Why Your Life Would be Easier with a Croc Pot

As the evenings draw in, it's time to store the barbeque and get out the croc pot. Invented by the Crock-Pot company, the croc pot, or slow cooker, is a low-energy way of cooking food over a period of several hours. Because the temperature never reaches anywhere near boiling point, food becomes tender without losing any of its natural flavour or nutritional value. This is a kitchenware item that is excellent for preparing rich stews. The length of cooking time is ideal for complex dishes that rely on binding diverse flavours. And modern croc pots are ultra-economical.

The concept has caught on. Well-known brand names such as Morphy Richards and Breville make super-efficient slow cookers that are affordable and easy to use. They have become popular because they are so easy to use. Preparing a nutritious dinner is a real challenge - even more so for tired parents arriving home from work with hungry children to feed. For many, that's the most chaotic time of the day - and the worst possible moment to start preparing dinner.

A croc pot allows you to choose the best moment to prepare your meal. You can chop your vegetables and prepare your meat in the morning, place it all in the slow cooker and turn it on before you leave the house. The first croc pots cooked at a pre-defined, low temperature that was controlled by a thermostat. Contemporary cookware now offer a host of features that essentially allow you to expand your culinary repetoire beyond the limit of simple stews. Some feature more complicated temperature control so that food can be kept warm once its cooked automatically. There are slow cookers on the market that automatically switch off when they detect that the joint of meat is cooked. You can achieve crispy toppings by programming more advanced slow cookers to rise to high temperatures for the last 15 minutes of their cooking cycle. However, if energy savings are your biggest concern, you probably won't want to go for a slow cooker which can cook at high temperatures. A modern, simple croc pot is still the most efficient way to cook your food.

There are two main sizes of slow cookers and croc pots. These are the '4-quart' and the '6-quart', which hold exactly what they say on the tin. The 6-quart option would be perfect for a big family with healthy appetites and a large kitchen. But one factor that has made croc pots so popular over the years is the prevalence of 'pot-luck' dinners. In this case, a 4-quart, handled croc pot would be ideal. Just pick up the pot, carry it to the party and once you get there, plug it in. Some croc pots even have a crockery bowl that you can remove from the rest of the cooker. This makes serving directly from the bowl very easy - and a little more elegant. And because the crockery pot is quite heavy, it is sufficient to maintain the food at temperature without power.

Now that there have been so many croc pots and slow cookers on the market for such a long time, there are also plenty of recipes to go with them. Once you have familiarized yourself with the basics, your imagination is the only limit.