Customer Reviews

The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook: 300 Delicious, Healthy Meals That You Can Toss in Your Crockery and Prepare in a Snap (Everything (Cooking))

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love the concept of a slow cooker. I love the idea of being able to dump some ingredients in, leave it all day, and come back to a tender, delicious meal. But somehow it almost never seems to work out that way.

We've tried all sorts of slow cooker recipes over the years; almost every one comes out tasting very bland. Or the flavors get jammed together and you lose the subtlety and richness you'd get out of a "normal" recipe. Or the recipe author solved the lack of flavor by finding a strong ingredient or two and pouring them on, producing a dish with a very unbalanced taste. Finally we stumbled across "The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook," and we found recipes we actually liked.

The book provides an unusual variety of recipes, for a slow cooker cookbook at least. There isn't as much as a regular cookbook, but then most slow cooker recipes out there are variations on stew or pot roast, so I'll take what I can get. There's a serious limit on what you can do with this kind of cooking appliance so you can't really expect the variety of a generic cookbook.

The author provides information on how slow cookers affect the flavors of things like spices and aromatic vegetables (this makes it much easier to adjust recipes to your taste). She also gives information on converting regular recipes to the slow cooker. These pieces of information alone make this book valuable.

She also has a good sense of flavor, in my opinion. I've always thought I *should* like baked beans, based on the ingredients, but I couldn't find a version that appealed to me. I've made the two versions from this cookbook and they were both delightful! We've made other things as well, including soups and a rice pudding, and all of them came out quite well. My only issue with them is that some of them didn't store well at all, which can be a pain when you're making an entire crock-pot's worth of food. Also, the author sometimes drastically underestimates the number of servings, I think (but better that than over-estimating...).

For the life of me I can't figure out why the author converted things like cookie recipes to the slow cooker, but oh well. These recipes don't take up that much space. Other than the storage issues we've really enjoyed this cookbook. The flavors are very good, the recipes are straightforward, the information is comprehensive, and the variety and number of recipes is extensive. If you want the convenience of a slow cooker but don't like typical slow cooker recipes, this is a very good cookbook to try.

I bought this book at the same time I got my first slow cooker. I was attracted to it because it seemed to contain so many different recipes. However, I have to agree with the reviewer who said that many of the recipes are essentially variations on the same idea. In addition, there are whole sections of the book that I would never even bother with--making bread in the crockpot in a 2-lb coffee can? I'd rather get a bread machine or devote a few hours on the weekend to making bread in the oven. Cookies in the slow cooker? Why would you spend time making 4 cookies at a time when you can just as easily slide a cookie sheet in the oven and have a dozen in 10 minutes?
I've also found that several of the recipes contain sloppy errors, such as calling for a "can of tomato sauce" without specifying the size. Or there are strange contradictions, such as the page containing the "tip" to always put your cut-up vegetables on the bottom of the crockpot, when the recipe on the same page tells you to do the exact opposite. There's also a "tip" telling you never to use frozen vegetables, but several recipes call for just that.
Almost everything I tried needed more liquid--even cooking on the lowest setting, the dishes were done well before the specified time.
I'm still looking for a better slow cooker cookbook--but in the meantime, I've found several tasty, reliable recipes for free on the Web.

I found this book to be adequately written and produced, but just didn't like many of the recipes. I ended up copying half-a-dozen onto index cards and then giving the book to my public library ... I'm sure others will find more to enjoy than I did. I ordered "The Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes" by Better Homes and Gardens, at the same time, and much prefer it . . . marked lots of recipes to try. . . so you might want to look at that one too.

I received this book as a gift and was excited to try the recipes in it. After trying more than a dozen (too many) of the recipes, I have finally given up on this book.

The recipes had a number of errors, for example the "black forest sausage and sauerkraut" (p.57) says that it is for crock pot sizes 3-6 quarts. However, I have a 6 quart pot and was not even able to fit all of the ingredients into my crock.

The finished dishes were all bland, overcooked, and mushy. My family has started boycotting anything that comes from the crockpot if this book is in sight. There are a number of very similar recipes, including at least 5 recipes for polish sausage dishes and three for asian beef with veggies (think chop suey.) The entire book has the feel of a church fundraiser cookbook. As if a number of different cooks were all submitting recipes for the the book without knowing what the others were submitting.

The index is terrible. I tried to look up "pot roast" for which there are more than 5 recipes in the book, but the index only directs the reader to two pages, not with recipes for pot roast, but rather with "helpful hints" for cutting pot roasts and storing them for leftovers. To look up the actual recipes in the index, the reader must look through all the recipes under "beef." Most are not even listed in the index under the recipe name.

