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I admit it, I have never owned a crock pot. I do now. My husband found one with zebra stripes that he snatched up, and repainted. And with it came three 'bowls'. I had him paint it, as I am not having that striped thing in my kitchen!

 

Apparently, crock pots are relatively new. I found little in our online icsarchive.org old cookbooks archive.

 

I have tried pinto beans with fatback which came out well. I know better than to try mutton.

 

Bread raising?

 

Is this an alternative to 'crock boat' cooking? Or is boat cooking too ethnic to be understood here? I am thinking that the lower temperature would help with cooking 'trash fish'. My man loves fish. And would that work for rabbit and game?

 

Is there a book out there? Recommendations?

 

Sarah

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http://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/ This lady did a whole year of cooking in her crockpot ad posted the recipes. The index is on the left side and you have to scroll down a bit. Looks interesting.

 

You'll have to explain 'crock boat' cooking. I've never heard of it and apparently neither has google cuz it kept asking me if I meant crock pot cooking.....

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Dogmom4, thank you for that link. I suspect I will be doing a lot of reading there.

 

 

 

 

'Croc Boat' is the english phrase the 'idiom' book gives. I do not know a better one. So let me describe one. It is a small bowl of china, holding about a half cup, with large drooping lips, and a tab on the end with a hole for hanging. The lips trap air so the crock will float on water. The inside is glazed, the outside not. Often embossed on the bottom is a symbol, or a very smooth panel for marking with a china marker. The embossments can be a goat, cow, chicken, rabbit, sheep, fish, etc. Also the embossment can be a wedge (for cheese), a circle (for egg), a buttercup flower (for butter), garlic clove, etc. Red is the common ones, grey is the higher quality. Meat and markable crocs often have isenglass covers.

 

I was a 'lesser' daughter. The third. So my rearing was different, not as lady as my two older sisters. A 'Cinderella'. One of my chores, each morning, was to be the first up and make sure the fire was good in the stove. The night before, before she went to bed, Mother would put four (Father, my two sisters, and me) in a pot of water on the stove. In them, usually, were two eggs, some sort of small meat chunks (to include organ or 'head cheese'), 'farmers cheese', and spices/seasoning. It was a warm bite for us to eat before breakfast was ready.

 

My favorite was lamb cubes, about a quarter inch, 'american process' cheese, two eggs (too small to be sale-able), and springs of mint. Oh that mint!

 

Today, with the exception of glis (idiom book says 'clarified butter') making, these are now forbidden by Ordnung ('the way', the rules we live by) in almost all OOM and OOA (A for Amish) groups, due to the fact that the oils/greases/etc could soak into the biske portion of the boat, and turn rancid. The water simmers, not boils, and so you have no germ kill. We often boiled them, another of my chores.

 

I make garlic glis for him. Take butter, unsalted, put in boat, keep skimming off. Once 'clarified', about a quarter cup, use a clove press to squeeze crush two cloves, and put all in the glis. Let simmer for a few more hours, and reskim. You get very stong garlic butter. But do not try to use store bought butter, even if unsalted, as it will be too salty. I do not know what stabilizers are in the unsalted, but you get the same effect. 'Land O' Lakes' comes to mind. What is skimmed off when clarifying is used as a bread spread.

 

He loves fish. And his mother did a lot of 'trash' fish this way. So I am looking at this 'crock pot' to see if it can do the same.

 

Sarah

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Interesting, Sarah. I learned a lot of old ways from my dear, sweet great-aunts. But that one, I've never heard of. I can see why the concern about the rancid permeating the bisque portion.

 

So...you are talking about the electric slow cookers what we call 'crock pots'? Metal outer pot that heats up an inner [usually removable] glazed crockery pot that fits into the outer pot. [don't let anyone catch the electric cord between the outer and inner pots.....yeah, it happened]

 

 

I got my mom's cuz it was too large for just my dad and her. I gave her a 2 quart size and she's been thrilled with it. Due to minor cord damage in that incident [a house guest was careless] I never leave mine unattended.

 

 

MtRider ...many free eBooks for crock pots. I bookmarked Dogmom's link!! :cook:

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Yes, the electric slow cookers like you describe. I have a base, and three crocs to put in, about a quart. I did not grow up with electric as you now know. And thank you for the slight gentle correction for 'bisque', I updated that in the idiom book.

