There are so many cooking appliances in the market today. From instant pots, pressure cookers, crock pots, and more, it may be hard to know what cooker is right for you. However, the best crockpots and slow cookers have been tried and known to cook food at a slow and steady temperature just like braising in an oven.
In this century, the terms “set it and forget it” has become more popular than ever. It could be safe to assume that almost everyone has an instant pot, crockpot, or a slow cooker as armor in their kitchen. Although the terms crockpot and slow cookers are used interchangeably, they are extremely similar but have significant differences too. While a crockpot is a type of a slow cooker, not all slow cookers are crockpots. It is also worth noting that a crockpot achieves the same results as a slow cooker. Therefore, if you have an aromatic crockpot recipe, it may work as well in a slow cooker.
If you are trying to decide which one to buy between the two, the following guide will help you out.
The Best Crock Pot
The first model of cock-pot was initially introduced in 1970 and marketed as a bean cooker. Crockpots features a thick ceramic wall so that heat does not have direct contact with the food in the pot. The ceramic wall is mostly circular, oval, or rectangular. The ceramic insert is one of the major differences between a crockpot slow cooker and a cooker.
While a crockpot has heating elements on the side, a slow cooker has them on the bottom. This feature ensures a gentle heat distribution as opposed to if it just heats from the bottom. Besides, cooking with a crockpot is a safe process as all the steam released in the tightly covered pot helps in killing bacteria. Forget about continuously switching the pot on and off to maintain its temperature. With a crockpot the heat is applied continuously to allow an even heating pattern. You can either set it to high (150 degrees C) or low (95 degrees C) setting. However, the newer models come with the “keep warm” setting in addition to a timer. The timer helps in switching the crockpot to warm once the set time has elapsed.
The terms slow cooker and crockpot are most often used interchangeably. Crockpots are a type of slow cookers, however, not all slow cookers are crockpot slow cookers.
The most basic crock pots come with high and low heat settings. Over time though, the best crock pot models have advanced so that they now come with digital timers. The latest is the smart crockpot that can be controlled using smartphones. Nowadays other slow cooker brands like Ninja have advanced to 3-in-1 cooking systems meaning that they can slow-cook, steam, sear, and sautés. A crockpot slow cooker in itself is a container that has heating elements all around the sides and even on the bottom. It is technically a heating oven, regardless of the brand. Crockpots feature ceramic or porcelain pots with glass lids that can trap moisture inside. Slow cookers on the contrary generally have a metal pot even though they have the same three components; pot, heating element, and glass lid just like the crockpots.
With a crockpot, you can cook just about anything; you can make soups/stews, pot roast, meatloaf, or even bake bread and cakes. It is amazing how many different uses it has.
A slow cooker’s plate has more varied settings compared to a crockpot. It is usually numbered 1 to 5. In the metal slow cookers, therefore, food heats more slowly compared to crockpots because the heat level does not go as high as in the crockpot slow cookers.
Therefore, it is worth noting that scorching is one problem that can come with metal slow cookers because the heat is concentrated at the bottom. With metal slow cookers, you will need to keep stirring the food consistently meaning you will have to lift the lid regularly adding up extra time to your cooking.
It is important to remember that metal slow cookers can serve more purposes than just slow cooking meals. The cooking vessel can be removed and used to cook on the stovetop or in the oven such as with the West Bend brands. With the pot removed, the hot plates can be used again for cooking or heating foods and the heating pads can be used to keep food warm.
If you are looking for a kitchen appliance that can have alternative uses, then the metal slow cooker makes up for its drawbacks because it can serve more than just one purpose. This saves you a lot on the need for extra appliances and in other cases, the need to use extra pots and pans when preparing meals.
Both the crockpot slow cooker and the slow cookers use the same technique; they use moisture over extended periods to cook. The major difference lies not in the brand but with the method of heat distribution around or under the crockery.
A metal slow cooker is not the same thing as a ceramic crockpot, even though most of us have been living under the assumption that they are different names for the same thing. As for the question of which one is better, the ceramic crockpot is the way to go because you can use it prepare a wide variety of dishes, unlike the metal slow cooker.