Crockpots!!!

[Amy loves Bud]

Just looking for a little controversy in the new year.

 

Anyone have thoughts about the All-Clad Deluxe slow-cooker at Williams-Sonoma?

 

Other than the fact that it's exorbitantly priced?

 

And did Williams-Sonoma always have a hyphen?

 

Thank you.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Amy loves Bud
spelling and such

[gardening momma]

Anyone have thoughts about the All-Clad Deluxe slow-cooker at Williams- Sonoma?

No.

 

:D

 

(not me, anyway)

[LauraGB]

:lol:

I am so not getting involved in this.

 

Plus, I don't have any experience with the All Clad crock. I'm a lead-laden Rival gal, myself.

 

:D

[BMW]

I don't, but when I use Paula Deen's foolproof recipe for standing rib roast my husband declared that I am to, please, never put the roast in the crock pot again...

[gardening momma]

I don't, but when I use Paula Deen's foolproof recipe for standing rib roast my husband declared that I am to, please, never put the roast in the crock pot again...

Sorry, thread hijack...

 

explain, please?

[SonshineLearner]

I'd like one without lead, too!!

Carrie:-)

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Is it a lead free crock?

[BMW]

s/o *** Gardening Moma***

Paula deen's foolproof rib roast recipe: let roast sit room temp. for an hour (I always forget this step). Rub roast completely with seasonings. Put roast fatty side up on baking rack in roasting pan and put into 350 oven for an hour, uncovered. Turn oven off, DO NOT open oven, keep it in the oven 3 more hours. Turn oven on to reheat (I do about 15 min). Slice and serve.

 

My oven runs hot. No vents. Retains it's heat well. This turns out heavenly and for very little effort.

 

Sorry to highjack, but I tried to use my new crockpot today and husband said, "NO! Do it in the oven like you did at Christmas!"

[Nicole M]

This one?

 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/8260341/

 

So this means our choices are lead babies or cancer-causing aluminum? Decisions... decisions....

 

Negative on the hyphen. And I'm stickin' with that answer. At least I can answer one question!

[Julie in Austin]

Can't think of anything that would make a crock pot worth $400, unless it shops, chops veggies, and cleans up.:D

 

But the W-S gingerbread cookie recipe is worth every single pound you will gain from eating them.

[Spy Car]

Yea, aluminum doesn't strike me as a great substitute for lead-glaze.

 

Acid-based foods would sit and react all day long under temperature. Not good.

 

Bill (who desperately wants to break the Rival out of it's long banishment)

[jenL]

WAIT!!! Excuse my ignorance, but crock-pots are lead-based? :confused: I LOVE my crock pot (Rival)... someone enlighten me please.

Edited January 4, 2010 by jenL
I cannot spell tonight!

[Amy loves Bud]

This one?

 

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/8260341/

 

So this means our choices are lead babies or cancer-causing aluminum? Decisions... decisions....

 

Negative on the hyphen. And I'm stickin' with that answer. At least I can answer one question!

 

It would be nice to take that aluminum crock out to brown the meat, though, wouldn't it?

 

And I'm also sure there was no hyphen before. Where did that come from?

 

Sigh.

[Carol in Cal.]

Here is how to have crock pot results without the lead:

 

1. Buy a Sun Oven and set it up.

 

2. Use a standard multi pot with a glass top inside the Sun Oven.

 

Voila! Crock pot results, no cooking smells in the house, and no lead in the food! All you need is sunshine, and you have to go outside a couple of times per day to turn the oven toward the sun. My sun oven reaches temps of up to about 375, although 325 is more typical of average days.

 

The only thing that this fails at is anything where steam comes up out of the pot. If it condenses on the glass cover to the oven, the oven temp drops very quickly and pretty far. So you have to have a pot that pretty much seals. That means that you can't make spaghetti sauce in the Sun Oven if it's the kind that has to cook down with the lid off, for instance. But bean soups are outstanding. Actually, it's great for slowly cooking the dried beans for refritos.

[Nicole M]

Yea, aluminum doesn't strike me as a great substitute for lead-glaze.

 

Acid-based foods would sit and react all day long under temperature. Not good.

