Buying My First Slow Cooker and My Initial Review

Buying My First Slow Cooker and My Initial Review Buying my first slow cooker.
With details of my research.
What I was looking for.
Plus my initial review.

September 2017 Update: I now have a full slow cooker review. See my post included below for details.

Buying My First Slow Cooker – Research

Once, I decided that I wanted to buy a slow cooker. A quick search of online websites like Argos and Amazon. Showed me that there where a lot of models to choose from.

And from reading the customer reviews it was clear that whichever slow cooker I chose there was going to be a learning curve to really get the hang of this gadget. Adjusting my reasonably well-practised cooking skills from the oven and hob methods. To make the most out of cooking with this device.

What I wanted was an easy-to-use cooker. Which, after some test-runs. Would fulfil my needs, i.e. to cook tasty meals, with minimal preparation and using everyday ingredients.

I also wanted a slow cooker that would be a reasonable price, say less than £30. Large enough to yield 4 or so portions. Lightweight and compact as I have limited worktop space. And a slow cooker that had received a good amount of 4 or more (out of 5) star ratings.

Buying My First Slow Cooker

What I opted for was the Morphy Richards Accents Sear and Stew Slow Cooker. Which had received (at the time) 4.8 out of 5 from over 1,500 reviews. And was less than £25 from Argos. This model had also received an average over 4.7 out of 5 stars on other shopping sites. Including Sainsburys, Debenhams, Tescos, Currys and Amazon UK.

This model has a 3.5 L capacity. Which according to the manufacturer’s description is enough for 3 to 4 portions, on average.

Note: I’ve now done a full review of my chosen slow cooker, see below for my post.

Benefits for choosing this model:

You can brown meat and fry veggies in the slow cooker pot, on the hob. Before putting the pot into the cooker unit. It is also oven-safe.
The inside pot is made of aluminium. Which is lightweight, hard-wearing and is also dishwasher-safe.
It has simple controls. With just 4 settings: Off, low, medium and high.
A clear toughened glass lid, allowing you to monitor cooking.
The whole unit itself was not too bulky or too heavy. So it wouldn’t take up too much worktop space. Or be too heavy to lift.
Power consumption: 163 W. This is substantially lower than my fan oven (which is about 2.7KW).
Morphy Richards is a reliable well-known brand for kitchen appliances.

Downsides for buying this slow cooker:

It doesn’t have a timer. So I would need to make sure I’m around at the end of the cooking time. To turn off the slow cooker manually.
Non-stick inner pot is good for easy clean-up. But I’d just need to remember to use non-metal utensils, to avoid scratching the non-stick surface.

My Initial Review

I chose to buy it from Argos, as it’s only a short walk away from my house. And offline and online prices from a variety of retailers are all about the £25 price point. And as it was very light and compact, it was easy to carry it home!

On opening I was surprised at how minimal and compact it actually was. With the main housing (cable and plug attached), the inner cooking pot, glass lid and manual. There was also leaflet with instructions of how to extend the default 1 year guarantee to 2 years.

Reading the manual, it was clear there are a lot of things to remember. From handling and care instructions for the cooker and inner pot. To the optimum way to place ingredients, filling the pot and which foods can and can’t be used in this Morphy Richards slow cooker.

Morphy Richards Sear and Stew Slow Cooker Recipes

The manual also included 27 slow cooker recipes:

3 soup recipes.
5 poultry (chicken and turkey) recipes.
15 meat (beef, mince, pork, sausage and lamb) recipes.
1 vegetarian recipes.
3 dessert recipes.

These slow cooker recipes covered the everyday basics. Including red lentil soup, chicken and mushroom casserole, Hungarian goulash, Bolognese sauce, vegetarian curry and rice pudding.