But one time, I was craving for some hot and heavy meal and so I thought of preparing a beef stew. It required a handful of fresh herbs which I had chopped and threw into the pot. Besides, some crumbled bacon was added to give it a good flavor. I put the foodWhat happens when you heat up the wrong thing in a slow cooker?
into the slow cooker and continued with my activities. I looked forward to the tasty stew that I would eat later that evening.
When I got home, it was not what I had in my mind to expect. Instead of a delicious and aromatic soup that I had in mind, I got something else. I was given a kind of gray, rather tasteless, and even slightly bitter meal. It was not what I wanted to have.
What I learned is that slow cookers are really useful in saving time but not all foods can be prepared in slow cookers. I discovered that there are some things you should never cook in a slow cooker.
Dairy
There are certain foods that are not suitable to be prepared in slow cookers. Dairy products are one of them. Some dairy products such as milk, cream, and cheese are known to curdle when cooked in a crockpot. This happens because of the long cooking time. Once I had the misfortune to put the cream into the soup at the beginning of cooking. Finally, I was left with watery and curdled liquid that had the cream at the bottom.
Seafood
Seafood is very delicate and can become overcooked in a slow cooker. This makes shrimp, fish, or scallops become rubbery and not enjoyable to eat. Once, I tried to make seafood stew in my slow cooker thinking it would simplify the process. Instead, I received shrimp that were overcooked and chewy. They did not have that appealing texture to them. When cooking a particular dish, you may need to include seafood. This should be done in the final one hour of cooking.
Fresh Herbs
Cooks often use herbs like parsley, basil, and cilantro when preparing meals. These herbs taste best fresh, as they develop a bitter flavor when cooked on low heat for a long time. It is better to introduce them at the last steps of the cooking process. This way, they will not lose their taste. To bring out the real taste of herbs in your dish, use the dried ones. They last long in the cooking process.
Alcohol
If there is one thing that is not to be done when cooking in a slow cooker, it is to add wine or beer to a dish. This does add an extra dimension of flavor to it. The problem is that the alcohol doesn’t have a chance to evaporate as it would when you heat the mixture in a pot on the stove, for example. This means that your dish may develop an interesting, quite possibly unpleasant flavor of alcohol. If the recipe has a bit of alcohol, it is advised to cook the alcohol first on the pan and then add it to the slow cooker.
