How does my slow cooker work? At what temperature does my slow cooker cook? How do I convert my favorite recipe to the slow cooker? How much energy does my slow cooker use? These are just a few of the many questions our experts manning the phones receive regularly about slow cooking. This post will tell you what a slow cooker is, how it works and what you can do with it to make cooking at home simple, convenient and delicious. A slow cooker allows unattended home cooking for long periods of time at relatively low cooking temperatures. It’s made up of three main components: the base (this contains the heating element which is attached to a liner), the vessel and the lid. The base of the slow cooker is the part you see the most. It has handles, a temperature knob or control panel, and feet that keep it slightly raised off the surface of your counter. The liner is a thin metal insert melded onto the inside of the slow cooker base. You can’t see or access the electrical workings between the liner and the base, but this houses heater bands that conduct heat around the bottom of the slow cooker.

The bands create heat that transfers to the cooking vessel and rises across the the bottom and up the sides, uniformly cooking your food. blueair 450e smokestop air purifier reviewThere is a small gap between the liner and the outer wrap of the base for airflow, which keeps the outside from overheating.oreck xl air purifier truman cell technology The cooking vessel is where you put the food you cook. hunter fan hepatech air purifier reviewsIt’s usually made from heavy stoneware, which helps keep the heat constant, stabilized and evenly distributed. Some slow cookers have clips to hold the lid in place for easy, no-spill traveling. The lid is important because you can’t reach the appropriate cooking temperatures without it.

Imagine trying to bring pasta water to a boil with a lid and then without it. The lid to your slow cooker works the same way. Some slow cookers have steam vent holes in their lids; the Set & Forget® Programmable Slow Cooker has a probe hole. If you’re not inserting the probe for use in PROBE mode, leave the hole open and don’t plug it up. Vent holes allow steam to escape and the wattage of the unit has been adjusted to compensate for any heat loss. Cooking with a slow cooker is most similar to cooking with a Dutch oven on a stovetop. On a stovetop, a pot is heated from the bottom and the heat rises up the sides of the pot to heat the food within. Similarly, a slow cooker creates heat toward the base, which transfers up the sides of the vessel to heat the food within. In addition, setting the temperature for both cooking methods is very similar. Instead of cooking something at a specific temperature on the stovetop, you set the temperature to low or high. Your slow cooker works in the same manner.

When you set the temperature to low on your slow cooker, your heating element will put out less heat. When you set the temperature to high, the heating element will put out more heat. Cooking something on low takes more time than cooking something on high. Because the temperature settings work most like stovetop cooking, it is hard to give an actual temperature for the various heat levels. Slow cooking is relatively forgiving and is adaptable to a wide variety of recipes. Slow cookers use low cooking temperatures and retain moisture during the cooking process. If your recipe calls for using the oven to dry food, it probably won’t work in the slow cooker. Likewise, if your recipe calls for very high temperatures of oil to fry things quickly, a slow cooker will not be an option. However, if your recipe calls for cooking something “low and slow,” the slow cooker will work excellently. Many recipes for sauces and dips call for cooking on the slow cooker’s HIGH setting or for only 1-2 hours.

Long cooking times of 6-7+ hours or using the LOW setting is best for roasts and large or tough cuts of meat, like a pulled pork shoulder. The majority of slow cooker-friendly recipes can be adapted to cook somewhere in the middle; stews and soups fall into this category. We like to say slow cooking is energy efficient for you AND your home. Slow cooking gives you the ability to cook while you are away, saving you time and energy. It’s great to have a home-cooked meal ready for your family when you arrive home from work, isn’t it? The slow cooker is not just efficient for you, it’s efficient for your home. A small slow cooker uses approximately the same power as one and a half 100 watt light bulbs. Because it cooks with contained heat, it uses less energy. And since it’s an appliance that’s intended to be used unattended, there’s no need to worry about it while you’re gone. Research Hamilton Beach Slow Cookers here. Find Hamilton Beach slow cooker recipes here.

Air Purifier OptionsOverall, the story of air purifiers is a positive one since this technology was invented with one and one purpose only, to provide us with crispy clean air. However, when you start to research you will realize there are an abundance of air purifiers on the market. It’s difficult to understand exactly what kind of a cleaner to choose and what you should look for, or be wary of. Useful Air Cleaner Features Each purifier comes with its own settings as well as accessories that make everyday life easier. From different filter technology to certifications and light indicators, there are useful and (not so useful) options you need to consider. Below, I intend to look into various factors that influence the value and ranking of an air cleaner. If your air purifier is based on filter technology one useful option is a filter indicator. What does this indicator actually do? It lets you know when you need to replace your filters or clean them. This is beneficial for two reasons.

It saves you money because you won’t be changing filters prematurely. Secondly, it’s one less thing you have to worry about! Once the indicator goes off, you clean or replace the filter. Air cleaners that don’t feature this technology could still give fantastic performance, but you have to calculate when to replace your filters or look inside you air purifier and look for an indication like the one on the image. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers evaluates air purifiers by their ability to efficiently remove airborne particles invading our homes. This effectiveness is measured with CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate), and this is done using three numbers that represent the most common air pollutants pollen, dust, and smoke. The higher each number is, the more efficient the cleaner at purifying the air. It’s important for a filter to be AHAM certified if you really want a proficient machine. Some of the most recent air purifiers have sensor technology that measures the number of pollutants in the air, as well as what kind of pollutants are present.

This comes in handy especially if you can manually adjust the speed of the fan. Some air purifiers also have the option to automatically adjust the speed in order to filter the air faster if there are more airborne pollutants around. This is called IntelliSense Technology, and is a great innovation making your experience completely hands free. State of the art air cleaners come with LED indicators portraying dust, temperature, humidity and odor conditions in the room. Additionally, you can adjust the sensitivity of sensors in order to control these conditions. Air purifiers that have a label on from Energy Star are cost and energy saving. Not only will you save money on your electric bill, your air purifier will consume a lot less power than a normal cleaner making your machine environmentally friendly as well as affordable. Things like this are usually taken for granted, and once you don’t have them you realize how beneficial they actually are. A remote controlled air purifier is a definite plus.

Being able to control the airflow and speed from any room or distance is a great advantage, and makes the experience of having purified air even more luxurious. If you have a small unit, it comes in handy to have caster wheels. Some air purifiers have caster wheels already installed which is useful for moving the unit around your home or office. Consider this if you have a large home or many rooms to filter. Most air purifiers include a setting for varying fan speeds, and this enables the air cleaner to purify dirtier air much quicker if you so desire. Using the unit on low speed will, of course make it quieter which is very useful if you want to run the unit overnight. I’ve saved the best until last. If an air purifier doesn’t have a pre-filter to begin with, you’ve probably made a costly choice. Air purifiers that include pre-filters have a longer life span because the pre-filters protect the main filter from being contaminated. But, if the pre-filters are washable or have the option to be vacuumed this is a dream come true.