Crockpot recipes are quick and easy meals made by just adding your ingredients to a Crockpot, also known as a slow cooker, cover and slow cook on low heat for a number of hours, creating a tender savory dish. "Crockpot" is a trademark of the Rival Corporation.

In the past, crockpot recipes may have been restricted to chili and queso dip, but it's possible to make many more recipes in your crockpot. It's possible to make oatmeal with all kinds of mix-ins; spiced nuts and other snacks; casseroles; quiches and even cheesecake in your crockpot.//goodlifemenus.com/2010/02/slow-cookers-for-fast-lives/ There are special techniques for making all these different recipes. And there are still a wide variety of "dump and go" recipes.

Crockpots also have a wider feature set than they had in the 70s. Today's crockpots may have programmable features such as temperature or time, or even a temperature probe. Most will change to a Keep Warm setting after the cooking time is up, which is useful if the recipe says to cook it for 6 hours on Low, but you're going to be gone for 9 or 10 hours. Some of the most sophisticated can be programmed to come on at a certain time, cook at one setting for a set amount of time, and then change to another setting and cook for another amount of time at that setting. This allows for recipes to be much more sophisticated and simpler at the same time than in the past.

There are a few techniques that are helpful to know when cooking crockpot recipes. While you can just dump a bunch of ingredients into your slow cooker and it will be somewhat edible, you can get much better results by keeping a few principles in mind.

One of the key processes that provides flavor when cooking is the Maillard Reaction.www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/2-1-03article.htmlThis is the browning reaction that happens when the protein and sugars on the surface of the meat combine. This reaction does not happen in a slow cooker. In order for it to happen, it's a good idea to brown or How to Braise Meat your meat first. In addition, make sure you get every last bit of flavor out of your meat by How to Deglaze a Pan your pan as well by adding a little of the liquid required in your recipe to the still-hot pan and scraping up the tasty "fond", or browned bits. These steps will add both flavor and texture to any recipe involving meat you make in your slow cooker.

Another good idea to preserve texture is to not add milk or cream to soups until just before it's finished. Long cooking times combined with acids in the food can cause the milk or cream to curdle. Instead, add these ingredients 15-20 minutes before the recipe is done, and allow it to cook long enough for the milk or cream to heat thoroughly without boiling. Other dairy ingredients like cheeses, cottage cheese or sour cream are already thickened and can be added early on in the recipe. Likewise, softer vegetables may need to be added closer to the end of cooking time.

1. Searing meats and vegetables will add flavor and save cooking time.
2. When making casseroles, don't add extra water. Water will release from the vegetables in the casserole naturally, so more water or liquid will leave the dish watery.
3. Pre-cook kidney beans. Do not cook raw kidney beans in the crockpot, they require high temperatures to destroy toxins.
4. Always follow the recipe and cooking time.
5. When adding potatoes be careful not to overcook Potatoes release starch and when overcooked will break down and cloud the recipe.
6. Crockpots can be used to keep anything warm after cooking.
7. Use the crockpot to cook biscuits, just added biscuit dough to the top of whatever you're cooking and cover. Makes for more of a dumpling type biscuit.