 

Bill (who desperately wants to break the Rival out of it's long banishment)

 

Me, too. I only use that 70s mustard-colored yellow Rival with a casserole dish inside to steam my Boston Brown Bread, and then I think about the lead leaching into the water bath, and feel like the casserole dish is sitting in poison. :ack2:

 

Where is the stainless steel insert option?! Surely this is not rocket science!

[cjzimmer1]

Here is how to have crock pot results without the lead:

 

1. Buy a Sun Oven and set it up.

 

2. Use a standard multi pot with a glass top inside the Sun Oven.

 

Voila! Crock pot results, no cooking smells in the house, and no lead in the food! All you need is sunshine, and you have to go outside a couple of times per day to turn the oven toward the sun. My sun oven reaches temps of up to about 375, although 325 is more typical of average days.

 

The only thing that this fails at is anything where steam comes up out of the pot. If it condenses on the glass cover to the oven, the oven temp drops very quickly and pretty far. So you have to have a pot that pretty much seals. That means that you can't make spaghetti sauce in the Sun Oven if it's the kind that has to cook down with the lid off, for instance. But bean soups are outstanding. Actually, it's great for slowly cooking the dried beans for refritos.

 

While this may be a great solution for those in more temperate climates, it's not a viable solution for a lot of people. It was a high of -4 here today, even with the sun I sincerely doubt the sun oven would have cooked anything.

 

I thought they were neat things and looked into them but the reality is we just don't get enough heat from the sun for many months of the year that it wouldn't really help me much of the time.

[MamaSheep]

$400?! Ok, I guess my thoughts are that this crosses the line from faith to fanaticism.

[Brigitte]

Unless my memory has failed, if I recall correctly from my days working at The Happy Cook, anondized aluminum does not react with acids. That is the purpose of the anondization process. Or did some new research come out about it?

[HRAAB]

I used it as ammunition to get what I really wanted. A Le Crueset french oven. First I started dropping hints about the lead in my Rival crockpot until he got worried that the whole family was being poisoned. Then I left a couple catalogs out with the All Clad slow cooker circled. When he asked me if that was the slow cooker I wanted, I said yeah but it's just so much money for a crockpot. Why, look at this Le Crueset. It'll last forever. I can leave it to my oldest dd in my will. And, it's cheaper.

 

Worked like a dream.

[LauraGB]

Lol - for $400, couldn't you just buy another oven and keep the temp low? And you could use one of your own pots and everything. No room? How 'bout the garage or the basement?

[Amy loves Bud]

Lol - for $400, couldn't you just buy another oven and keep the temp low? And you could use one of your own pots and everything. No room? How 'bout the garage or the basement?

 

Well, it IS $100 off you know. It's a special value.

 

Snort.

[Nicole M]

I used it as ammunition to get what I really wanted. A Le Crueset french oven. First I started dropping hints about the lead in my Rival crockpot until he got worried that the whole family was being poisoned. Then I left a couple catalogs out with the All Clad slow cooker circled. When he asked me if that was the slow cooker I wanted, I said yeah but it's just so much money for a crockpot. Why, look at this Le Crueset. It'll last forever. I can leave it to my oldest dd in my will. And, it's cheaper.

 

Worked like a dream.

 

:smilielol5:

[Carol in Cal.]

While this may be a great solution for those in more temperate climates, it's not a viable solution for a lot of people. It was a high of -4 here today, even with the sun I sincerely doubt the sun oven would have cooked anything.

 

I thought they were neat things and looked into them but the reality is we just don't get enough heat from the sun for many months of the year that it wouldn't really help me much of the time.

 

The outside temp is really not all that important. Cloud cover, OTOH, is a deal breaker. Direct sunshine is what is needed, and there is a lot of insulation so the outside temp doesn't factor in all that much.

[JudoMom]

I got this Hamilton Beach for my birthday and I LOVE it.

 

Of course, you can't use the insert on it's own, but if you want a fabulous slow cooker, the Hamilton Beach is great. I've cooked a variety of things in it and they've all come out perfectly.

[cjzimmer1]

The outside temp is really not all that important. Cloud cover, OTOH, is a deal breaker. Direct sunshine is what is needed, and there is a lot of insulation so the outside temp doesn't factor in all that much.

I understand the greenhouse effect, it's also like the inside of a vehicle. But with the sun at such a low angle and the extreme temperatures in the northern parts of the country, I don't think it will work. I mean the ice on the inside of the windows in my house (which is heated to a comfy 68 degrees and has a full southern exposure) doesn't even melt.

