Product Description
Enjoy healthy, home-cooked meals even with a busy schedule thanks to this easy-to-use oval-shaped slow cooker. With its generous 4-quart capacity, the unit works great for cooking up soups, casseroles, pot roasts, curries, and more. Simply add ingredients to the unit’s stoneware crock, insert it in the cooker, and turn the temperature-control dial from off to keep warm, low, or high. The slow cooker’s see-through glass lid, with a stainless-steel rim and stay-cool knob, traps in heat and moisture and allows for checking on food at a glance. For added versatility, the removable crock doubles as a serving dish and can go in the refrigerator to store leftovers or into the dishwasher, along with the lid, for quick cleanup. Integrated stay-cool handles provide safe transport, and recipes come included. Perfect for meals at home or to take to a potluck, the slow cooker measures approximately 12 by 12 by 9 inches.
Product Features
- Versatile family-size slow cooker with 3 heat settings
- Removable 4-quart oval stoneware crock doubles as serving dish
- Glass lid designed with stainless-steel rim and cool-touch knob
- Dishwasher-safe lid and stoneware crock; recipes included
- Measures approximately 12 by 12 by 9 inches
There are 2 kinds of slow cookers, depending on where the heat source is. This Hamilton Beach unit has heat coils around the sides which stay hot, as opposed to slow cookers with heat sources in the base, which turn on and off intermittently. I have found that with this type of constant heat slow cooker (with the coils around the sides) I don’t need to add as much liquid. In fact I cut the liquid (water or stock) by half of what the recipes call for when I use this cooker. The 4 quart size is good for roasts up to 3 or so pounds. If you slow cook chicken or game hens in it, cut the bird up into pieces and remove the skins. Don’t slow cook a whole uncut bird (in any kind of slow cooker).
This is a nice little slow cooker for a single, a couple, or a small family. I have had no problems with the knob* (as yet).
*The knob problem probably arises from the close proximity of the heating element to the knob, as opposed to slow cookers that heat from the bottom, away from the knob…
NOVEMBER 2007 UPDATE: We still love this little slow cooker. It is perfect for making Irish beef stews all winter long. The knob on ours has not broken yet but we try to be gentle with it, due to the warnings we read.
DECEMBER 2008 UPDATE: We’re still using this 4 quart slow cooker. We have used it for a lot of baked beans and slow cooked barbecue beef dishes on the weekends. The knob has not broken yet, but we are not rough with it either. We really like this little slow cooker.
FEBRUARY 2009 UPDATE: The cooker still works fine. We have used it once a week or more this winter, for everything from navy beans to chuck roasts. The knob has not broken yet (we are gentle with the knob if it’s hot).
JANUARY 2010 UPDATE: The cooker still works well and the knob is still intact. Took it to work last Tuesday, cooked stuffed chicken cutlets & veggies in the kitchenette/break room, everybody loved them, there were no leftovers.
I bought this cooker seven months ago, and really liked it. It’s quite handsome, and I have no complaints about how it works. I’ve made many fine meals in it. Sadly, the knob broke a few weeks or a month ago. I glued it back together, but today it broke apart again. I don’t think it will take a second gluing any better than the first, so now if I want to use it I have to use pliers or something, and I have to count clicks–which are not as distinct as I’d like–to know quite which setting it’s on.
Such a shame this otherwise great cooker is now incredibly difficult to use because of such a “small” detail!
This was my first full size slow cooker (I have a 1.5 qt one too) and I’ve learned a couple of things I’ll share for people looking for their first. The 4 quart size has been really good. I first bought it when I was living alone, so I’d have lots of leftovers, which I love. Now I live with my boyfriend, and the size is still good–we usually have enough left over for one or both of us to have lunch of it the next day. The oval shape has worked out well also; it’s possible to fit larger things in it than I’d be able to in a round cooker of the same volume.
My next one, though, will be programmable. I’d thought the feature was silly, because you can only go from high to warm or low to warm, not high to low, or high to low to warm. Now that I have some experience using it, I see that the ability to switch to warm automatically at a certain time would be immensely useful, for those times when a recipe calls for 6 hours on low, but you’ll be away from home for 8 hours.
Good luck choosing one!