Crock-Pot4.7l Gloss Black Digital Countdown Slow Cooker

I looked at loads of reviews before choosing a slow cooker.Although I live on my own, I did want a cooker that would accommodate a reasonable sized joint of meat, and I knew I could freeze any surplus food. I chose one with a countdown timer as I'm not always sure when I'll be back home.The cooker seems well built - with a big heavy ceramic inner pot. On first use there was a slightly disconcerting smell of warm electrics coming from the control panel - it has settled but I can still smell warm electrics if I put my nose close to it - guess that's inevitable. The pot does get hot on the outside - so make sure nothing meltable is touching it.The pot is large - my second meal was a 3.5kg piece of pork - but I have found that as long as it is at least half full of cooking juice- it seems to work fine. The timer is easy to use - you can switch from high to low whenever you want - but it would have been nice to be able to have say - one hour on high and then the rest on low...maybe I'm asking too much.It cooks beautifully - and I am very pleased with the meals I have made. The pork was super succulent after 7-8hrs, I've made ribs & beans and that was a great success too. It converted a little tray of lamb bones into a magnificent tagine.One curious fact about slow cooking - with the pork - there was virtually no fat in the juices - it remained on the pork and was tasteless! It seems to have extracted all the yummy fat flavour but left the fat in situ. The lamb dish did shed much fat, but that was easily skimmed off leaving a delicious sauce. You may find it best to decant the cooking juices and reduce them on a normal stove to concentrate the flavours.I've yet to use it while I'm out as I can never get up early enough to do the prep!!!All in all it seems to be a great buy - either for a family, or a lone greedy guts like me! I look forward to weekends even more now - as I plan what other hapless bit of meat will be the next offering to my crock-pot!

I broke my last breville slow cooker by smashing the pot in the sink and I spent ages trying to decide what to buy to replace it as it was always a bit on the hot side. I saw this crock pot reviewed by Which? and decided to purchase it.It is well made, the outer casing feels sturdy and looks good. The lid sits nicely on top and feels cool to touch even after cooking and the ceramic pot is well made and thick. The digital controls are super easy to work out. you can set for Hi, Low and there is a countdown timer. When it reaches zero it switches to keep-warm mode. The pot is round, not oval, but it was still big enough to fit a whole chicken inside; I was worried that the shape would prevent me from cooking joints of meat but it was fine.Temperature-wise it was just right, it has a true low temperature setting unlike my last one which boiled everything too quickly and burned food to the side. I haven't really tried the high setting except to heat up some cornflour which I added to the end of cooking so I can't comment on how that works. Everything I've made has been lovely, the sauces don't separate or curdle. Meat falls off the bone and vegetables cook well, including hard root vegetables.I can't find anything to fault with this. Really good quality and a joy to use. I've used it every day for the last few weeks as I think I'm addicted!EDIT-June 2013The high setting works well too, taking about half the time to cook something on slow. Great for doing jacket potatoes and sweet potatoes in 3-4 hours.

Having owned a very large Morphy Richards slow cooker years ago and not used it very often (eventually sold it), I was a little anxious about buying another. I needn't have worried as this slow cooker is superb!We stopped eating processed foods for main meals nearly two years ago and this meant that we were making all our dinners from scratch - even down to the stock we used. As some stock recipes call for the bones to be cooked for 24 hours, I decided it was time to invest in a new one. Having looked at many reviews, I decided that one with a countdown timer would be the most useful for us. Since buying it I have cooked up beef stock (24 hours), chicken stock (12 hours), slow roasted joints of pork (16 hours and then roasted in the oven for a superb crackling), vegetable tagines (5 hours), curries and soups.Pros:Is a perfect size for us (a family of 4).Doesn't take up too much room in my (minute) kitchen (although it can't stay out on the side when it's idle as I literally have zero space on my kitchen side).Cooks well and at a good rate, with meals coming out wonderful and flavoursome.Pot and lid go in the dishwasher.Cons:Not big enough to do a double portion of dinner (not many leftovers after we've dished up!)Is fairly fragile (I have chipped it the teeniest bit on the outside - just cosmetic, but annoying nonetheless!)Overall, I am super pleased with my purchase and this has become one of my essential kitchen items.