Slow Cooker Review & Recipes - Part 1
In this blog, one of our users shares their in-depth experience using the BUYDEEM Counter-Top Slow Cooker in daily life—complete with real cooking examples, honest pros and cons, and their go-to broth recipe. Whether you're considering adding this appliance to your kitchen or just looking for inspiration, this review offers a closer look at how the BUYDEEM Slow Cooker performs in a home setting.
This article focuses on the detailed review, while a collection of slow cooker recipes will be featured in Part 2.
By Mike Watson
Product Review
This kitchen appliance has many advantages compared to others on the market.
Most slow cookers have a volume of more than 6 litres, and for all slow cookers to function properly, they need at least the cooking pot to be more than ½ full. That is fine for a large family but not suitable for 2 or 3 people. With the BUYDEEM slow cooker a pot of a more convenient size can be used that allows the chef to make any size meals with success.
However, it is important to use a pot of the correct dimensions, the base of the pot should not have a diameter larger than 20 cm (8 inches), and it must have a flat bottom to efficiently receive the heat from the hot plate. That is not an issue with cast iron, steel, or enameled pots but with some ceramic pots, they should be inspected to ensure that they do not a rim on the bottom edge, as many do.
The Slow Cooker uses an advanced temperature-controlled system called inverted batch control. This is a huge advantage for two reasons. A normal slow cooker applies constant power to reach the final temperature, resulting in an overshoot of the final temperature, which is that momentarily the food is heated higher than is optimum and then the temperature falls to the required setting. With inverted batch control, the power is pulsed and is continuously adjusted so that the temperature does not overheat, and this system is also an energy saver because power is only applied when required in short bursts.
To optimize slow cooking, especially with inverted batch control, the lid should be tightly fitting to keep the vapour in the pot, and during cooking, avoid removing the lid frequently if possible. Inverted batch heating uses conductive heat at the bottom from the hot plate, and the vapour above the food circulates to provide a gentler convective heating. For this reason, always put the items that require more time to cook at the bottom of the pot, for example, tough pieces of meat, and layer the vegetables with the more delicate ones on top. Of course, this does not apply to recipes that have a high liquid content since the heated liquid will circulate throughout.
There are different cooking modes in the control panel:
SLOW COOK LO, the temperature will heat to 90°C, or slightly above, and maintain that temperature.
SLOW COOK HI, the temperature will rise rapidly to a temperature that does not exceed 95°C and maintain that temperature.
SEAR, the temperature rises to a high temperature suitable for browning meats.
BEANS, the temperature will quickly reach a low temperature of 70°C and will maintain that temperature for about 1 hour to soften the beans, then the temperature will rise to near the boiling point to finish the beans.
SOUP the temperature will slowly rise to the boiling point and maintain that condition.
WARM a setting of 70°C is controlled to keep the food at serving temperature. This function will automatically begin at the end of the preset cooking time in other functions, except SEAR, or can be manually started. The time to keep a meal warm is also adjustable.
PROS
Precise temperature control thanks to an advanced system.
Perfect for smaller meals for 1 to 3 people.
Flexibility to use different pots that you probably already have in the kitchen (within the size limits).
Compact, so it doesn’t take much storage space.
CONS
The manual needs more information.
