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. 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. When you make a one-pot dish, you usually start by searing the meat or sautéing base ingredients such as onions and garlic. Most slow cookers don’t let you do this, but there are a few that do. Some, such as the Morphy Richards Sear and Stew Digital Slow Cooker 460015, simply have a metal pot that’s sturdy enough to heat on your own hob (gas or electric, not induction). This function can be found on the majority of slow cookers, helping to retain the temperature of your food without cooking it further – handy when you’re struggling to round up the family! Master the art of meal preparation without the fuss, thanks to Russell Hobbs Slow Cookers and Multi Cookers. These innovative appliances are designed to fit seamlessly into your life, offering a multitude of functions that will transform the way you cook! Whether you're preparing a slow-cooked stew that simmers to perfection or a one-pot wonder, Russell Hobbs has got you covered.

Discover the benefits of the best slow cooker for your needs, designed to bring out the natural goodness of your ingredients through a slow and gentle cooking process. The convenience of a digital slow cooker allows you to set and forget, ensuring your meals are ready to enjoy when you are. Whether you opt for a small slow cooker, perfect for intimate dinners, or a large slow cooker for family feasts, our collection caters to kitchens of all sizes. They also calculate the energy consumed by each model to see how economical they are, and measure the moisture lost when cooking to ensuring your dinner won't end up dried out.Functions: additional functions on the slow cooker including browning, reheating, reducing and whether it is hob or oven-safe It still makes the succulent slow-cooked meals you love, but it also (deep breath) steams, sautés, simmers, fries, makes yoghurt, cooks food sous vide, makes fondues, cooks rice and has a manual setting for anything you want to cook just the way you like it. Plus there’s a 24-hour delay-start timer so your meal will be ready when you are, and a 12-hour keep-warm function so it doesn’t matter if you are a bit (or very!) late home. The prolonged process of slow cooking allows any meat that is being cooked to tenderise, maximising flavour and juiciness. The versatile cooker is great for soups, stews, casseroles, curries and much more. There is even a handful of recipes in the instruction manual to help get your started. If your culinary aspirations extend beyond the one-pot wonder, meet Russell Hobbs Multi Cookers. These versatile kitchen wonders can steam, sauté, fry, and even roast, offering a full range of cooking options in a single, easy-to-use appliance.

Traditionally, slow cookers use a large, ceramic casserole dish that’s slow to heat up and slow to cool down. These are heavy and will break if you drop them, but they hold their heat well so they’re lovely to carry to the table and serve from. Dreaming of a crispy stir-fry, fluffy potatoes, or a perfectly cooked risotto? Just choose your settings and let the Multi Cooker do the work. With features like adjustable cooking times, preset functions, including a keep warm function, and a range of cooking temperatures, you're in complete control of your kitchen. Please note: the delay-start function isn’t available on the sauté, fry, fondue or manual settings.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 Slow cookers are nifty appliances that do all the cooking for you, so you can whip up scrumptious meals without spending hours working away behind a stove.

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. READ NEXT: Create super-smooth sauces with these fab hand blenders Does it matter what the pot is made of? This will come in handy if you’re out for the day. Once the timer you set has been reached, the cooker will either switch off or automatically shift to the ‘keep warm’ setting, depending on the model, so you come home to dinner that's ready to serve. An increasingly popular way of cooking, sous-vide is a French term that simply means ‘under vacuum’. You place your food inside a sealed pouch and then pop it into a temperature-controlled water bath to cook. Nothing beats the tender, succulent, melt-in-the-mouth flavours of slow-cooked meals, and we love how easy it is, too – any meal where you just throw everything into a pot, and then leave it to cook your dinner while you’re doing other things, is always going to be a winner with us. But we wanted a machine that could do even more than slow cooking, and would take all the hard work out of lots of other ways to cook, which is why we’ve come up with our Digital Slow & Multicooker.By sealing food in pouches, the juices and subtle flavours that could otherwise be lost during conventional cooking are retained. 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. 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.

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.Heat retention: how the cooker holds heat for safety on the worktop and whether the food catches or burns Why deal with the hassle of using multiple appliances when one Multi Cooker can effortlessly take on the tasks of an oven, Food Steamer, Rice Cooker, and more?