What’s the Best Crock Pot?

Choosing the best crock pot involves factoring in type, size, features, temperature functions, warranty, durability, ease to clean and price – a task that can be difficult for most people. Ensuring that you receive the best crock pot requires knowing about the different brands, their various features and how to choose the best crock pot.

How to choose the Best Crock Pot?

We will help you learn how to choose the crock pot beyond the “lowest price” or “best quality” factors. This entire article talks all about how to choose the crock pot for your family, but if you need top 10 best crock pots see the table below.

Ultimate Slow Cooker Guide:

Picture	Crock Pot	Type	Price	Rating
	Hamilton Beach 33967	Programmable	$$	4.5
	Crock Pot 610 Cook and Carry	Programmable	$$	4.5
	Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Central Multi-Cooker	Programmable	$$$$	4.3
	Cuisinart 3-In-1 Cook Frigidaire Professional Stainless	Programmable	$$$	4.0
	Hamilton Beach 33262 Stay or Go	Manual	$$	4.4
	Crock Pot Touchscreen Programmable	Touchscreen	$$$	4.2
	Delonghi DCP707 Stainless-Steel	Programmable	$$$	4.0
	KitchenAid Slow Cooker	Manual	$$$	4.1
	Breville BSC560XL Stainless-Steel	Manual	$$$$	4.0
	Hamilton Beach 33265 Cool Surround Slow cooker	Programmable	$$$	4.4
Picture	Crock Pot	Type	Price	Rating

Slow Cooker Brands to choose:

When you are looking for the best crock pot, you need to be aware of the different brands available. This will help you identify which brand offers good quality, numerous features, ease of cleaning and will even tell you which offers the best prices.

1. Hamilton Beach:

Founded in 1910, Hamilton Beach has created some of the best crock pots we have today. Not only are they easy to use, they are durable, offer plenty of features and are backed by great prices. Whether large or small, Hamilton Beach crock pots take our top spot.

2. Crock-Pot (Rival):

Known as the “original crock pot,” Crock-Pot has designed some of the most simple yet functional crock pots. Focused on more digital and programmable crock pot types, Crock-Pot offers easy, simple to use and easy to clean crock pots.

3. Cuisinart:

As a brand of the Conair Corporation, Cuisinart has been around since 1974, creating innovative and convenient kitchen products. Cuisinart usually focuses on simplicity, ensuring you can slow cook anything effortlessly. As such, their crock pots are very easy to clean.

4. De’Longhi:

While not as impressive as the top 3, De’Longhi was founded in 1902 and has since made a great name for itself. While Its range of crock pots may not be the best, they offer simple and compact designs that take very little space, use very little energy and are highly affordable.

5. Frigidaire:

Frigidaire is yet another American company founded in 1918. While the name may remind you of refrigerators, rest assured that they have some decent crock pots. Frigidaire focus on providing an essential kitchen experience, helping its customers make great meals yet stay focused at work. As such, they usually offer a large number of convenience and features in their crock pots.

Crock pots features to reduce your decision time:

While there are crock pots that can be used for many situations, they are not always ideal. After all, you may need more space, a different shape or may need a different heating element altogether. Evidently, the different types of crock pots are centered around size, heating element, programmability and shape.

Size:

Crock pots are available in different sizes and hence offer different functions. For example, small 1-quart crock pot is perfect for dips while larger 6-7-quart variants are perfect for large casseroles and pot roasts.

Heating Element:

Griddle-type crock pots are usually found in rectangular crock pots. This type of crock pot has its heating element situated at the bottom of the pot, allowing it to cook from the bottom and be detached as well.

Electric-type crock pots are the most common heating element used, particularly in oval and round crock pots. Unlike the griddle-type crock pots, electric variants have their heating elements situated in the wall of the pot’s case.

Programmable Vs Manual:

A manual crock pot simply has a temperature setting that needs to be made once.

A programmable crock pot allows you to change not only the temperature, but the time it is on the temperature, when it shuts off and some even allow you to turn it on at a specific time.

Shape:

Round crock pots are decent crock pots but are mostly fit for stews and soups. Considering the shape, it is a good idea to only use smaller pieces of meat. However, not all meat cuts can be placed into this crock pot.

Rectangular crock pots are great overall crock pots that can be used for virtually anything. With the right shape and size, they can be used for medium to large cuts of meat, roasting and are great for casseroles as well.

