I’m not sure if the slow cooker has always been in fashion, or if we are in the midst of a culinary renaissance? They certainly came to my attention during the pandemic. It seemed people were scrambling for the most effective ways to feed the masses at home, and the slow cooker offered a particularly Irish outlet: “Throw it all in there and bang it on. It’ll be grand.”
However, the more you think about it, they are probably the future of home cooking, along with the air fryer. In some ways, these will result in the deskilling of our kitchen credentials, but as is the modern way, people place more emphasis on efficiency over craft.
Having said that, a slow cooker is essentially a braising bath. It works in the same way as the traditional braising pots, where the element around the bath heats the food as opposed to the warm air created by a conventional oven. It could be called 21st-century stewing. And it is a trend that has no signs of stopping. As with most trends, the best way to spot them is through statistics. After releasing a book last year, I couldn’t help but get drawn into sales numbers. Whatever you say, the bottom line of people paying hard-earned money to purchase your book is the true measure of its success.
Nathan Anthony, a Belfast home cook and social media star who gained a huge following making simple slow cooker recipes online had not one but the two top-selling cookbooks last year – his slow cooker and air fryer recipe collections – and he has just released a second slow cooker book. This is proof that this trend is here to stay. But why? Bear with me, but it’s a reflection of where society is at.
Although the air fryer can speed cooking times up, the slow cooker is time efficient, too, in a different way. Between work and family commitments, people have less time to spare in a given day. Functional cooking is required, the art of just getting people filled with food. The slow cooker offers an outlet that can also result in delicious and nutritious meals.
It is also an energy efficient way to cook. With the recent surge in energy costs, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that slow cookers use a fraction of the electricity needed to run an oven. According to Electric Ireland, a slow cooker set on a low setting uses 150 watts per hour, whereas an oven would use 2kWhs for the same time.
It doesn’t need much countertop space. As property prices continue to grow, space comes at a premium. Many people are choosing to fit their kitchens with a slow cooker, an air fryer and a coffee machine as opposed to the larger, traditional cooker and hob combination.
So that’s the background. What about the recipes? This week I have two handy ones that fit the current weather and mood. You can still “throw it all in there and bang it on”, but the results will lean slightly closer to the restaurant rather than the functional style of food.
First up is a ragù made with diced lamb that is warm and comforting. It might appear slightly liquid, but by cooking the pasta in the sauce, it thickens up and the flavour is absorbed. The second recipe is pure comfort food: cassoulet is like a hug in a bowl and uses some cheaper ingredients, which is a plus at this time of year. It’s brought to the next level with dollops of melting Camembert cheese. To keep it vegetarian, you can remove the chorizo.
