What is a crock-pot?
A Crock-Pot also known as a slow-cooker is a countertop electrical cooking appliance that maintains a relatively low temperature (compared to other cooking methods such as baking, boiling, and frying) which allows for unattended cooking so that you can do other things in the meantime, such as taking care of errands, kids, shopping or even watching a movie, uninterrupted!
Practically, any recipe that requires long hours of cooking, occasional stirring can be cooked in a crock-pot with ease. Soups, stews, curries, salads, puddings are just a few.
Does crock-pot’s come in various sizes, which one should I use?
Yes, crock-pots do come in wide variety of brands, sizes and colors. Well, the color doesn’t matter, but the larger the size, the less time it takes to cook the meal. However, if you plan on cooking little portions, I would recommend cooking in 1.5 quarts – 2.0 quarts crock-pot that can serve a family of 1-4. To cook for 6-8 people, I would recommend a 4-6 quarts and for parties of more than 8 people, you can buy even larger crock-pot, which is 6 quarts and above.
How much electricity does a crock-pot consume?
I use my crockpot all the time; not because it saves me money, but because it saves me time. I love being able to throw all the ingredients for a soup or a curry in my crockpot and then just turn it on and go write! I don’t always have time to cook, especially when I’m taking care of my little monsters so using my crockpot can be a super time saver for me. Anyways, to answer to the point, The answer is a little complicated. It depends on where you live, and the kind of power you use for your home, believe it or not. For example, if you use gas to cook with, then cooking with a crockpot may not make much of a difference, since in many cases gas is quite inexpensive. However, if you use an electric stove-top or an oven, then a crockpot could save you quite a bit.
As for ‘cost’, look at the wattage rating of the device (should be on it somewhere), divide by 1000 to get kilowatts, multiply by hours used to get kilowatt-hours, check your electric bill for the cost per KWh. 200 watts / 1000 = 0.2 KW. 8 hours times 0.2 KW = 1.6 KWh. 1.6 KWh times 20 cents per KWh = 32 cents.
The verdict! “The trusty slow-cooker is almost certainly a lot greener and more economical.”
The first advantage I would say is a ton of “TIME SAVINGS” and of course, cooking is a breeze when it comes to cooking in a crock-pot; all you have to do is add all the ingredients, turn-on the crock-pot and wait for a few hours until it’s done. Well, there are other value added benefits too, such as cost of operation, minimal cleaning i.e. “LESS DISHES” and most important of all, a crock-pot uses a little quantity of oil/grease i.e. “HEALTH BENEFITS!”
Practically, I couldn’t think of any dis-advantages of cooking in a crock-pot. Technically, some vitamins and other trace nutrients are lost, particularly from vegetables, partially by enzyme action during cooking and partially due to heat degradation; but how healthy is it to eat outside anyway, so I would imagine that the benefits would out way the minute amount of risks.
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