Ask fanatical foodies about slow cookers, and most won’t respond with oohs and aahs. But the fact remains that over 80% of households in the United States have one, and we’re not afraid to say that we love ours to pieces. In fact, we love it so much that we wrote a whole book about it—美国伟大的慢炖锅书- 我们很高兴继续在这里传播这个词。

See a slideshowBruce和Mark的更多慢炖锅食谱。

如果您没有慢炖锅，您可能会想知道，爱什么？（如果您确实有一个，那么请随时跳过食谱。）好吧，慢炖锅几乎是市场上最好的炖工具，提供低煮熟的温度和慢速烹饪的温度，高效率的环境，并且ability to cook dinner while you’re out of the house (or running around it, doing other things).

对这些设备的最大敲门声是，它们产生了淡淡的，即从熟食的食物中闻名的。在为我们的书创建600多种食谱时，我们提出了几种与这些结果作斗争并充分利用这些机器的方法。请继续阅读以了解我们获得最佳慢炖餐（包括食谱）的前五名策略。

读：What to Look For in a Slow Cooker

5个基本风味策略
1. Dried herbs often work better than fresh.
2. Yes to fish, but at the end.
3.使用真正的食物。
4. Crisp things up with your broiler.
5. Double down on the chiles.

Dried herbs often work better than fresh

We almost always prefer fresh herbs, but not when slow cooking. Dried herbs (and spices) are the way to go here. Their concentrated flavors and aromas bloom in the cooker’s high-moisture environment, whereas most fresh herbs yield a wan effect at best.

So with the exception of fresh rosemary, which does fine in a slow cooker, save the fresh herbs for adding at the end or as a garnish. And don’t forget: Dried herbs and spices have a shelf life of about a year at most. After that, they’re a bottle of dust—and nobody wants a dust-flavored dinner.

是的，但最后

Fish and shellfish don’t do well in a slow cooker, as they tend to fall apart or turn to mush. Instead, use your slow cooker to do what it does best: build a complex sauce through long, even cooking. Then crank the heat to high and slip the fish or shellfish in for only as long as it takes to cook through. You can start the sauce in the morning, head out for the day, and pick up a piece of fresh fish on the way home. Add the fish to the slow cooker, pour a glass of wine, and dinner is practically done!

使用真正的食物

我们的任务是消除在慢炖菜菜肴中消除罐装汤和无脂沙拉调味料的诅咒。从本质上讲，慢炖锅最好将食材吹成一份华丽的，令人满意的晚餐，因此您不妨使用您负担得起的最高质量的食材亚搏手机版官方。这意味着尽可能多地使用新鲜食品，但这也意味着某些便利产品可以很好，只要它们近似您从头开始制作的东西即可。

阅读标签，挑选包含您可以发音且钠含量低的成分的项目。亚搏手机版官方想想罐头西红柿，酸辣酱和蜜饯。

用肉鸡变脆

We’re not usually fans of slow cooker recipes that call for a lot of cooking before and after the actual slow cooking. (Isn’t making life easier the point of this machine?) But some foods, like chicken wings and pork ribs, warrant an exception. Slow cook them until the meat is almost falling-off-the-bone tender, then use the broiler to make them brown, crisp, and irresistible. It’s one additional step that’s well worth it.

Double down on the chiles

Very long cooking mutes capsaicin, the compound in chiles that makes them taste spicy, rendering them almost sweet and much less hot than if you cooked them for a short amount of time. If one canned chipotle in adobo sauce is usually your limit, you’ll probably want to use two or even three in your slow cooker. If you flame out after a teaspoon of Thai chile paste, use a tablespoon or more. Even black pepper is compromised over the long haul in a slow cooker.

Trust us: Add more than you think you should if you want to taste any chile heat at all.

Tips for Slow Cooker Success

除了这些页面上概述的策略外，在这些设备中烹饪时，还有其他一些事情要记住：
• Don’t overfill the cooker. Half- to two-thirds full is best so moist air can circulate around the food.
•如有疑问，底漆但底漆。慢炖锅静音了草药和香料的口味，但会放大盐的味道。
• Lift the lid as little as possible. Modern slow cookers restabilize the internal temperature more quickly than old models, but peeking is still discouraged unless you think there’s a problem.
• Stir only when the recipe tells you to. For many recipes, the less action, the better.
• Thaw frozen ingredients. Unless the recipe specifically calls for frozen ingredients, you don’t want to waste time defrosting food that should be cooking.
• If your insert is ceramic, treat it gently. Abrupt temperature changes may cause it to crack, so set a hot insert on a kitchen towel or trivet instead of directly onto a cold kitchen counter.