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Old 03-04-2013, 11:04 PM   #17 (permalink)
violachick8
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Boston
Posts: 287
Quote:
Originally Posted by DWarrior View Post
I just made stew for the first time yesterday, I think it's gonna be a staple.

Buy a crock pot. Cut up some meat, throw in potatoes, carrots, bouillon cubes, water. Sits for 5-10 hours, then...delicious stew! There's pretty much no way to screw it up, it's always going to taste at least good.

Initial outlay was $50 for the crock pot (you can get a smaller one for $20), but I can cook 4lbs of meat at a time. I can set it in the morning to cook for 10 hours, then have it stay warm for 4 before refrigerating, so I can be out for up to 14 hours and have delicious food ready.

The bottleneck seems to be chopping up the meat (around 10-15 minutes), otherwise the prep is about 5 minutes, then another 5 to clean the empty pot. I'll have to figure out how to chop the meat faster faster, or maybe just try ground beef or chicken tenders.
Ground beef and a slow cooker on for 14 hours is not the greatest idea. It kind of ends up like sawdust. Normally at butchers/supermarkets they sell stew meat which is already cut up (bonus!) and is usually cheap because its leftover trimmings of whatever else they were cutting that day. Do that. Its better I promise.
Oh and chicken is awesome in the slow cooker but you need to program it to keep warm ONLY after 6 hours. It leads to SUPER UNPLEASANTLY dried out chicken. Same Problem as ground beef.

Last edited by violachick8; 03-04-2013 at 11:10 PM.
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