 

I tried one this morning. A lot larger than an croc boat would have been. My man attacked.

 

Sarah

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Sarah...you're welcome...tho it was unintentional. I hadn't noticed your spelling. I was my daughters' walking dictionary for many years since their first language was Korean. Occasionally I still get a question from them on a tiny difference of meaning between words. And yes, idiomatic words/phrases can be so regional and quite without any reasoning that someone from elsewhere can figure out. :lol: Now they can catch me up on Hawaiian phrases and deeper meanings since they stayed when we returned to "the mainland". And my dd2 spells better than I do!

 

I do reallllllly like the feature of being able to take the crockery part out to wash without being concerned in wetting the electric part. I'm afraid I plagued my mother with one that doesn't separate. Oops. I picked up a second crockery part at thrift store.....cuz you know you can drop that part. Have already had to replace the lid.... Dropped a cast iron pan when taking it down from it's hook. Lid was below and aiiiieeee, what a mess!

 

MtRider :pc_coffee:

Edited by Mt_Rider
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  • 1 month later...

Crockpot Hot Chocolate:

1.5 cups heavy cream

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk.

2 cups milk chocolate chips (Hershey preferred)

5 cups milk.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

I split between two 2qt crock inserts. One I put in the refrigerator, the other goes into the base.

Simmer on low about an hour. Then put in dipper. When empty, put in other crock, and repeat.

It does not last long.

 

Looking forward to the three dipper unit.

 

Sarah

Edited by Sarah
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  • 2 months later...

I got it! And am experimenting away. I never would have thought fish and cheese would be good, but he attacked that too. His family has the tradition of black eyed peas on new years, which I do not care for, he got it, from the crock pot. But we have a problem. Husband, son, and daughter make three. Now that we have our new daughter, I have to find a four or five count unit.

 

Sarah

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  • 3 years later...

I just found this post....late as usual.  When crock pots were a little more common (back in the 1980s, now I show my age) I had several.  I also collected recipes.  There were several magazine format recipe collections (still see those occasionally but not as basic) that also gave directions for modifying "regular" recipes for crock pot cooking.  Basically you need to (1) reduce the liquid in the recipe about 30% to compensate for no evaporation like you would have with stovetop or oven cookery; (2) avoid putting frozen food in the crock pot (make sure meats etc are thawed) because it does not get hot enough to thaw them safely; (3) cook vegetables like carrots or potatoes longer (for some reason they cook more slowly than meat in a crock pot) so give them an extra hour or two before putting in meat; and (4) avoid cooking rice or pasta in the slow cooker (it turns to mush), also do not cook with milk (scorches, curdles, & tastes off) for scalloped dishes.  Substitute water-thinned cream soups, they hold up texture wise.  I just cook them separately and add them just before serving, heating everything through on stovetop.

There is a series of slow-cooker cookbooks that are excellent, named "Fix-it-and-Forget-It".  They are extremely good, creative, contemporary, and best of all they have been around a couple years so the library may well have several.  From those I have learned new tricks, like using a crock pot to roast beef or chicken (no liquid, just rub with fat, set it inside with slices of potato or carrot insulating the meat away from the sides of the crock interior, then roast away!)...Baking potatoes in the crockpot (again, no liquid) for a "baked potato bar" dinner...using small ceramic ramekins to bake in the crock pot...making apple butter in the crock pot...and rehydrating dried foods in a crock pot works wonderfully!

I love them, even if I only use them for beans, making bone soup/stock, or mulling cider.  I have a large and a small one and use the small one often so I can wake up to a hot breakfast (yes, breakfast soup) since I am the cook it makes me feel coddled!

 

Edited by kappydell
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I love the Fix It and Forget It books.  I have two.  Wait, I gave one to DS2.  I have one, and it's great.  I use the smaller recipes for solar cooking.

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When we first moved here, DH & I, my Papa would start the crockpot, every.day.  DH got burnt out on it, never let me get one.  I completely understand.  

 

But, I have seen a lot of really tempting recipes. 

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I have a couple of those Fix it and Forget It books too and I really like them. I picked them up cheap at Ollies. 

 

A Taste Of Home (or something like that) has some pretty good cookbooks too.I got a huge hard bound book at Ollies for about $8.00 or so. It's really big. 

 

I have a hard time with crock pots because I can't hardly stand to wait for the food to cook. I start to smell it and I want to eat it right away. Agony. 

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