The Big Slow Cooker Mistake You Didn't Realize You Were Making

The slow cooker is a small appliance you cannot live without once you have one. The convenience of placing ingredients into this contraption and walking away for hours as it cooks and transforms meats into tender, succulent meals is a value difficult to quantify. Leaving the house to go to work or run errands only to return to the wafting smell of delicious pulled pork or beef stew is one of those culinary wonders. However, you don't want to lift the lid if your meal has not reached the end of its cooking time. If this is you, you must know it is one of the worst slow cooker mistakes you're making.

Lifting the lid to smell your dish or just check on it interrupts the cooking cycle. Remember, this appliance is meant to cook foods slow and low. The temperature of your slow cooker is going to hover somewhere between 170 and 280 degrees Fahrenheit. Per the University of Minnesota Extension, the internal temperature of your slow cooker falls 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit when you do this, adding another 30 minutes of cooking time.

That added cooking time can turn slow-cooked mac and cheese into mush, while the loss of moisture can result in uneven or undercooked rice. Neither of these is ideal, and both of them defeat the purpose of using your slow cooker in the first place. But lifting the lid causes another problem as well. Every time you lift that cover to satisfy your need for a peek, you're releasing heat, steam, and moisture that is needed to break down the connective tissue and create a juicy, tender bite. Instead, you may wind up with a tough, dry, chewy slow cooker Mississippi pot roast or slow-cooked short ribs.  

Remember, patience is a virtue. Allowing your slow cooker to do its job without over-managing and checking in on the filling for your sloppy Joe sliders or your slow cooker country chicken will serve you and your food well. Of course, if you absolutely cannot help yourself and need to open the lid, don't keep it off for more than 20 to 30 seconds, and don't make a habit of it.