The first thing you need to consider with any slow cooker is its capacity – each will list its bowl size in litres. Bear in mind that this won’t translate to the same amount of food, as you shouldn’t fill slow cookers to the brim. This gap allows your food to bubble and simmer properly. The usable cooking space will be around three-quarters of its bowl size, for example, a five-litre cooker can accommodate around four litres of food. You can activate a keep warm setting to keep your food ready for as long as six hours after your cooking mode has finished. The sear mode took only a few minutes to pre-heat and we were able to brown our onions before adding curry ingredients, which delivered a lot of extra flavour.The slow cooker's 'reduce' function was useful for bubbling away excess liquid after slow cooking. My latest Morphy Richards Slow Cooker Recipes. With more slow cooker recipe ideas. And US recipes I have adapted or tweaked to UK measurements. You can place the cooking pot in the dishwasher or wash by hand fairly easily. The Ninja Foodi Multi-Cooker also has a basket insert and can be used to air fry other treats when not in use as a slow cooker. Is this the future of slow cooking? We think so. With a transparent toughened glass lid you can monitor your cooking progress without disturbing its cooking process, and unlike ceramic cooking pots the Sear and Stew hob proof cooking pot is extremely light and durable making it easy to take to the table and serve directly from.

You can’t just do your current recipes in the slow cooker. They do need some tweaking to allow for the fact that steam doesn’t evaporate in the same way as hob/oven cooking. Most slow cookers will have similar standard controls – high heat for meals cooked in less than a few hours, low heat for all-day cooking. A 'keep warm' mode should hold food at a serveable temperature without actually cooking it. Some cookers will switch to 'keep warm' automatically after an elapsed cooking time, while more basic models need this altered manually. Slow cookers are also brilliant for less-than-confident cooks, easily creating all those meals that seem a bit scary on the hob. That’s because slow cooking develops the flavours of food for richer, tastier results. It’s not just dinners that slow cookers excel at making either. They make great porridge, granola, stewed apples, bread and butter pudding, fudge and dips. You can use your slow cooker to melt chocolate, as a Bain-marie. How much should I spend on a slow cooker?

Slow cookers with digital controls may also have a delay start, which is ideal if you’re out of the house for more than eight hours. This means you can start cooking at a time to suit you – while it’s hard to overcook recipes with a lot of liquid, this gives more freedom with dishes that could potentially start to dry out. A timer is another handy feature – this will either turn the machine off after cooking or put it into a limited time keep warm mode.

Does your slow cooker have good heat distribution? Some can suffer from hot spots that cause drying out in corners or at the base. Uneven heat is something that’s more likely to occur in larger bowls.I like the look of this slow cooker too. The titanium model is nice, and the rose gold option is a jazzy look for those who have kettles and toasters to match. If you spend a lot of time out of the house you may be better choosing a digital slow cooker which will allow you to set delay timers and switch automatically to a keep-warm setting. However, a manual slow cooker will cost a lot less and still deliver great results. About this review, and the reviewer One of the best things about the Drew and Cole Cleverchef Pro is the app, which comes with a huge range of recipes at the touch of a button. Compared to a lot of multi-cookers the Drew and Cole Cleverchef Pro has an uncomplicated display that's simple to customise. A great choice for those who want a smart multi-cooker. Slow cooking in general is a great way to make the most of cheaper but tastier cuts of meat. As these benefit from low and slow cooking.

The Russell Hobbs Good to Go Multicooker is a true multi-tasker. Armed with a variety of capabilities, you can make sure that your meat is cooked just right before you cut it open, or fill up a water bath for succulent sous vide fish or veggies. This digital slow cooker comes with a removable control dial on its front control panel, which has pre-set modes for steaming and stewing as well as high and low manual temperature levels. There is also a keep warm mode. Once your pot is in the slow cooker base simply select either the high or low cooking setting, and you will have a delicious casserole, chili, curry or a multitude of other family favourites. Sear and Stew will cook your meal whilst you are out and about and have it ready and waiting for when you return home. If however you are delayed, you don’t have to worry your meal will be ruined as Sear and Stew will automatically switch to a two hour keep warm to keep your meal at the right temperature and tasting great. Slow cookers range in size from a compact 1.5 litres to a 6.5-litre bowl, so be sure to choose the right size for the way you intend to cook. As a rough guide, 1.5-3 litres will feed one or two people, 3-5 litres, three or four people and anything over five litres should suit a large family, with six litres or more ideal for batch cooks who like to fill the freezer. Alternatively, a larger cooker is great for those who like to eat what’s leftover for lunch the next day. When we tested its slow cooking mode we found that it's almost too good at retaining moisture. Recipes that came out more saucy in some slow cookers were a little less rich because it's also designed to be an airtight pressure cooker. That can be remedied though by adding less liquid or taking into account the liquid that will come out of meat and veggies when you add them. If I had an electric or gas hob, I would also be able to make the most out of the Sear and Stew feature. But I can cope without that for now.Also in general, a slow cooker is much cheaper to run than a conventional oven. Even if you have the slow cooker on for longer time. This slow cooker model has a power consumption of 163W. In comparison my fan oven runs at about 2700W. The metal inner pot, means that you can brown meat in the same pot. Making it easy to make one-pot meals. And saves on the washing up. Plus you don’t lose any of the meat juices. The new Sear and Stew slow cooker by Morphy Richards features a hob proof cooking pot, meaning you can sear and slow cook from start to finish in one cooking pot making the slow cooking process even more efficient. The Ninja Foodi Multi-Cooker is certainly mighty, but if you like your gadgets it could be a great investment. You can of course just use this multi-cooker as a slow cooker, for which it has a generous 6 litre capacity, but you can also take advantage of the sear setting to brown meat and veggies before slow cooking for a more rich flavour. Even cooking with this model, means you don’t need to rotate the pot. Like you do with some older slow cookers. This means for most recipes, it’s easy to just switch on and leave it to do the cooking. With no further fussing or intervention required.