Avoiding the Crock Pot Oil Slick

I've been experimenting with our crock pot and make some unpleasant, but important discoveries. Number one is that searing meat before it goes into the crock pot is vital. Without doing so, you end up with the meat in a soupy, greasy mess. Remove the roast and it looks like the Exxon Valdez just sailed through

Case in point: One of my family's favorite recipes is chuck roast braised in wine and onion. My daughter especially loves the fall-apart tender meat and the carmelized onions.

Seems like a perfect fit for the crock pot. Not so much, it turns out. I've made it twice and both times the results were so-so. The meat cooked well, but the greasy bath it endured definitely detracted. And there is no delicious sauce to spoon over noodles or mashed potatoes.

By contrast, a barbecued baby back rib recipe I've tried several times is wonderful. Flavorful and fall-off-the-bone good. The difference? The barbecue rib recipe calls for broiling the ribs for 15 minutes before putting them in the crock pot.

I've noticed other crock pot recipes call for searing or broiling the meat before putting in the crock pot. I suspect this is key. And it makes sense. Sear the meat to seal in the juices and moisture, forestalling an oil spill.

It's kind like Kramer's idea of a rubber bladder inside oil tankers, with the searing constituting the bladder. Of course, I recommend against testing this theory by tossing your roast out a four-story window.

Stocking Up

I came late to stock. I only started making my own about a year ago. I was somewhat skeptical. Would I really taste the difference? And it's just so easy to pop open a can of College chicken broth and dump the industrial goodness into whatever I'm cooking.

But after a couple of batches, I was converted. The difference is subtle, but significant. It's hard to quantify, but food cooked with homemade stock just tastes better. Maybe it's the natural MSG, which makes it fitting that I use it mostly in Asian stir fries.

At first, I experimented with several recipes, but I never seemed to get the tastiness I was seeking. Then, I added flat cut parsley and celery to the usual salt, pepper, onions, carrots, fresh thyme and chicken backs (I save them when I cut up a chicken, pop them in the freezer and make stock with I have two to three). It made a huge difference. The stock had an aromatic flavorfulness missing from my previous efforts.

Nearly out of stock, I set out to make more, this time using my newly acquired crock pot. I put the ingredients -- six cups of water, three carrots, two onions, two ribs of celery, all chopped into large pieces, a handful of parsley, fresh thyme and two chicken backs -- in the stock pot, set it on low and let it cook for eight hours.

I then drained the contents through a sieve (I use a simple, large sieve, not the fancy conical ones you see on cooking shows), pressing down to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. I then tasted and added a little salt. I find the seasoning of stock the trickiest part. You have to get it just right or it tastes too salty or too bland.

The result in this case was rich, deep brown, flavorful stock.

After letting the liquid cool, I covered the bowl with with wax paper and put it in the fridge for about 24 hours after which it looked like this:



Oooooo, how about that thick snow white crust of congealed chicken fat? As my friend Alice would say, it's so soooothing.

Using a slotted spoon and a potato masher (my daughter's suggestion; it worked well), I skimmed off the fat and threw it away (connoisseurs of Jewish cooking are crying right now at the waste of all that beautiful schmaltz).

Next, I ladled the stock into containers in two-, one-, half- and quarter-cup increments and put them in the freezer. I also filled an ice cube tray (just pop out a couple of cubes, microwave on "un-thaw" for three to four minutes and you have stock). This should last me at least six weeks, probably longer.

Crock Pot No Crock

My wife and daughter gave me a $15 Rival crock pot for Christmas. Frighteningly, unnervingly cheap. Would it work? We hoped so. Given our busy schedules (I usually get home around 6:45 or 7 p.m.), it would be a Godsend if it did.

For our maiden meal, we flipped through the booklet that came with the crock pot and settled on a pot roasted pork. Normally, we don't do a lot of pork. Too many times, I've set out to cook a pork chop, even a good one from the butcher, only to have it turn into a dry, stringy, gray hunk. Tear it apart and you could use the remains to restring tennis rackets. A far cry from the pork that my mother raves about from her Depression childhood. But that's a story for another post.

In spite of our past bad experiences with swine, there was something deeply appealing about the recipe. A pork roast falling off the bone with caramelized onions sounded like heaven on a cold winter's eve. So we decided to give it a try.

At about 6:45 a.m. after packing my daughter's lunch, I got started. The recipe called for a 4 to 5 pound boneless pork loin roast. I realized that the roast I had bought had some bones. No worries. I trimmed away the large one at the base. Probing with my fingers, I ascertained that only relatively thin rib bones remained inside. The solution: Cook it the maximum time suggested by the recipe, 12 hours. I followed the recipe ( see below) and set the pot to low.

Would the criminally cheap crock pot actually work? My wife and I apprehensively waited and watched. Within half an hour, the pot's sides were toasty warm. So far so good. Now let's hope it doesn't short out and burn down the house while we're at work.

My wife returned in early afternoon to a house filled with heavenly aroma, the pot's contents happily simmering away. It smelled so good that my daughter, a carnivore of the first order, wanted to eat some as soon as she got home.

I arrived home around 7 p.m., set the pot to warm and threw on mashed potatoes and carrots. I do most of the cooking, but there are certain things my wife does. One is gravy. Looking in the pot, she decided to give it a go. She proceeded to use the droppings to make a nutty brown, deeply flavorful gravy.

The moment of truth: I brought the roast out of the pot and put it on a cutting board. It smelled fantastic. The onions were soft and saturated with goodness. As I put the carving knife to the roast, the meat fell away. The result: a fantastic meal with relatively little fuss and effort. My only criticism: It was perhaps a tad overdone. Next time, I'll try 10 instead of 12 hours.

We had plenty of leftovers, which we had last night. The pork had lost of none of its flavor and it stood up well to a light microwave. There's still some left for sandwiches. A huge success.

Here's the recipe:

1 4-to-5-lb boneless pork loin roast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, slivered
2 medium onions sliced thin
2 bay leaves
1 whole clove
1/2 a cup of water (If meat is especially fatty, use a little less)
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Rub pork with salt and pepper. Make slits in meat and insert garlic. Put one onion at the bottom of the crock pot. Add pork and top with second onion and other ingredients. Cover and cook on low 10 to 12 hours or high for 5 to 6 hours.