Slow Cooker Secrets

Yay, I’ve been asked to share my secrets!  When I wrote the post yesterday, I thought the secret was to use the slow cooker.  But I guess I have a few more things to share.  I only really use beef and pork. I often put in some pieces of chuck roast and then a neck or something else that is mostly bone, not much meat. This adds a ton of flavour. The juices are great, even if you don’t make gravy with them, you can save them and use them as stock for something else.  I find there’s so much juice that I often make a gravy and still have stock to put in the fridge.   Sometimes I brown the meat first, sometimes I don’t.  It’s yummy both ways but I think the browning brings out another layer of flavour.  I normally choose a recipe online and then adapt it to what I have (I search under "slow cooker recipe")  It almost doesn’t seem to matter what you add, so long as you leave it cooking long enough.  Never put it on after 2pm unless you don’t mind eating after 8pm.  My favourite thing to do is eat it philly-cheese style. That is, inside a Kaiser roll with any old sandwich-y items you might like (which is not what a philly-cheese, but I was only referring to the meat inside the philly-cheese).  The tip to not making it like grandma’s soggy stew is to take out any over-cooked veggies.  You can either add them about 40 minutes before you’re ready (or less?) or cook them separately.  Don’t just slop that meat and juice onto your plate, make something nice with the juice: or don’t use it at all.  I’m aware this is not rocket science, if you have any other tips for me, please comment them!