I get a lot of e-mails asking me about cooking times for specific recipes. Sometimes the recipes call for as little as 3 hours cooking time, and most recipes are around 6 hours cooking time. Programmable slow cookers switch into warming mode once your preset programmed cooking time has expired. The problem with this is that the average slow cooker’s warming mode is greater than 150 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that your food will continue to cook at around this temperature until you turn the unit off. Not always a good thing, and sometimes it can totally overcook a meal.

The solution is a simple electrical lighting timer. You plug this thing into your wall outlet, and then plug your slow cooker into the timer. You simply set the start time to be slightly behind the current time, and your shutoff time to whenever you desire. If you know you are going to away for 10 hours, and start a 6 hour recipe before you leave the house, you may not want 4 hours of cooking at 150 degrees and up. With the simple timer, you can cut power off to your slow cooker after say 2 hours of warming, and your food will still probably be at about 140 degrees when you are ready to eat. Easy and precise.

 

1) Lighting timer. 

This simple grounded electrical timer gives you complete control of when your analog slow cooker turns on and off. It also lets digitally programmable slow cookers to alter their shut off time to prevent overcooking when away from home.

 

2) Any analog crock pot / slow cooker.

 

This simple $20 to $25 crock pot is all you really need, unless you require a larger size for family use. There are zero excuses left, hook your kitchen up.