If you’ve ever cooked tough meat in your slow cooker, you know it can be a frustrating experience. The meat is dry and chewy, and no matter how long you cook it, it never seems to get tender. But don’t give up on your slow cooker just yet!
There are a few tricks on how to fix tough meat in slow cooker. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to make tough meat tender in your slow cooker using three simple methods. So read on for tips and tricks that will help you make the most of your slow cooker!
What Is A Slow Cooker?
A slow cooker, also known as a Slow cooker or Crock-Pot, is a pot that cooks or stews food for a long time at low heat using electricity.
With many gadgets suitable for modern life, slow cookers are popular with many families today.
Slow cooker construction
The structure of the slow cooker is similar to that of a removable lid rice cooker, including:
Heater on the bottom of the pot.
Pot heart.
Stainless steel case.
Detachable lid.
The allowed cooking temperature is in the range of 75 degrees C – 135 degrees C. Power 120W – 150W low power consumption.
The inner pot material is made from Ceramic ceramic, which is very safe for the health of the user, cooking does not create harmful substances. Stainless steel outer shell for durability. The transparent glass pot lid is heat and impact resistant.
Mechanism of action
The slow cooker keeps the heat at the bottom of the pot and then transfers it to the sides to heat and cook the food inside at a moderate temperature for a long time. The design often comes with temperature settings that allow you to use different temperature streams for cooking.
Depending on the dish, you can set the right temperature to slow cook a meal, slow cooking will take up the time of the meal, but it brings a characteristic flavor.
The slow cooker lid allows steam to escape, unlike pressure cookers that trap steam to speed up the cooking process.
Notes when using a slow cooker
Use a thermometer to make sure that the water in your slow cooker is not too hot before adding food. If it reaches 85 degrees Celsius or higher, then you can safely use this appliance for cooking purposes; however, if temperatures fall below 70°C (158 °F), there’s probably no working heating element which means safety precautions must be taken when using one of these devices as an oven substitute.
Do not overfill the inside of the slow cooker, especially not more than two-thirds of the inner pot, to avoid the food spilling out during the cooking process, and the food, when cooked, will not be delicious because it cannot cook evenly.
When using a slow cooker, always keep the lid on during cooking to maintain ideal cooking conditions. The pot should be checked regularly to make sure the heating element is correct, and that food can be cooked to the right temperature. If cooking at too low a temperature of about 60 degrees Celsius, it must be cooked for at least 4 hours to avoid bacteria remaining in the food.
Frozen foods before cooking in the slow cooker, need to be defrosted thoroughly to ensure that the food can cook evenly, achieve deliciousness and retain the perfect nutritional value.
In particular, do not use a slow cooker to reheat food because the main function of the pot is to cook and keep food warm for a long time. To reheat food, use a microwave or other conventional stove.
When using the slow cooker for cleaning, just use a sponge to wipe the inside and outside. Absolutely avoid placing the slow cooker in water that can cause a short fire that can’t be used anymore.
Cleaning the slow cooker
After using the slow cooker, follow the instructions below to clean the pot clean, free of dirt and mold:
For the pot body and the bottom of the pot, use a soft, clean cloth. You moisten the cloth with clean water. Then, use a cloth to dry the surface of the pot body; the bottom of the pot is okay!
Because the lid of the pot is usually made of glass, we can use a sponge and dishwashing liquid to clean it. Besides you can also put it in the dishwasher to clean.
The removable porcelain compartment is the place that comes into contact with food. You need to clean it thoroughly to clean it and prevent the smell from remaining after cooking.
In addition to the dishwasher, you can use a sponge or cloth soaked in soapy water to clean. After cleaning, dry the removable porcelain compartment with a soft cloth.
Wipe the protective compartment with a damp cloth after each use. Alternatively, you can lightly spray the all-purpose cleaner on the guard, and wipe it with a scouring pad to clean the guard. Then, use a clean towel to dry to maintain the original shine of the pot shell.
How To Choose A Slow Cooker?
Should choose high-quality pot material
To ensure food hygiene and safety and be good for your baby’s health, you need to choose a pot that uses high-quality materials that are easy to clean.
With aluminum alloys, you should choose those that have been processed and oxidized and have a safe protective surface layer. Choosing high-grade aluminum alloy not only limits food from sticking to the surface, affecting health, but also makes it easy to clean.
