There are, as you know, many different brands offering Slow Cookers, so our advice is just take your time to write up your list of brands you’d be happy to buy, and use that list to filter your search when shopping online. It’s a great way of really cutting down the number of results to look through. Design: Are you looking for a simple, budget-friendly option that just slow-cooks (but does it extremely well) or something more versatile that sous-vides, pressure cooks, bakes and roasts too? Do bear in mind that the more technological the slow cooker, the higher the price. The inner pot needs to be at room temperature before you start cooking. If you've kept a slow cooker dish in the fridge, you must wait for it to warm up before turning it on. Millie Fender heads up all things small appliances at Ideal Home. There’s nothing she loves more than testing out the latest and greatest cooking gadgets, for indoor and outdoor use, from toasters to air fryers. She reviewed the Morphy Richards Sear and Stew from her own kitchen, testing it for quality cooking and ease of use. Below you'll find the best slow cookers according to our experts, as well as everything you need to know before shopping – from must-have features to their energy efficiency. How we test slow cookers

We covered the importance of choosing a great brand, earlier in the quality section of this review. Slow cookers are also brilliant for less-than-confident cooks, easily creating all those meals that seem a bit scary on the hob. That’s because slow cooking develops the flavours of food for richer, tastier results. It’s not just dinners that slow cookers excel at making either. They make great porridge, granola, stewed apples, bread and butter pudding, fudge and dips. You can use your slow cooker to melt chocolate, as a Bain-marie. How much should I spend on a slow cooker? This function starts your cooking off on a high setting before automatically reducing the temperature to the low setting for the remainder of the cooking time. Size: With sizes starting at 1-litre through to a whopping 6.5-litres, choosing the right size for you is imperative. The smallest sizes are suitable when cooking for one or two. 3-litres to 4.5-litres (one of the most popular sizes on the market) serve four, and the large 6-6.5-litre models are super for families and batch cooking. It's also worth bearing in mind that the capacity stated on the sales blurb is the size of the bowl, not the working capacity, which can sometimes be half that.The advantage of this is not leaving all that lovely seared flavour behind in a pan, and it reduces washing-up. Finally, look for a slow cooker with a transparent lid, so you can keep an eye on your food’s progress. Lifting the lid of a slow cooker while it’s in use lets out heat and steam, prolonging cooking time. It’s always best to be able to see what’s going on without doing so. Are slow cookers easy to clean?

I like the look of this slow cooker too. The titanium model is nice, and the rose gold option is a jazzy look for those who have kettles and toasters to match. If you spend a lot of time out of the house you may be better choosing a digital slow cooker which will allow you to set delay timers and switch automatically to a keep-warm setting. However, a manual slow cooker will cost a lot less and still deliver great results. About this review, and the reviewer Slow cookers have got so much going for them, it’s hard not to love them. Not only will a good one save you time and effort in the kitchen, it’ll save you money too. Slow cookers transform cheaper cuts of meat into tender dishes and liven up economical healthy pulses, like lentils, beans and peas. Plus, while they can be on all day, it’s at such a low wattage that it will only cost pennies. Removing the need to sauté in a pan before transferring to the pot, the Sage Fast Slow Go is as useful for slow cooking converts as it is to experienced cooks. Functioning as both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, it includes sensors at the top and bottom to monitor temperature. This makes inconsistently cooked stews a thing of the past. With a transparent toughened glass lid you can monitor your cooking progress without disturbing its cooking process, and unlike ceramic cooking pots the Sear and Stew hob proof cooking pot is extremely light and durable making it easy to take to the table and serve directly from. The first thing you need to consider with any slow cooker is its capacity – each will list its bowl size in litres. Bear in mind that this won’t translate to the same amount of food, as you shouldn’t fill slow cookers to the brim. This gap allows your food to bubble and simmer properly. The usable cooking space will be around three-quarters of its bowl size, for example, a five-litre cooker can accommodate around four litres of food.

Once your pot is in the slow cooker base simply select either the high or low cooking setting, and you will have a delicious casserole, chili, curry or a multitude of other family favourites. Sear and Stew will cook your meal whilst you are out and about and have it ready and waiting for when you return home. If however you are delayed, you don’t have to worry your meal will be ruined as Sear and Stew will automatically switch to a two hour keep warm to keep your meal at the right temperature and tasting great. Basic slow cookers won’t get hot enough to sauté meat or vegetables, so you’ll need to do this in a pan before transferring the contents to the bowl. However, more expensive models offer a different one-pot solution. This can either be bowls that you use on your hob or in your oven in place of a pan (some will even be induction compatible). They will need to be moved to the slow cooker base. Machines with a sauté function for high-heat browning can simply be switched to slow cooking.

Rice and pasta dishes work best cooked on high for the shortest time possible. Always use easy-cook rice, rinsed well first – the more starch you rinse from the rice, the better the finished result.When testing these slow cookers we were keen to try out each of their main cooking settings, so while a more simple manual slow cooker was used to make a stew or simple curry, we pressure cooked meat and steamed fish in the more complex slow cookers on the market. When slow cookers came with digital settings we attempted delay-start recipes and tested how easy they were to use. Material is another great specification to help you determine if a product is likely to be good quality and durable. Slow cookers range in size from a compact 1.5 litres to a 6.5-litre bowl, so be sure to choose the right size for the way you intend to cook. As a rough guide, 1.5-3 litres will feed one or two people, 3-5 litres, three or four people and anything over five litres should suit a large family, with six litres or more ideal for batch cooks who like to fill the freezer. Alternatively, a larger cooker is great for those who like to eat what’s leftover for lunch the next day.

The controls tend to be similar on most slow cookers with a ‘low’ setting for longer, slower cooking throughout the day and a ‘high’ setting for faster cooking with similar slow-cooked results. Some things can deter us all from cooking. Having to transfer food from a pan to a pot, cleaning up or that annoying puddle of water you get from putting the lid down on the worktop when it comes to the best slow cookers. If that's you, you need this model, which can act as a cooker and a serving pot that you can plonk down straight on the dining table. By sealing food in pouches, the juices and subtle flavours that could otherwise be lost during conventional cooking are retained. With so many different slow cookers out there, choosing the right one for you can be confusing. Here are a few questions you might want to consider.Although we then thought we shouldn’t just look at all Morphy Richards products, instead we should be looking at only their products that fall within the Slow Cookers category. Average price of Morphy Richards Slow Cookers They aren’t just for stews and casseroles either. In fact, they're real multi-taskers, even up to the challenge of cooking a whole cut of meat – including sweet and salty coca cola ham or a tender beef joint. Vegetarian family favourites such as macaroni cheese are also a go-to. Take a look at our collection of must-cook slow cooker recipes for more inspiration. Most slow cookers will have similar standard controls – high heat for meals cooked in less than a few hours, low heat for all-day cooking. A 'keep warm' mode should hold food at a serveable temperature without actually cooking it. Some cookers will switch to 'keep warm' automatically after an elapsed cooking time, while more basic models need this altered manually.