Slow cookers are a foodie’s best friend because they make cooking homemade food so easy. But slow cooker mishaps are quite common and quite difficult to clean afterward. Over time, however, a deeper cleaning is needed to make sure your cooker looks good as new. Here are a few tips:
- Fill it with water and soap then turn it on for an hour or more. This usually helps to loosen whatever food has been cooked onto it and makes sure there is little scrubbing needed. Over time, however, a deeper cleaning is needed to make sure your cooker looks good as new. Here are a few tips from TheJuzz.com
- If there are still some spots baked on, scrub with baking soda which does wonders in the kitchen. It will remove any spots and leave your cooker looking sparkling clean. Sprinkle baking soda generously because it is an all-natural scouring powder, that’s safe to use on almost any surface.
- Fill your cooker with water and vinegar to give it total love and care. After doing this, turn it on and let the cleaning mixture remove stains, grease or any food build-up.
- Using a kitchen brush after the cooker has been sitting with water and vinegar for a few hours gets rid of residue on even the oldest of slow cookers.
- Ammonia helps clean out any grease from the inside of the cooker just by wiping it clean.
- Your slow cooker might have a little mess only. If it’s dishwasher safe, throw it in a dishwasher and use a detergent designed to cut through grease.
- As a last resort. Use an oven cleaner. Oven cleaners are usually really toxic. They have some really nasty fumes which are horrible to breathe in. dry your slow cooker as well as you can using a paper-towel and spray some oven cleaner onto the burnt residue. Let it sit like that for 12 hours. Cleaning thereafter will be easy and quick.
How to prevent build-up
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and this saying has a lot of truth in it. Preventing a burnt on mess is most definitely better than cleaning one up. Here are a few tips on how to do that:
- Using a slow-cooker liner which is a heat safe plastic liner that allows you to cook in it. It is very much like an oven bag, especially when cooking anything that has a sugary sauce base like BBQ sauce, as sugar burns easily. Cheese is also a notorious item that burns in the crock-pot.
- Spray your slow-cooker with non-stick cooking spray. This will not help you from burning your dish but it usually helps release anything from the sides and bottom of your crock should you burn it.
- Follow the recipe and cook for the listed length of time. If a recipe has a time range, such as 4-6 hours. Cook for 4 hours and then check it to see if it is done yet. If not cook longer. Time ranges are given in many recipes because different crock-pots cook slower or faster than others. If your dish is done at the lowest time range turn it off or if your crock-pot has a “warm” setting put it on warm to keep it till time to serve.