Oval-type crock pots are best used for meat dishes. The size of the crock pot enables you to cook meat cuts that would otherwise not be suited for round or rectangular shapes. While not recommended, casseroles can be cooked in oval crock pots as well.

What size Crock pot you need for your family:

If you know what a crock pot is, then you likely know that different sized pots are used for different situations. Available in small, medium and large, here is a closer look at the different sizes of crock pots and what they are ideal for.

Small:

Small crock pots are generally the most affordable size and are perfect when you want to make small dips and/or meals. Small crock pots usually range from 1-3 quarts and each size has a different function.

1-quart crock pots we usually used to make dips, small cups of lentils or beans and/or even make small fondues.

2-quart crock pots are very similar to 1-quart variants but only give you more room, allowing you to cook larger meals or make bigger dips.

3-quart crock pots are the edge of the small category and are usually good for soups and stews fit for 1 or perhaps 2 people.

Medium:

4-quart crock pots are great for small lunches and cooking small cuts of meat. However, you need to also consider the shape of the crock pot. However, 4-quart crock pots can cook for at least 2 people.

5-quart crock pots have generally become the standard size among most families. Not only can they make soups rather easily, they can cook small cuts of meat easily, particularly oval types, and can make small casseroles.

Large:

6-quart crock pots are fantastic for families of 5-7 and can easily facilitate medium or large cuts of meat and can make great casseroles and roasts. Most families that have at least 4 members usually have a 6-quart crock pot.

7-quart crock pots are usually the perfect choice when you need to make large roasts and casseroles for family festivities.

8-quart and larger crock pots are generally only reserved for large families, large gatherings and large-very large meat cuts. They generally fit everything and can be used to make wonderful roasts and even cook poultry whole.

2014 top 5 Best Crock Pots:

1 – The Hamilton Beach Set’N Forget 33967 (Top pick 2014)

The Hamilton Beach Set & Forget 33967 6-quart crock pot is one of the best slow cooker available. As the name suggests, the crock pot allows you to simply set your temperature, the point of temperature change and simply forget about it.  With a host of different programmable functions, automatic temperature adjuster, removable 6-quart pot, oval shape and its affordable price makes this the top pick.

The Hamilton Beach crock pot – The Set & Forget 6-quart – is durable, has great warranty and can be set to 3 simple cooking moves. With a clip-locked lid, it allows you to take your magnificent cooking virtually anywhere. Combined with a sub $50 price, not only is it a great cooking partner, it won’t put a dent in your wallet.

2 – Crock-Pot SCVT650-PS

Large, made of stainless steel and with a handy touchscreen, this truly is one of the best crock pots. It’s 6 ½ quart oval pot gives your plenty of room to cook almost anything you want. Equipped with a crock pot touchscreen, this programmable crock pot, helps you cook like never before.

With a shimmering stainless steel exterior and silicone stay-cool wraps, the Crock-Pot SCVT650-PS is easy to handle. However considering its sub $75 price tag, it comes in 2^nd.

3 – Cuisinart PSC-650

The Cuisinart PSC-650 is a rather simple yet feature-rich 6 ½ quart crock pot. It has 3 temperature settings and just like other programmable crock pots, it can be programmed for 24-hour cooking.

What we really love about this is that the exterior always remains cool, the customer service is incredible and it comes with both a nifty recipe book and an instruction manual. But most importantly, it is one of the simplest and best crock pots we have ever used – although a little heavy. However, the sub $100 price tag can deter many buyers

4 – Breville 7-Quart

Let’s face it, nothing really cooks family meals like a large 7-quarter stainless steel crock pot. It’s rectangular shape makes it great for casseroles, many large meat cuts and especially stews. While it may not boast a sophisticated touch pad or touchscreen, the dual-dial gets the job done just as well.

When we asked for a bit of information from customer service, we got it fast. Oven-friendly and with a detachable power cord, this is a rather simple and easy to use 7-quart crock pot. In fact, what makes it one of the best crock pots is its simplicity, brilliant exterior finish, silicone grips and obviously its size.

Unfortunately, it does not have “warm” setting nor is it dishwasher safe. What’s interesting is that while the beautiful lid makes for a great overall finish, you can’t see through it. Finally, with a price of almost $130, we would rather like to think of this as a entry or mid-level 7-quart crock pot.

