Choosing a Slow Cooker
Lid
Since you should not remove the lid while food is cooking, a glass lid is helpful for monitoring progress. The see-through top allows you to check if there is enough moisture remaining in the pot, plus you can see if your food is almost ready.(Every time the lid is removed, an extra 15-20 minutes of cooking time needs to be added.)
Size
How many people are you feeding? Will you be freezing leftovers? If so, bigger is better. You will cook more food for the same amount of effort. My slow cooker is 6.5 quarts, and a 6-serving recipe fills it half way. It’s perfect for entertaining, making double batches of soup and cooking a five pound roast or chicken.
Shape
The two options here are oval & round. Round is fine for making soups, and other amorphous meals. I purchased an oval one in order to accommodate whole chickens and roasts, and find it easily handles pork chops and ribs too. If you have extra space in your slow cooker after placing the meat inside, you can always add vegetables.
Settings
If you purchase a programmable slow cooker with multiple temperature settings, a timer and a keep warm option, ultimately you are buying flexibility. A couple of friends have the simplest variation, low temperature, no timer, just toss in the ingredients, turn it on then turn it off manually when you return home or your food is cooked. The options you need depend on your lifestyle. Since I value the flexibility, I bought a model with high (~300°F) and low (~200°F) temperature settings, and a timer. When the time runs out, it switches to warm. This means at the end of a work day we can come home to a warm, ready to eat meal. The high setting is great, for entertaining. I always run out of oven/stove space, but now I often use the high setting to cook a side of vegetables. One hour cooking on high is equivalent to 2 to 2½ hours on low.
Removable Insert
The removable insert makes the cleaning easy, since you should avoid getting the unit wet. Constructed of ceramic or cast aluminum, they both disperse heat evenly and once hot efficiently maintain their temperature. The cast aluminum insert is non-stick and can be used on the stove top to brown meats before slow cooking. Since I wanted a large capacity crock, using it on the stove-top would be more awkward than a skillet, so this feature did not appeal to me. I chose the ceramic version, it practically wipes clean and looks beautiful. Plus it was $100 cheaper than the aluminum version.
We eventually chose the All-Clad 6.5 QT electric slow cooker with ceramic insert. We covered most of the expense with gifts from our wedding guests and so far we love it!
Hamilton Beach makes more economical models that are also well-reviewed but I have not tried them personally.
Please share any praise (or warnings) about a slow cooker that you’ve used, in the comments so we can spend our hard-earned cash wisely.
