Best slow cookers for delicious winter stews and casseroles
In the midst of winter, there’s no better time to reach for a slow cooker to make meals that'll warm you from the inside out.
These comforting and dependable one-pot wonders come into their own in the cooler, darker months.
Not to be confused with pressure cookers, which take a faster, higher temperature route to cooking, slow cookers take a decidedly more leisurely, laidback approach and require far less overseeing. Simply load and leave a bunch of ingredients, returning hours later to tuck into your latest hale and hearty home-cooked creation.
For our money, a decent slow cooker should be a firm fixture in any busy household - their ability to deliver dependably nutritious, low-faff meals chimes in these health-conscious and cash-strapped times.
They can also help budding home chefs ‘cross their Ts’, in this case texture, taste and tenderness. Cooking for long periods will deliver meat that falls off the bone, a bit of fat on the bone helping to avoid dryness, while maxing out the flavours from ingredients such as herbs and spices.
In such times of runaway fuel bills, it’s worth noting that slow cookers are refreshingly , not least in comparison to regular ovens.