I was hoping for some tasty mainstays that I could prepare for my family on days when I must work late. I wanted recipes that would be easy, tasty, and nutritious. As sausage seems to be one of the favorite ingredients, the healthy part is out. I already mentioned that the dishes were tastless, so that didn't work. As for easy, while most dishes do not require a lot of prep, quite a few of have additional steps 30 or 15 minutes before serving, making it difficult to just come home to a prepared dinner.

Even though I appreciated the gift of this book, my copy is getting donated to my local library. While I'm there, I'll check out some other slow cooker books, they can't be any worse. Also, there are a lot of great *free* (and tasty) slow cooker recipes on the web.

Most slow cooker meals are mushy and overdone -- particularly chicken dishes. Not so the recipes we tried from "The Everything Slow Cooker Cookbook!" The best one (so far) is the peanut chicken stew. The main ingredients -- peanut butter, chicken, bell peppers and chile powder -- sound strange together but the combination is wonderful. The chicken came out tender, not tough and stringy. Even my daughter -- a chicken and bell pepper hater -- loved it. We also tried one of the beef vegetable soups and liked it, although I'll use less onion next time (personal preference). These recipes are innovative, yet easy to make. The presentation is straightforward, without extraneous verbage you don't need when you are in a hurry to get dinner made. This book has earned a permanent place in my cookbook collection.

This is a good all-purpose cookbook to get you started enjoying your slow cooker. To address some of the criticisms:

Yes, some of the recipies are mild. But I think that's a strength because it allows me to adjust the spices and seasonings to fit my family's preferences and easily make a dish my own.

No, slow cooking does not have to be over-cooked mush. Like any appliance, there is some trial and error in learning what temperatures and cooking times maximize your cooker's performance. I plug my slow cooker into an electrical outlet timer (since mine hasn't digital controls) to assure that it doesn't cook too long. This also allows me to start cooking mid-day when I'm away at work. It should go without saying that this kind of delayed cooking is not appropriate for eggs or raw meat due to food safety concerns.

Baking recipes are best suited for very large, cafeteria-style slow cookers. Slow cookers do an excellent job baking, but I wouldn't adise it beyond a fun experiment or if your oven was out of commission.

Give it a try - I've enjoyed this cookbook and found it a good foundational resource for slow cooking.

I researched the available newer slow cooker cookbooks for a week or two before going to a "brick & mortar" chain bookstore this weekend to buy one. I've used a Crock-Pot for over 20 years, but just recently upgraded to a larger oval slow cooker, and needed a more recent cookbook with recipes which could be made in a larger slow cooker without adjusting ingredient quantities. I browsed through all of the slow cooker cookbooks at the bookstore, and ended up buying this one. Why?
1) Price -- This is one of the least expensive of the full-size-with-lots-of-recipes slow cooker cookbooks.
2) Recipe Format -- Very clear & easy to read layout, with important information like slow cooker size and attention required in boldface type on the same corner of every page.
3) Recipe Variety -- 300 recipes (usually 1 per page), and in many categories which I hadn't thought of in connection with crockpot cooking before. (I think I will still bake bread in my bread machine and cookies in my oven, though.)
Have not actually cooked anything from this yet, which is why it hasn't earned a fifth star from me (so far). "Bland/church supper"-type recipes (as mentioned in some of the other reviews) aren't a turnoff for me, as I don't mind going beyond the recipe to adjust seasonings, and I do actually bring hot dishes to church potlucks occasionally. Looking forward to trying some of these recipes out.

I am an experienced cook and was eager to try a recipie from this book that I received as a Christmans gift. I prepared the "Savory Garlic Chicken Stew" exactly as directed on page 92.

What a terrible and tasteless dish. It was more of a soup than a stew, there was no taste of garlic, and even the chicken was bad. It made its way to the disposal!

I hope other recipes in the book are better...but I will probably use the book to start my New Year's eve fire. At least it would be good for something.

I'm a great cook, but I got a slow cooker thinking it'll help me on days when I don't have time to fuss with too much cooking, and so I got this book as well (without reading the other reviews).
I've tried one of the recipes; it's horrid, plain tasting and not at all appetizing looking either. I'm afraid to try the other recipes from this book and wasting the ingredients. I actually get better tasting & free recipes online for my slow cooker now.

Like any coobook, there are recipes I got to all the time in this book and others I haven't attempted. I have been given 3 crock pot books and this is by far the best. Hearty, family meals.