Slow Cooker

MissAdventure ... Well it was diced Irish beef, but as I said the potatoes were still a bit hard after 10 hours. It was OK after the extra 2 hours on high. But 12 hours seems a long time.

Callistemon ... So you do all your cooking on high? So a stew would take approx 4 hours?

Fennel ... I did wonder if it was a fault with the seal but as others have said theirs are loose too.

MamaCaz ... It sounds as if mine has a fault, if you had the opposite with yours. Is yours a heavy ceramic dish?

I roasted an Irish topside beef joint one Sunday and it was so tough and unpalatable that the next day I diced it and put it in the slow cooker for hours with vegetables.
It was very good.

Callistemon ... So you do all your cooking on high? So a stew would take approx 4 hours?

High at first for an hour (perhaps less) to get it going, then turn it down to medium.

Last year's Christmas gammon, done in my then new slow cooker while I went out shopping, just shredded!

Ps it was a surprise as my old one was much slower.

34Welshy
MamaCaz ... It sounds as if mine has a fault, if you had the opposite with yours. Is yours a heavy ceramic dish?

Yes.

Sallywally1 I used a plug in timer(like the ones you use with lamps etc to come on and off)

I have a small slow cook and set the timer to come on when needed if I'm out, then to turn off if needed, or vice versa.

Its always worked for me no prob.

Maybe test it out one day when your in the house see how it goes.

Mine is ceramic, too.
By the time I have been out for 7 or 8 hours, (cooker left on low; I only have high and low settings) my food is just starting to catch around the edges.

Prompted by posts on here about making bread in the slow cooker, I decided to try this today.
Unfortunately, I made a stupid mistake, and didn't notice for nearly an hour that I had turned the control too far, so it was on 'keep warm' instead of 'high'. Oops
That meant that it was over-prooved, so it lost a lot of its rise.

Even so, whacking it up to full at that point has still resulted in a very edible bread, and I have already given in to the temptation to eat a slice of it, still warm, with butter.

I will definitely do this again but without, hopefully, any more stupid mistakes.