Question for slow-cooker (crockpot) chefs
Posted by yabbitgirl on Jan 19, 2010 · Member since Apr 2006 · 14266 posts
To those who use their crockpots a lot.
Do you find that cooking things in a crockpot changes the flavour of some herbs and spices? I find that if you cook something with garlic in it, it seems to taste different to the stove-top version. Am alone in this?
I feel like you need more spices when you cook in a crock pot, but I haven't noticed that anything taste different
I've had this experience with garlic. I make vegetable soup a lot in my crock pot, and sometimes put in garlic (fresh, that is). I can't exactly say how the taste changes, but I know that it just tastes wrong when it's done. I don't like it, so I've stopped putting garlic in my crock pot.
I've had this experience with garlic. I make vegetable soup a lot in my crock pot, and sometimes put in garlic (fresh, that is). I can't exactly say how the taste changes, but I know that it just tastes wrong when it's done. I don't like it, so I've stopped putting garlic in my crock pot.
Thank you sharkie. Yes. Garlic just seems to lose it's garlicness and be sort of...Iono. Bitter? Weird, anyway.
Some of my slow cooker bookks suggest you saute garlic and onion first in a skillet before adding to crockpot.
I know that the flavor of spices come out with the smell. This seems especially true with garlic. I rarely use fresh garlic as it is too much work and use that canned minced garlic instead. With that, I usually add the garlic in the last five to 10 minutes of cooking, because if you are smelling it, then you are tasting it, and the recipe is absorbing less of the flavor.
So the crock pot thing makes sense, as the longer something is cooked, the more chance there is for the spices to loose their potency to scent.
I am no chef but I just have years and years of experience cooking, and this is what I have noticed.
Canned minced garlic? Really? :o
This is as weird as frozen gazpacho in a carton. Or frozen parsley.
I must be a member of the Slow Food campaign without even knowing it. I thought the garlic press was advanced.
I don't know about canned, but I've gotten the jarred stuff (which seems to be packed with a small amount of oil).
i've gotten jarred, but the problem is it's in citric acid, so it's more sour :/ convenient, though.
I tend to season it when I put it in the crock, then taste it just before it's ready and throw in more if needed.