Kenwood CP706 Instructions Manual page 5

hints on using your slow
cooker
1 Prepare and use ingredients at
room temperature rather than
straight from the refrigerator.
However ingredients such as meat
and fish should not be left out of
the refrigerator for longer than is
necessary, so remove from the
refrigerator just to take the chill off
and keep covered with cling film or
plastic wrap. Do not prepare food in
advance and then leave out of the
refrigerator.
2 Cut root vegetables such as
carrots, onions, swedes etc into
fairly small pieces as they take
longer to cook than meat.
3 Cut each type of ingredient into
even sized pieces, this will assist
with even cooking.
4 Browning the meat and sauteing
the vegetables first in a separate
pan will help to remove a certain
amount of fat from the meat and
also improve the appearance and
flavour of both meat and
vegetables. However this is not
essential.
5 Do not lift the lid more than
necessary during cooking as this
will cause loss of heat and
evaporation of liquid. It may be
necessary depending upon how
often the lid is removed and for how
long, to allow an extra 20 minutes
to half an hour cooking time.
6 Cooking always takes place in the
cooking pot. Never place food
directly into the base unit.
7 Never plunge the hot cooking pot
into cold water immediately after
use or pour boiling water into an
empty cold cooking pot. Subjecting
it to a sudden change in
temperature could cause it to crack.
8 After several months of use the
glaze on the cooking pot may
become crackled: this is common
with glazed stoneware and will not
affect the efficiency of the slow
cooker.
9 If you are adapting recipes from
conventional cooking you may need
to reduce the amount of liquid
used. In slow cooking liquid does
not evaporate as quickly as with
conventional cooking although a
certain amount of liquid is
necessary to help the transfer of
heat.
10 Never fill the slow cooker more than
2/3 full.
11 Milk products, including cream,
sour cream and yoghurt, should be
added towards the end of cooking
to help combat any curdling that
might take place.
12 Frozen vegetables such as peas
should be thawed and added
during the last
cooking. This will ensure retention
of colour and texture in the
vegetables and temperature within
the pot.
13 Best results are achieved when the
ingredients are covered in liquid.
14 Trim excess fat from meat.
15 When cooking whole joints make
sure they fit comfortably into the
cooking pot and always add liquid.
Turn part way through the cooking
process.
16 Using hot stock will speed up the
cooking process.
17 To thicken gravy etc., mix some
cornflour with a little cold water to
form a smooth paste. Add the
mixture to the cooking pot towards
the end of the cooking time. Cover
and cook for additional time until
the juices are bubbling and
thickened.
18 Please note that some spitting
around the lid may occur.
5
1 ⁄ to 1 hour of
2