If you choose a stainless steel pot, choose 304 stainless steel instead of 201 stainless steel or 403 stainless steel. However, when using a stainless steel pot, you should avoid having too much fire when cooking.
Porcelain pot is considered quality and safe, has good heat transfer, effective heat retention, and saves energy. Also, because the heat transfer ability is so good, porridge, when cooked with a porcelain pot, usually boils quickly and is easy to overflow. You should pay attention to cooking effectively.
Style and design of the pot
The design of the porridge cooker is a combination of a rice cooker and an electric pressure cooker. With the outer design is a round cylinder, and the shell is made of stainless steel or aluminum with 2 layers. The inside can be stainless steel or non-stick enameled porcelain.
Thanks to that, when using the porridge pot, you can be completely assured of its safety in terms of health and ease of cleaning and cleaning after use. You can choose textures and colors to suit your preferences and needs.
Select pot capacity
Choosing the capacity of the baby porridge pot depends on the needs of users. If you cook porridge for your baby to use all day, you should choose large pots. Otherwise, if you only cook for each meal separately, you can choose smaller pots to save money.
You can choose a porridge pot with a capacity of about 0.7 liters – 1.5 liters which will meet the needs of cooking porridge for your baby. If you want to use the pot to process other dishes such as cooking oats, stewing meat, etc., you can consider choosing a pot with a large capacity of 2.5 liters.
Choose the right capacity
To choose the right product for the needs of users, it is necessary to choose the right capacity and capacity. Normally, a large capacity will help you cook faster and save time, but especially for baby porridge, it needs to be smooth and pure, so slow cooker products with a capacity of about 90W – 1.50W are suitable.
Features and utilities included
If you consider the long-term effectiveness, you should choose multi-function products, not just a specialized porridge cooking function. Some functions and cooking modes that you need to pay attention to, such as fast cooking, slow cooking, keeping warm; bird’s nest; stew…
Slow Cooker Benefit
A slow cooker is a type of pot used to simmer, cook, stew, store or keep food warm for a long time. Using a slow cooker is very convenient. You just need to put food in the cooker from the night before, and the next morning when you go to work, you have delicious food ready.
Another advantage when using a slow cooker is that this pot can do a lot of different dishes such as Meat stock, fish stock, bone stew, porridge, and soup…depending on the needs of the person.
Food cooked in a slow cooker is usually maintained at a low temperature of 75 – 135 degrees Celsius for a long time, so the vitamins will not decompose or react chemically with other substances. Therefore, the nutritional content in the dish is preserved almost intact.
Usually, tubers like potatoes and carrots will take longer to cook than meat. If using a pressure cooker, put the vegetables in first, and simmering at high heat and pressure will likely cause them to soften and break. But when using a slow cooker, you can rest assured about this problem. Besides, when using a slow cooker, you will not be afraid of burning food, ensuring that the food is just cooked as well as keeping the inherent flavor of the food, suitable for cooking porridge for children.
Using a slow cooker does not consume too much power. In fact, the capacity when using a slow cooker usually ranges from 100W to 150W, depending on the capacity of the pot. What’s more, the slow cooker only uses electricity as much as it cooks. When switching to the heating mode, the power consumption is very low because the structure of the pot is made of high-quality ceramic, so the ability to retain heat is very good.
Using a slow cooker helps you not need to spend too much time preparing meals every day. Especially suitable for families with young children. You can cook multiple dishes at once, cook the cooked food under the pot and use the steaming tray to steam the vegetables on top.
Mistakes To Avoid When Using A Slow Cooker
Put food that is too big or too small in the pot
When putting food in the slow cooker, it needs to be just the right size so that everything is cooked evenly, not too mushy, losing nutrients if it is too small and losing its taste or not cooking in time if you leave it in pieces or leave the pieces too large.
Cooking food for too long
Using a slow cooker doesn’t mean you can cook for as long as you want. Cooking for too long will make the food easily mushy and crushed, causing it the lose of some of the nutrients and lose the characteristic taste of the dish, making the dish not have the desired delicious quality and consuming a lot of time. Cooking time and electricity bill.
Waste of boiling water
When using the slow cooker to make baked goods, the dish will often release a lot of water, and many people often throw this water away. However, you need to know that this water contains a lot of good nutrients, and you can fully take advantage of it by adding a little spice, flour, or cornstarch to make the mixture thicker and richer. It can be used as a dipping sauce.
