Tired of your electric slow cooker gadgets taking too much space and looking for a way to slow cook right on the stove top and in the oven? Then you are not alone: modern slow cookers are not only complex to use, but they also pose some serious health risks, which is causing healthy cooks to look for better alternatives. This article explains the criteria for choosing the best slow cooker that can conveniently slow-cook healthy food on a stovetop.
How to Determine the Best Cookware for Slow Cooking
There are some common issues that come with most conventional slow cookers. The best one would be devoid of these problems:
Pay Attention to the Raw Material
The raw materials used in the insert and the casing determine if a slow cooker is capable of cooking without leaching toxins or causing off-gassing. While most brands claim to make a “safe” cookware, there are hardly any that back this claim with hard evidence (yes, we mean test results!). Moreover, some widely used synthetic materials in crock pot inserts, casings, and linings (like ceramic, silicone, Teflon, chemical glaze, and enamel) lack sufficient testing. Lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals are frequently found in such materials, which makes them highly toxic to food.
All metals are innately reactive, and studies have linked these synthetic materials and chemicals with serious health problems. Therefore, choosing a healthy raw material is the first step towards choosing the best cookware for any slow cooker recipe.
Examine the Effect on Nutrients
Slow cooking is widely believed to preserve nutrients and thus, cook more flavorful and aromatic dishes. Unfortunately, cooking for so long with harsh near-infrared heat from metal or ceramic inserts still destroys nutrients. On top of that, the water-soluble nutrients present as steam are released through the vents – and they are lost. This means your body is not really getting all the goodness your food can offer.
Is it Simple and Easy to Use?
There are many modern-day slow cooker models that are packed with many features to automate the cooking process. Despite this, they are so complicated to operate that not everybody can use them. Moreover, they come with many parts that take up so much space on your kitchen counter, and cleaning them can be a real hassle. Lastly, a crockpot may take up to an entire day to cook a meal, which could be a deal-breaker for some and might make them wonder – does slow cooking really have to be this ‘slow’?
How Flexible is it?
You may spend a fortune on a brand-new crockpot, but what good is it if it can only cook a specific set of recipes? Also, slow cookers come accompanied by their own heating system and casing, meaning there is no way you can use them on your stove or in your oven. With all these issues going around, is there a simpler, healthier, and overall better choice for your slow cooker recipes? Keep reading to learn more about a practical alternative.
Important Slow Cooking Features
A Healthy Crock Pot
DKM pots are made from lab-tested primary clay – the purest form of clay that is naturally inert (it cannot leach). What could be a safer raw material to cook non-toxic food? Further, DKM does not use additives, glazes, or chemicals so the cooking pot is as safe as the raw material. Is it even possible to make cookware without these additions that almost every brand uses today? Not if the manufacturers adopt machine-based manufacturing, so DKM individually handcrafts each piece.
These uniquely hand-finished pots radiate far infrared heat – a gentle heat that penetrates deep into the food and cooks it thoroughly without breaking down nutrients. All this happens at low heat and takes less than a quarter of the cooking time it takes in a conventional crock pot.
As no glazes are used, the semi-porous walls keep the pot breathable and let oxygen pass through the pot during cooking. Moreover, the ergonomically designed pot and lid allow steam to stay locked inside by naturally condensing on the inner side of the lid, which means recipes slow-cooked in DKM are fortified with water-soluble nutrients.
A Simple & Convenient Crock Pot
Slow cooking is much faster in DKM. For example, cooking bone broth with beef bones takes about 3 hours in DKM, contrary to 12-15 hours in a ceramic crock pot! Additionally, chicken bones only take 1 ½ hours, cooking beans takes about 45 minutes, and grains like rice take 30 minutes or less.
On top of the far-infrared cooking, the ability of DKM pots to keep food warm for 4x longer also contributes to the reduced cooking time. Your meal keeps cooking with the heat retained in the pot even after you turn the stove off, meaning you usually only need the stove on for about 3/4 of the cooking process.
DKM’s simple two-piece design makes it super convenient to cook, clean, and store your cookware after use. There is no independent heating system, casing, or complex gadgets; so you also no longer have to worry about leaching or off-gassing from these components. You can clean it with just water and baking soda – simple, right?
DKM also features the flexibility of cooking a vast array of other recipes that even the most advanced cooking gadgets do not!
Slow Cooking Guide for the Stove & the Oven
With DKM, you can slow cook your meals on both the stove and in the oven – here’s how:
How to Slow Cook on the Stovetop
Slow cooking on the stovetop in DKM is bliss. The pot also does not require “babysitting,” so long as there are adequate liquids/water in the pot the steam locking features lock steam inside and cook without much monitoring. Here is how slow cooker recipes like bone broth or vegetables can be cooked healthier and faster in DkM:
Following any recipe, add all the ingredients, set the pot on your stove, and start on medium-low. Once food has cooked for about 30-40 minutes, reduce heat to low — and let it cook & simmer at that temperature till fully done. You can read how to make bone broth here: How to Make Bone Broth Variations in DKM
How to Slow Cook in the Oven
Use DKM for slow cooking in the oven just the same way you would in a programmable electric slow cooker. You can conveniently ‘set and forget,’ and the dish will cook without much monitoring but much faster. Also, the fact that you can fit more than one pot at a time inside is a clear advantage over using a crock pot machine!
Put all your ingredients together in the pot and set the temperature to ‘bake’ at 200–230 degrees F and set the timer. This is a little-known feature that lets you use the oven for timed cooking much like a programmable slow cooker. Choose 3-4 hours for meats or 1-2 hours for vegetarian recipes, beans, or grains. Once the set hours are complete, the oven will automatically turn to warm (in most cases, 170 degrees F) and in a few hours will shut off. With most ovens, you can also set a delayed start.
In the Crockpot
If you are using DKM in a crock machine, here are the bottom dimensions for the pots with the corresponding machine size:
Small 1.75 qt — Bottom diameter 7.5”. Works with machines w/ inside base diameter 8.5″ or greater
Medium 2.75 qt –Bottom diameter 8.25”. Works with machines w/an inside base diameter of 9.25″ or greater.
Large 4 qt — bottom diameter 9.5”. Works with machines with/ inside base diameter 10.5″ or greater
X-large 6 qt — bottom diameter 10”. Works with machines with/ inside base diameter 11″ or greater
People Also Ask
What can I use if I don’t have a slow cooker?
If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can slow cook right on the stovetop using a cooking pot that has a heavy build (like a Dutch oven) so it can disperse heat evenly to the food cooking inside. You should cover it well with a lid, keep the heat low, and keep checking food in between so it does not run out of liquid. You may also want to add more water/liquid than you do in a crockpot.
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