wine that we want to take ... I always like to make a kitchen with this type of them where we do not have to do a lot of preparation, a lot of preparation in advance, something simple, if we do not take away the sense of being, which is something comfortable and without much complication. Another tip is not to always be lifting the tape, we only have to lift it to check the doneness. Another super important tip is that if you see that the recipe needs water or broth, pour it hot, because if you pour it cold it is easy that the temperature contrast will break your glass ... you are warned. Most of the recipes we are going to do in low mode, except for the pastry recipes that will have to be done on high and even with a preheating period in vacuum, that is, without food. Remember also that you have to buy a programmable plug , we have already explained the reasons before and it goes super well. With the first preparation I warn you that surely you are not going to succeed, I am honest, you can follow a recipe to the letter and simply by changing the type of chickpeas, it will take another cooking time, it will be more or less, but it is easy that they do not fit to the point. It also costs a bit to get the measure of salt, so I recommend that as long as something goes well, you write it down, times, measures the amount of liquid ... because that way you will never fail. Each slow cooker is different and in the end you will have to make your own recipe book. The first few times you cook, always check the doneness, if the recipe does not have much time, check the point half an hour before or if it has a long cooking time, check it up to 60 minutes before. If it is cooked, you pay it and if after the time of the recipe you see that it lacks cooking, you can add times of half an hour to check and if it is still missing another half hour, so until you get the exact time and as I have told you before you write everything down perfectly. In the slow cooker you will be able to cook almost all stews, roasts, legumes, pickles, pastries, the only thing that you will not be able to do are recipes that need a quick amount of heat such as cooking pasta or rice, that is not what we will be able to do. When you master cooking in the slow cooker, it will become one of your favorite kitchen appliances, I guarantee it, you will get unmatched textures and flavors and the comfort is unsurpassed, this really does cook by itself. Any questions you have write me in comments and I will answer you delighted. And if you liked this video, subscribe and activate the bell so that you do not miss any of the recipes that we are going to make in this slow cooker, because I assure you that they will be amazing ... see you in the next video, see you later !!!
