Slow Cooking for Fast Days - No. 160

How to cook better in a Crock Pot & three great pantry slow-cooker recipes to take us into cooler weather

Welcome newcomers! It’s great to have you here at Between the Layers (BTL) where on Tuesdays you receive this free newsletter. I write again on Thursdays for paid subscribers, with recipe ideas for the weekend and mostly baking. (This Thursday’s post is an old French recipe for baking a whole pumpkin. Not to be missed!) Earlier this fall I surveyed BTL readers on the best way to use slow cookers, and the comments and clever ideas are shared today. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Eggplant Marinara over pappardelle. Eggplant is perfect for the Crock Pot because it cooks down into the sauce and gives it a meaty texture. Plus, no frying the eggplant in oil, so it’s hands-off and healthier.

THE IDEA FOR THIS COLUMN STARTED with dipping temperatures and the need for cozy. Sweaters came out of storage, heat-loving plants were brought in from the porch, and soups came back on rotation.

I also searched for my Crock Pot, that clunky friend that takes up far too much space in the kitchen so is relegated to a basement storage room along with gelatin molds, flower vases, and mountains of well-worn Pyrex.

I carried the slow cooker upstairs to the living, and gave it a dust-off and wash. We’ve had a cordial relationship, the Crock Pot and me. Not besties by any means, and I’m always in search of better ways to use its time. I’m not gone long stretches of the day when I can’t tend to something in the oven or on top of the stove. But I used to be.

When my children were young and I was working at the newspaper office, I left the house in the morning and with drop-offs and pick-ups, volunteer obligations, plus the grocery, would arrive home late in the day. It was nice to walk in the back door smelling dinner cooking.

America’s love affair with this appliance has a lot to do with three words - ‘’dinner is ready.’’

But have you ever wondered why we really use Crock Pots?

• Why is time in the kitchen best scheduled with a beginning and end button?

• Why do we schedule?

• What is the value of scheduling, as in if we aren’t spending time cooking, what are we spending time on?

Ok, if your answer is chasing a toddler or helping with homework, you can skip straight to the recipes. I get you. But the rest of you, stick around…

I enjoy reading Anne Helen Peterson’s Culture Study. She makes me think about the mundane in another way. Just recently she’s talking about calendars, the massive, decorative, digital and often creative calendars we can detail with every little aspect of our lives. And when they’re filled in like a Bingo card, what? Do we feel a sense of worth? Or just crazed from all the busyness?

As Anne Helen says:

‘’My calendar makes me feel in control. But of what, exactly — and to what end? And what understanding of my value, but also the value of others, am I sustaining with it?’’

It’s a good thought as we head into soup simmering season, which can be a time to wind down.

Do we want to place ingredients in this crock that cooks the meal for us (I feel a lot of you are nodding yes) and check off dinner, or do we want to peel the carrots, sauté the onions, check on the liquid situation, add a bit more broth, and fiddle with the stew as it perfumes our house?

Which brings me to a question:

Are there Crock Pot people and nons?

The birth of the Crock Pot

I found a drawing of Irving Nachumsohn's "Cooking Apparatus," patented January 23, 1940. Nachumsohn of Chicago invented the slow cooker to cook cholent, a traditional stew eaten by Jews in eastern Europe on the Sabbath.

The tradition of slow cooking cholent originated in 19th Century Vilnius, Lithuania. Jewish families carried their crocks full of stew to the towns’ bakeries where they would sit in the still-hot ovens that would slowly cool overnight. By morning, the low and residual oven heat would simmer down the stews, creating what we now know as a Crock Pot effect, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Nachumsohn studied electrical engineering and became Western Electric’s first Jewish engineer. He crafted a cholent crock with a built in slow oven and applied for a patent in 1936. It was granted four years later.

In 1945, World War II put an uncomfortable spotlight on Americans with German names, Smithsonian says, prompting Nachumsohn to shorten his family’s name to Naxon. His first slow cooker was called the ‘’Naxon Beanery,’’ and he sold the business to Rival Manufacturing of Kansas City in 1970. That beanery would be renamed the Crock Pot and become a runaway hit. With a booklet full of recipes in the box, it embodied everything the working woman of the ‘70s wanted—dinner made for them in their own kitchens while they were away.

I love Paula’s overnight chicken broth simmered in the Crock Pot.

Survey Results! Your 10 Best Crock Pot Tips

No surprise, the majority of survey respondents use their Crock Pot regularly, and most folks use it for main dishes followed by soups. A few respondents grumbled that they prefer the slow-cooking capabilities of their Le Creuset.

The over-achiever was clearly Paula of Huntsville, Alabama, who disclosed she has four Crock Pots—large, medium, small, and mini, just for dips. One year she planned an all-Crock Pot Thanksgiving. Her favorite recipe? Chicken stock she makes by cooking down chicken wings in aromatics and water overnight. (I’ve got some simmering right now, and let me tell you, the aroma is intoxicating!)

Here are your suggestions for better slow cooking, followed by Paula’s chicken stock recipe and my eggplant marinara sauce:

• Larger 6- to 7-quart models cook hotter and faster than smaller ones. So watch the heat and test for doneness as meat will dry out even on low power.

• And plant-based stews take even less time to cook. So don’t cook them all day! I found this out with apples. My husband bought a box of Honeycrisp home and I peeled and sliced them all into the slow cooker and let them cook way too long for apple pie filling. It became applesauce in just a few hours.