Choose the wrong pot size
Many women think that the bigger the slow cooker, the more comfortable and enjoyable cooking will be. It can even be used to cook multiple batches at once. This is not entirely wrong, but you need to remember that choosing the right size slow cooker will help you easily cook enough for the whole family instead of having to worry about calculating enough food to cook for a large pot.
You should also avoid buying a pot that is too small because then the amount of food that can be cooked will be much less, causing you to either have to stuff the food into the pot, causing the cooking quality to be unsatisfactory, or having to cook many times, which takes time. Unnecessary time and effort.
Temperature setting too high
When using a slow cooker for cooking, you should note that the pot is usually kept at a low temperature of about 75 – 135 degrees Celsius for a long time to be able to keep almost intact the nutrient content of the food.
Therefore, when using a slow cooker, you should not set the temperature too high, as it will easily cause the food to lose its inherent nutrients, which may even cause the bottom of the pot to burn due to premature dehydration. Set the correct cooking temperature and wait for you to have a delicious dish.
Open the pot lid often
The habit of cooking with ordinary pots makes you always feel impatient when using the slow cooker, and you occasionally open the lid of the slow cooker to check. However, this causes heat to escape from the pot, cook longer, and the dish may not reach the desired consistency. To overcome this, choose a slow cooker with a transparent tempered glass lid for easy observation during slow cooker use.
How To Fix Tough Meat In Slow Cooker?
If your meat is tough, it may be because it’s not cooked evenly. To fix this, try cutting the meat into smaller pieces before cooking it in the slow cooker. This will help it cook more evenly and prevent it from becoming tough.
If you’re still having trouble with tough meat, try marinating it overnight before cooking. This will help tenderize the meat and make it more flavorful.
Here are ways to help you how to fix tough meat in slow cooker:
Using a tool (a hammer or a rolling pin)
Stepping meat is an effective way to help you quickly solve a piece of meat that is tough or too big for processing. Thanks to the hammer, the layers of muscle are broken down and weakened so that the meat is less tough. However, the downside is that your meat is thin and crushed if it is too much. Therefore, it should be evenly spread throughout the meat and should not be too much.
Marinated with sour substance
Sour acids can help break down tough cuts of meat. Marinating the meat with some sauce made with lemon or lime juice, vinegar, butter, or even yogurt can help break down the tough muscle layers of the meat. However, do not marinate too long, as the acid can weaken the protein structure of the meat too much, making it soft and mushy.
Marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the size and toughness of the meat. If you see watery meat around the edges, it’s because it’s been marinating for too long.
Marinated with enzymes
Some fruits like papaya, pineapple, kiwi, and pear… contain enzymes that help tenderize the meat naturally. Puree one of these fruits and add some of your favorite seasonings to create a marinade. Your meat is not only tender but also juicy.
Marinated with salt
Marinating meat with salt for 1-2 hours before cooking is simply the best way to break down stubborn muscle fibers. When you’re ready to cook, rinse off the salt, pat the meat dry, and put it in a hot pan.
Use the slow cooker
Step 1: You put the ingredients to be cooked in the removable porcelain compartment.
Step 2: Put the removable porcelain compartment into the pot body and close the glass lid.
Step 3: Adjust the switch button to the OFF position and then plug the plug into the power source.
Step 4: Turn on the power to the slow cooker and select the mode suitable for the type of food you are about to cook.
Note: Currently, there are many designs of pots with different cooking mode selection buttons on the market. You need to read the user manual carefully to be able to choose the correct cooking mode!
Step 5: After using the pot, please put the switch to the OFF position again and turn off the power, unplug it!
Finally, if all else fails, you can always cook the meat longer. This may make it drier, but it will also make it more tender. Just be sure to check on it often, so it doesn’t overcook.
Conclusion
If you’re struggling with tough meat and you don’t know how to fix tough meat in slow cooker, don’t worry – we’ve got the solution. Try one of these methods to help make your meat more tender and easier to chew. Our favorite method is marinating overnight in a sour substance – it’s simple and delicious. If you’re looking for a new slow cooker, we recommend one with a transparent tempered glass lid so you can easily check on your food as it cooks. Thanks for reading!