5 – Frigidaire Professional Stainless 7-Quart

If you’re looking for a beautiful and large 7-quart crock pot, the Frigidaire Professional Stainless 7-Quart is just the thing. It’s simple to clean, offers a high-end metallic finish and has 6 different presets to choose from. It’s simple to use, easy to clean and does offer great all-round cooking performance.

It has a one-touch screen that is simple to read and really does an outstanding job of adding to this crock pot’s high-end appeal. It’s what also makes this large 7-quart crock pot so great to use

Unfortunately, we do wish that it had more features. To be honest, I expect a lot more from a $100 7-quart programmable crock pot.

Slow Cooker Advantages:

Not only are crock pots great at cooking food, they are just simply marvelous pieces of machinery. They offer you many advantages that benefit you, your family and even your friends. Here are 5 great advantages of using a crock pot.

1 – Cooking Convenience

Possibly the biggest advantage that any crock pot, big or small, can give is the superior cooking performance. Under most circumstances, you need to stay at your stove’s side, cooking everything separately, ensuring that nothing burns and that everything is cooked.

If you live a busy life, then the crock pot is your best friend! Simply throw everything in, set the temperature and timer and then go to work. The moment you come back, our meal will be cooked, ready for you to consume.

2 – Reduced Electricity Bill

Cooking for a few hours is not only time consuming, it uses a lot of electricity. If you think about the cooking time, you ­will realize that crock pots use very little heat and, evidently, electricity. As such, not only do you get a lot of convenience, you save a lot on your electricity bill. Check here NH public services electricity chart.

3 – Improved Flavor

Regular high-heat cooking does not allow the flavors enough time to really work through and fuse. As a result, you acquire a range of unique flavors. If you’re making a stew, roast, dip or casserole, you want the flavors to fuse well – a crock pot gives it that chance. The result of slow cooking is the perfect fusion of flavor; it’s aroma diffusing through the air and into your nose.

4 – Easy Carrying and Transportation

Many crock pots come with various features such as detachable bases, easy-close lids and even strong carrying lids. These features allow you to not only carry your crock pot with ease, it allows you to take your crock pot, and its contents, almost anywhere. If you purchase one of the best crock pots, life will become easier than ever before.

5 – Easy Cleaning

from the base to the lid, almost every part of a crock pot can be separated with ease. Not only does this allow you to carry it almost anywhere, it facilitates easy cleaning. All you need to do is clean the pot and lid and you’re good to go!

—ADDITIONS—

Best Electric Pressure Cookers & Canners Buying Guide

In every kitchen the vital part and soul of it is the pressure cooker. If you want to cook perfect stews and chunky soups the you have to get one. If you also want to tenderize (that happens because you are cooking at higher temperatures than normal) the meat perfectly and finish cooking sooner then this article is just for you, so keep reading! 

But, as in day to day life, not all pressure cookers are created equal. There are models that are digital, ones that have timers, ones that are just plain cookers and so on.

When buying a new pressure cooker what do you have to look for? The best option, if you are new to cooking, is to get one with a timer. The timer is important and will help you not to undercook or overcook your food. Mushy vegetables? Don’t need them!

The quick release mechanism is also quite important as the older cookers that don’t have this mechanism you have to run under cold water in order to lower the temperature and the pressure. This quick release mechanism makes the cooker/canner very safe to use. Some models have even a pressure regulator that helps you keep a specific PSI when you are cooking.

Benefits of the pressure cooker

Having a good quality pressure cooker is something that every cook and kitchen should have. Choose a good quality one when buying one and keep it in good condition and you will have many delicious meals ahead.

Cooking in a healthy way

To everyone, health is very important. And for that reason most of us are turning to cooking the right way. If the food is cooked with a constant pressure and without much oil it will preserve all its nutrients thus makeing it healthier.

Better taste in your food

If you cook at high pressures all of the flavor doesn’t evaporate and the food keeps all the flavor inside.

It will save you precious time

Compared to cooking with an open pan, when you cook your meals with a cooker of this sort it will save you a lot of time because of the intense heat and pressure that the cooker is capable of.

You will save money and energy

Most of the cookers are electric so you will have no need to use the gas. And even though they are still electric, the consuption of energy is very low.

Dishwashers safe

Here we are talking about the components of the electric cooker but the stainless steel ones are dishwashers safe.