Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Budget-Friendly Gourmet Nosh (Some Skill Required?) October 3, 2008
Zip (Kent UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I've been using slow cookers for about 25 years. I got the 48715 last Christmas (2007) and it's been serving this family of four at least once a week since. Like any other kitchen appliance, some common sense in its use will avoid any of the negatives I've read here.
A slow cooker is not a 'set-it-and-forget-it' device, and they're not marketed as such. Admittedly the 48715 runs hotter than one might expect, but that's true of most modern slow cookers. In fact the one niggle I have with it is the number of times I've inadvertently touched the hot metal base, but that's me being clumsy. There's a warning printed on the front, 'Hot metal surfaces do not touch.' And even at the age of fifty-something, I can still burn toast occasionally.
If you must leave it unattended, a timer socket (for around a tenner) can be handy, but consider how long the raw ingredients will be sitting at room temperature. Better to set it to come on within a hour of you leaving, and to turn off after a set number of hours. The residual heat will continue to cook the contents for some time, and half an hour on high will get it hot enough to eat.
Use the thing enough times and you'll get to know how far you can trust it to be left on its own.
The ceramic bowl has integrated moulded handles to allow it to be carried to the table and sat on a heat-proof mat. I doubt if I'd try to carry a full cooker by the handles on the base with the power cable trailing everywhere. I don't think that's the plan, Stan.
All in all a great investment -- and a great partner for that other energy-saver, the pressure cooker -- this slow cooker has paid for itself several times over in the last nine months. If it dies on me tomorrow, I'll be right back for another.
I cannot understand............ September 9, 2008
P. V. Davis (London)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
.....some of the negative reviews here but do understand the positive ones.
I've only had mine two weeks now but so far it's proved an excellent buy. So far I've cooked Rabbit; Chicken and stewing steak in a bed of various vegetables and all successfully. I also think you have to experiment and guess how much liquid you need to cook - Chicken will need less but Rabbit more. Also, I turn the Cooker on to Medium whilst preparing the meal and with the liquid in the pot. By the time you've finished the preparation, the Crock pot is just beginning to warm. Put the cover on and if cooking for around 6-8hrs, turn to low and forget about it.
I've also followed the book advice which tells you to put all ingrediants in first, followed by the Meat/Poultry/Rabbit/Game on top and it works. Rabbit for example is very lean and low in fat but is deliciously succulent from the slow Cooker.
Can't understand why I've resisted buying one for years.
 No problems, but it IS huge... August 8, 2008
thegoodbook (Sevenoaks, UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
After reading the reviews, I felt I was taking my life in my hands buying this. I went for a brushed steel model, but otherwise the same. I asked Morphy Richards about the overheating element etc, and the lady had only personally had one that had a faulty element.
I've not used a slow cooker before. I've been very happy with this one. But it's not slow - a whole chicken cooks in under 4 hours on medium etc, but despite the speed, everything is very tender.
Gave this four not five stars because you can't put the pot in the oven (which sometimes would be handy).
Everyone recommended getting a large model. And, yes, it's brilliant to be able to do a whole joint in it. But to do a stew, you would need to cook maybe 8 portions, which is a lot of meat. And a word of warning if you have weaker hands for any reason. This casserole is MASSIVE. My sink is barely big enough to hold it and I'm always a bit nervous as I wash it up.
Recommended.
Great slow food July 19, 2008
Bluebell (UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm a fan of slow cooking and have several slow cookers in various sizes. I see from other reviewers that this particular cooker has divided opinion. I find that this one performs very well and doesn't seem to me much different from other slow cookers in its level of heating. One thing I would say is that the recipe leaflet with the cooker doesn't mention slow roasting as one of the things that you can do in it. The booklet implies that everything has to be immersed in liquid. Ignore this. I roast all sorts of joints, such as rolled should of pork or lamb. Slow roasted duck legs are particularly succulent done this way (brown the skin a bit in a frying pan and then about and hour and a half on High followed by a couple of hours on Low). In general, it's very flexible about timing and you can juggle between heat settings. I tend to start early with an initial period at High or Medium for an hour or so then switch to Low at which most meat can very slowly cook for ages. Whole, small chickens are delicious slow-roasted, but use High for most of the time and preferably check that the thick part of the leg has reached over 80 degrees centigrade to kill off any salmonella. I've just experimented with some rather tough beef back ribs that are rather tough when roasted, fast in a conventional oven, but were very tender in this slow cooker. I browned them a bit (as a rack) in a frying pan and then transferred them the pre-heated slow-cooker with about 200ml of hot beef fat. Two hours on Medium, plus 2 hours on LOW: result, succulent beef ribs. I've done something similar with pork ribs.
I always pre-heat slow-cookers if I'm adding hot liquid or fat with the meat.
Cooks fast for a slow cooker! June 2, 2008
V. J. Chettleburgh (Sheffield)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Size - You can easily fit a joint / whole chicken in this slow cooker. There are only two of us and it's probably a bit big for our needs but would be excellent for a family.
Settings - There are 3 settings, low, medium and high. A lot of slow cooker books recommend starting the cooker on high. That is definitely not needed with this slow cooker as low is a bit, well, high!
Cooking time - A lot of reviewers have criticised the cooking time / thermostat but I don't have a problem with it and never 'crozzle' anything. Yes, if you turn the slow cooker on before you leave the house in the morning and don't eat until say 7pm then the contents will be crozzled. However, I bought a timer plug for mine. I set it to come on on low at around Midday and everything is cooked perfectly by the time I get home from work. I also find that the over eager thermostat can sometimes be a benefit....I've put mine on high at around 3pm for a couple of hours and then low for a couple of hours and again, everything is cooked to perfection.
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