Crock-Pot4.7l Gloss Black Digital Countdown Slow Cooker

I very much like how the Crock-Pot Digital Countdown Slow Cooker, 4.7L worksas you can add or deduct time after seeing how the food is cooking is a bonusand very helpful in the learning process of finding how this piece of equipmentworks with different recipes and allows one far more freedom from the start.I decided to work with this cook pot from the beginning in this manner rather then put it on and leave it altogetherby doing so I could observe how slow or how fast each of my recipes were doing and know what to expect another time.It has been so helpful that I have only had a few occasions when I have not used this cooker since it arrived.The slower heat is not a dead slow and the next level up is a very reasonable heat, but you do need to think a headanyhow with a slow cooker.The lovely aroma because all is simmering, fills the home.I was an owner of a very older type cook pot some years ago and it gave up on me after a good many years service and I neverreplaced it until now, I wished I had replaced it sooner but saying that the digital type was not around and I think ifyou are going to get one it is well worth getting this type.The size is just ideal, as I wanted one that could take a reasonable medium joint or meat with vegetable'sand for four of us it is ideal size for a good 4 medium/larger portions or for putting aside a couple of portionsfor freezer or have the next day.If you go for a smaller cook pot, it will not allow you these options.The size for the worktop is comfortable.The 2 heat settings are very good and the keep warm is so handy.I really do not see the need of a recipe book as most things cooked in an oven can be cookedin this cook pot, however take a little care as the side walls of the cook pot does get hot.The handy see through glass lid has a little hole through the top to let steam out, you need to be aware of thisbecause this can hold a very little water after washing up and will drip when wiping up but soon dries out. I recently cooked: liver and bacon with red/green peppers, onions with beef bouillon and rice, it came out very tasty.Pork/ Lamb joints, meat balls also Milk puddings, egg custard, bread and butter pudding and soups.If you have any doubt about this cook pot, do not it is a very handy piece of equipment saving a great deal onenergy costs not having to heat the main cooker and allowing to cook the more economical meats and veryhandy in the summer months when a main cooker will give out a greater amount of heat.I am pleased with it and hope it will give us as many years use as the last one did, which was 15 years.

I looked at loads of reviews before choosing a slow cooker.Although I live on my own, I did want a cooker that would accommodate a reasonable sized joint of meat, and I knew I could freeze any surplus food. I chose one with a countdown timer as I'm not always sure when I'll be back home.The cooker seems well built - with a big heavy ceramic inner pot. On first use there was a slightly disconcerting smell of warm electrics coming from the control panel - it has settled but I can still smell warm electrics if I put my nose close to it - guess that's inevitable. The pot does get hot on the outside - so make sure nothing meltable is touching it.The pot is large - my second meal was a 3.5kg piece of pork - but I have found that as long as it is at least half full of cooking juice- it seems to work fine. The timer is easy to use - you can switch from high to low whenever you want - but it would have been nice to be able to have say - one hour on high and then the rest on low...maybe I'm asking too much.It cooks beautifully - and I am very pleased with the meals I have made. The pork was super succulent after 7-8hrs, I've made ribs & beans and that was a great success too. It converted a little tray of lamb bones into a magnificent tagine.One curious fact about slow cooking - with the pork - there was virtually no fat in the juices - it remained on the pork and was tasteless! It seems to have extracted all the yummy fat flavour but left the fat in situ. The lamb dish did shed much fat, but that was easily skimmed off leaving a delicious sauce. You may find it best to decant the cooking juices and reduce them on a normal stove to concentrate the flavours.I've yet to use it while I'm out as I can never get up early enough to do the prep!!!All in all it seems to be a great buy - either for a family, or a lone greedy guts like me! I look forward to weekends even more now - as I plan what other hapless bit of meat will be the next offering to my crock-pot!

We’d heard friends and family talking about how good slow-cookers were but had never bothered trying one. Finally, we decided to do so and bought this model based on its recommendation in Which magazine where they said it was “a fantastic all-rounder” and gave it Best Buy status (tested January 2016). There are other cheaper models including from this manufacturer, but we particularly wanted one which would automatically switch to a keep-warm setting when the cooking was complete. In the month since we ordered it we have become converts to the slow-cooker and have tried various recipes that we have found on the internet – so far every one has been delicious. To be fair, I think it’s hard to go too far wrong with a recipe based on what we have learned as it is not complicated in the least. There are some recipes given in the instruction manual but so far we’ve only tried one of them.Using the cooker itself is simple, and cleaning it is also easy. Instead of finding that food burns onto the surfaces of the glass lid and ceramic dish they come out spotless each time whether we use the dishwasher or clean them by hand. There is a digital counter on the front of the machine which is useful and accurate – you simply choose the heat level (high/low/keep-warm) and then select a countdown time in blocks of 30 minutes which is basically the cooking time. Once that time counts down to zero it automatically switches to keeping the food warm rather than cooking it. That certainly doesn’t mean just ‘warm’ as it stays piping hot, even after a number of hours. If I was being especially picky and trying to find a fault with this slow-cooker I’d say that the buttons need to be pressed quite firmly, but that’s really not a problem and I couldn’t knock off a star for it – this is definitely a five star product.