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We recently used it to prepare our holiday brisket and it came out wonderful...A great easy to use piece of equipment.

My Rival crock pot, purchased around 2005-ish, just cooks way too hot. I can make beans or chili or soups, but if I want to do a roast, I put it in the crock pot (with the proper accoutrement), set it to LOW, and by the time I get home from work its internal temperature is soaring past 225!

My understanding is that slow cookers built in recent years have a higher "Low" temp, but this information is gleaned from online forums, so I have no source to back that information up.

Anyway, I'm on the lookout for older model crockpots now.

Or maybe if I leave the lid open a bit? Perhaps I'm getting some kind of minimal pressure cooker effect, increasing the temperature inside the pot?

@semarr, the lid on mine fits a little loose, which I think helps with temperature control. If you're having those kinds of problems, though, there are also newer models with precise temperature control that may be easier to find than older models. The only thing is that they cost a bit more--upwards of $100 for sure.

@Nikki: No, sadly no Little Dipper came with the timer-model...but fortunately I have one that I bought on its own about 13 years ago - and it's still going strong! I love to make chili-queso dop in mine.

This probably is an old wives' tale, but sometime in the past, I read that with old crockpots, every time you took the lid off you needed to add an hour to the cooking time (guilty!). Supposedly, impatient cooks were raising the potential of giving a food-borne illness to their families, so manufacturers of newer crockpots designed the "low" heat setting to be hotter in order for food to reach 140 degrees within four hours.

We had a nice chunk of leftover roast beef from Sunday dinner, and after lunch on Tuesday my daughter-in-law asked if she could use it to make chili in the crock pot. On the "high" setting, it was boiling in under two hours.

I use mine to make steel-cut oatmeal, chili, stew, chili-cheese dip and pot roasts. Has anyone ever used theirs to make apple butter, fruit leather or anything else out of the ordinary that requires long, slow cooking and frequent stirring?

Nikki, don't stop at fondue in the Little Dipper. For New Year's Eve and Super Bowl Sunday, there are so many good recipes for hot dips that you'll wish you had 10 of the things.

I'm still using my mom's Rival crock pot that she got when they first came out. It still works great, it's just a bit tedious to clean. Best thing ever invented. I love making baked beans in it.

Please, o, please post more recipes because all that I have ever made in my Crock Pot bears a striking resemblance to shoe leather. Somehow the forty clove garlic chicken was insipid, the pot roast tough and dry, what is wrong with me? I can do it stovetop in my wannabee LeCreuset, but not in the Crock Pot.

@LearP, just make sure you're cooking things for the appropriate amount of time! There are some good guides online (Rival's site has a good guide right here: http://www.crock-pot.com/CustomerService.aspx?id=faq&fgid=44) and you can get infinitely creative with recipes. Start simple: try about 2 lbs of beef cubes with 1 cup of water and a packet of onion soup mix or ranch dressing mix--three ingredients in the pot and you're done. As you get more comfortable, you can try things like a Moroccan-inspired stew: same amount of beef; two each of onions, tomatoes, finely diced; one and a half lemons, thickly sliced; cinnamon, salt, pepper, garlic, and ras el hanout all to your taste. Enjoy!!

Oops, I meant this...

http://www.recipezaar.com

I use my crockpot about one to two times a month. It is an amazing invention that no kitchen should be without. The original "set it and forget it." I did a pulled pork with a boston butt last week, on high for 3 hrs then to low for 3hrs...super tender.

3lb boston butt
large onion diced
4 cloves minced garlic
0ne bottle fav bbq sauce
and really whatever spices you like
cover
cook
shred/pull
serve on bun, quesadilla, pizza...yummmeeee

I have two slow cookers, one a Westinghouse 6 quart that looks like the Rival pictured above except it does have a light to indicate that it's on. It runs boiling hot even on low so it's great for making chili, stews, and beans from scratch. My other is a Krups combo rice cooker/slow cooker that makes a delicious Carolina pulled pork barbecue because it actually cooks at a simmer but has no high setting. The trick to making good dishes in a slow cooker is to brown ingredients on the stovetop (sear meats, saute onions, etc.) and then add them to the mix. Just dumping stuff together to stew during the day will yield results less than exemplary except for bean dishes probably.

@LearP, here are some of my favorite unconventional slow cooker preparations:
1) Polenta/grits: Cook on high for 2 to 3 hours. Only requres a few stirs for creamy, effortless polenta.
2) Caramelized onions: Slice 3 to 5 pounds of onions and place in slow cooker with 1/4 cup olive oil, and a sprig of thyme, rosemary, or bay leaves. Cook for 8 to 12 hours with an occasional stir.
3) Dark chicken stock: Cover frozen chicken parts (backbones, necks, wing tips, carcass, etc.) with frozen leek tops, fennel stalks (or other veggies), peppercorns, bay leaves, and herbs with water and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours. Strain and reduce on the stovetop for some super concentrated chicken stock.

Also, Lynn Alley has two excellent "Gourmet Slow Cooker" cookbooks.

Rump Roast
28-oz. can Stewed Tomato
2 pkg. onion soup
4c. water

Cook 6 hrs on high, strain and thicken juice, add chunks back into thickened juice (now gravy) slice meat and serve with mashed potatoes

Everytime I read a crockpot recipe from Cooks Country, they basically precook everything on the stove, cook in the crockpot for 6 to 8 hours, and then pull it out and finish it on the stove.

Why? Because crockpots suck.

Anything with veg is mush.
Anything with rice or pasta is mushy gruel.
Anything with meat is bland steamed stringy semi-mush.
Anything with subtle flavors is bland mush.

The only thing crockpots are great for cooking is mush, as in oatmeal. My father made excellent steelcut oatmeal in our crockpot.

(not counting keeping stuff warm, like for a buffet or party, which is not "cooking")

I have an original Rival crock pot with the non-removable base. It came with a Bake and Serve insert that produces the most delicious cakes you could ever imagine. Definitely experiment with baking in the crock pot.

@hungrychristel, another thing that's great about a slow cooker vs. a roasting pan is that if you're cooking for a group, you can keep oven/stove space free for whatever else you're making!

@Nikki, Ah, yes, I think that I will try "loosening" the lid on my crockpot (I've noticed mine creates a pretty good seal usually). Maybe put aluminum foil folded up at three points along the edge to pop the lid up just slightly.

@betterreine, I read things similar to what you described, with the basic theme of food safety and manufacturers' liability. No clue if it's true, but it does sound plausible.

@Peggasus, yeah, I think garage sales will probably be the only way I invest any more money in the slow cooker option. I will keep an eye out!

I reckon ultimately I'd rather just have a 1970's slow cooker than something with lots of fancy settings that I don't need and that will cost me lots of money. I want the contraption for the main purpose of cooking low and very slow.

For now, I just prefer my oven and stovetop. And those don't take up any of my whopping 2 sq ft of counter space! : )

@Nikki Goldstein - Excellent! May come in handy at the work pot-luck this year; I'm thinking pulled pork now...LOL