Crock pot mania -updated

Have you noticed a surge in crock pot cooking lately? I have always been a big crock pot fan and just the other day a few young gals started a facebook page about cooking in crockpots that soared in interest right off the bat. Wow.

I have four crockpots. I use them a lot. The oldest is pictured here to the right (you could have probably guessed that with that trendy brick pattern!) It would be circa 1975. My next crock pot is similar to that one except that it has a removable interior (that was state of the art at that time!). A few years ago I invested in the larger oval shaped crockpots and I have two: the one pictured here and also a similar one that has a lid that snaps tightly closed for transporting.

The significant different is, however, the temperature of these crockpots. The setting of "low" used to be actually "low" and one could cook a meal for a long time on low and have it moist and delicious. However, somewhere along the line the manufacturers choose to raise the low temperature due to concerns about food poisoning and foods not fully cooked. While this is understandable it is extremely frustrating because the premise of slow cooking is just that.. SLOW. Despite complaints, I don't see any change on the horizon.

That being said, the law of unintended consequences seems to be showing its ugly head. Some folks are now cooking their meals on "warm" (a setting lower then low, intending, of course, to merely keep foods warm) - thus cooking meals on lower then proper temperatures to offset the manufacturers desire to insure less chance of food-borne illness! It may have been better to have just left things the way they were!

I am experimenting with the temperatures in these two crockpots. I placed 2 cups of water in each and after an hour, the crock pot on the left had water that was already 187 degrees fahrenheit while the crock pot on the right had water only 120 degrees. Bear in mind that
the size of each crock pot made for different depths of water. I have now put 2 quarts of water into each crockpot and will test again after a number of hours.

The crockpot on the left got hot to the touch in a matter of minutes. Ouch. Dislike.

Have you a favorite crockpot? I would purchase another one if only I could control the temperature EXACTLY as I desire.

*UPDATE: after 3 1/2 hours with 2 quarts of water in each crockpot, the one on the left (the oval one) tests at 200 degrees and the one on the right tests at 145 degrees. That is a significant difference and one must make proper adjustments depending on which crockpot one is using. The boiling point of water is 212, so 200 is really way too hot for "slow" cooking. It's almost like boiling your meal for many hours. Bummer.

Update number 2: after 4 1/2 hours the water in the crockpot to the left is boiling. Not just simmering, but boiling all around the edges. The old crockpot on the right registers at 163 degrees.

Update number 3: the following day. This morning I put 2 quarts of water into each crock pot. I set the newer (hotter) one on the "warm" setting. I set the older one again on the "low" setting. After 5 hours, the crock pot on the warm setting only got as warm as 134 degrees which would be dangerous for cooking meat all day at that low a temperature. The older crock pot was a nice 159 degrees on the low setting. If we had put the newer crockpot on its low setting, it would have been boiling, at least 200 degrees like yesterday's test. Point being: it is not wise to cook all day on only the "warm" setting. And cooking on the low setting of today's crockpots is a challenge; one must cook less time, and/or add more liquid and/or cycle from low to warm and back to low. Do not rely on the warm setting solely. Some people who have been frustrated with the high temperature of the "low" setting have resorted to the "warm" setting, but it is too low. AGH. Too hot. Too cold. Where is Goldilocks? We need something "just right!"