[Tammyla]

I've thrown caution to the wind after talking glazes with a local artist, and joyfully use my white Hamilton Beach crock-pot. The beautiful, teal Rival is resting peacefully in the basement.

 

Our artist friend is eighty and claims colored paints and glazes are more likely full of lead. She also said you only live once and and worrying is a waste of time; of course she sniffs paint fumes for a living;).

 

As a safety measure, my kids have been instructed not to lick the crock-pot.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Tammyla

[nukeswife]

That a lot for a crock pot, I don't use mine that often to make it worth the cost, but I think that's something each person needs to decide for themselves.

 

As for the who lead in the Rivals thing. I ditched all my rivals went and bought a hamilton beach and it died within a month ( I only used it 2 times) and I didn't like the hole in the cover for a thermometer, I noticed that it also took longer to cook things. I went out and bought a $20 black rival and have been happy again when I break it out.

[Mom-ninja.]

I used it as ammunition to get what I really wanted. A Le Crueset french oven. First I started dropping hints about the lead in my Rival crockpot until he got worried that the whole family was being poisoned. Then I left a couple catalogs out with the All Clad slow cooker circled. When he asked me if that was the slow cooker I wanted, I said yeah but it's just so much money for a crockpot. Why, look at this Le Crueset. It'll last forever. I can leave it to my oldest dd in my will. And, it's cheaper.

 

Worked like a dream.

 

So enamel isn't a glaze?

[Mrs Mungo]

:lol:

I am so not getting involved in this.

 

Plus, I don't have any experience with the All Clad crock. I'm a lead-laden Rival gal, myself.

 

Ditto. :lol: The All-Clad crockpot is pretty fancy schmancy, I must say.

[Mrs Mungo]

Bill (who desperately wants to break the Rival out of it's long banishment)

 

Is that apostrophe for my benefit, Bill? :lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

WAIT!!! Excuse my ignorance, but crock-pots are lead-based? :confused: I LOVE my crock pot (Rival)... someone enlighten me please.

 

From the FDA (I had a link, it no longer works but I had this saved):

Lead, however, is used in some glazes for slow-cooking pots (crock-pots). But, in tests done in 1987, FDA found that the amount of lead that leached into food from these pots did not exceed FDA standards. (See An Unwanted Souvenir: Lead in Ceramic Ware, in the December 1989-January 1990 issue of FDA Consumer.)

 

[My3Boys]

I used it as ammunition to get what I really wanted. A Le Crueset french oven. First I started dropping hints about the lead in my Rival crockpot until he got worried that the whole family was being poisoned. Then I left a couple catalogs out with the All Clad slow cooker circled. When he asked me if that was the slow cooker I wanted, I said yeah but it's just so much money for a crockpot. Why, look at this Le Crueset. It'll last forever. I can leave it to my oldest dd in my will. And, it's cheaper.

 

Worked like a dream.

 

Ah, a woman after my own heart!

 

Let's agree not to ever let our dhs meet and talk, ok? We don't want them putting 2 plus 2 together, now do we?

[Sugarfoot]

Just looking for a little controversy in the new year.

 

Anyone have thoughts about the All-Clad Deluxe slow-cooker at Williams-Sonoma?

 

Other than the fact that it's exorbitantly priced?

 

And did Williams-Sonoma always have a hyphen?

 

Thank you.

 

Well, they used to have two. One was white(!) glazed ceramic, and the other was the current anodized aluminum. I went into the store a few months ago, after missing my banished-to-the-basement, matches-my-red-kitchen Rival:glare:, to actually PURCHASE the beautiful, supposedly lead-free, white ceramic All-Clad Slow Cooker. And guess what? It was recalled!! Something about a potential crack in the ceramic. Ugh. My heart sank. The salesperson convinced me to consider the anodized aluminum model. He went over every feature. I asked to see the manual. There, on the first (third?) page, was a warning about how "the fumes produced by this device may be lethal to pet birds," or something like that. The salesman said, "Oh, do you have a bird?" To which I said, "Well, no, we don't. But I'd still rather not have lethal fumes, thankyouverymuch." He just looked at me like I was out of my mind.;)