How to make Crock Pot Applesauce? Peel and slice as many great apples as you can get your hands on. Squeeze over some lemon juice to add tartness. Add sugar or brown sugar to taste—I started with 1/2 cup and quickly added more. And add some cinnamon. I added 2 teaspoons for 12 apples and it was too much, so a little less than that! Cook on high for 4 hours. Or on low, for 6 to 8 hours.

Super cinnamony homemade applesauce but so good. Perfect for a pb sandwich, smeared on toast, or spooned into a baked puff pastry or pie shell. And the best accompaniment to grilled sausages and pork chops.

• Chicken stock is a favorite to slow cook. Rachel Phipps of the Ingredient newsletter here on Substack saves vegetable peelings, onion ends and skins, and leftover chicken bones to cover with water and slow cook into stock.

• Have Crock Pot will travel, according to Amie of Scottsdale, Arizona. Take your recipe in the slow cooker, plug it in and keep warm on low. Crock Pots work in office settings, too. And they’re perfect for the holiday party buffet.

• Watch how much liquid you add at the beginning of a recipe. The contents make their own liquid in the slow cooker.

• Free the stovetop! ‘’In the summer I freeze corn from our garden,’’ says Cindi of Evansville, Indiana. ‘’On Thanksgiving morning I put a couple of packages from the freezer with a little butter in the Crock Pot, turn it on low, and by late afternoon it’s ready to serve.’’

• Great for cheaper, tougher cuts of meat because it tenderizes them. Chicken thighs are a better option than chicken breasts, which can overcook.

• Brown meat first for more flavor.

• When cooking beans, add the sausage and spices toward the end so the flavor isn’t cooked out by the time the beans are done.

• If adding liquid, don’t use just water. Experiment with different flavors like apple cider. And you often need to remove the lid at the end of soups and stews to let the juices evaporate and condense for more flavor and thicker texture.

This Thursday for Paid Subscribers: How to bake a pumpkin like no other pumpkin…

A whole baked pumpkin, the original one-pot dinner!

I bake a whole pumpkin with French bread, onion, shredded Gruyere, and cream. Thank you everyone who contributed to the Open Thread on soups last Thursday! I have bookmarked so many of your recipes, and I’m going to give gumbo a try once again in December. If you didn’t join us, you can check it out at your leisure—that’s the convenience of open threads, they’re open! Maybe while your dinner’s cooking in the Crock Pot?

Have a great week, and Happy Halloween!

- xo, Anne

THE RECIPES:

Slow Cooker Eggplant Marinara

Ratatouille meets marinara. Feel free to add zucchini to this recipe. And this sauce doubles well. Use two eggplant and two jars of sauce. I like the Paesana brand of sauce from Costco. And I like how the slow cooker cooks down eggplant to mimic meat without the fat.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Prep: 10 to 15 minutes plus

Cook: 4 hours on high power

• 1 large (1 pound) eggplant

• Kosher salt

• 1 jar (26 to 32 ounces) good pasta sauce

• 1/4 cup red wine

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 1/4 cup prepared pesto

• 1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, drained, if desired

• 1 tablespoon capers

• Pappardelle or fettucine

• Grated Parmesan for topping

1. Peel and slice the eggplant into 1/2-inch slices. Place the slices on a cutting board lined with paper towels and sprinkle them lightly with the kosher salt. Let stand 30 minutes so the salt can bring out the moisture and bitterness of the eggplant.

2. Blot the eggplant with paper towels, and cut it into cubes and toss in the slow cooker. Pour over the pasta sauce. Pour the red wine into the sauce jar and shake. Pour into the slow cooker. Add the garlic and the basil or pesto. Add the artichokes, if desired, and the capers. Stir to combine.

3. Place the lid on the slow cooker and set it to high for 4 hours, or cook until the eggplant is tender. Depending on your slow cooker, the eggplant may need longer to cook, and if so, reduce to low and cook another hour or two.

4. When ready to serve, cook the pasta and spoon the sauce on top, topping with Parmesan.

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Paula’s Overnight Chicken Broth

You do not have to cook this overnight, but it’s a way the slow cooker can make good use of your time. The recipe calls for chicken wings, but use thighs, breasts, whatever chicken you have. In fact, if you use the meatier cuts, then you have the shredded chicken for salads and sandwiches. The wings make a gelatinous broth, really nice and naturally thickened. As for seasoning, I used a teaspoon of the Mrs. Dash no-salt herb seasoning but add whatever seasoning you prefer.

Makes 6 cups

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 6 to 8 hours (or overnight) on high power

• 3 pounds chicken wings or chicken pieces

• 1 small onion, peeled and quartered

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

• Cracked black pepper

• 3 bay leaves

• 1 teaspoon herb or your favorite seasoning

• 7 cups water

1. Place the chicken wings, onion, salt, pepper, bay leaves and herb seasoning in a slow cooker. Pour over the water, and stir to combine.

2. Place the lid on the slow cooker, and set it to high for 6 to 8 hours or as long as you can. Some machines do not let you set it longer than 4 hours on high. If this is the case, cook this broth during the day so you can reset it.

3. Strain the broth into a large bowl and let cool in the fridge until time to package in jars or containers for longer storage. Or just turn it into chicken soup with the simple addition of shredded chicken, noodles or rice, vegetables, and whatever seasoning you like.