So...Rival Crockpot - do I throw it away?

[Alexandra]

If I throw it away, then what would be a good, lead-free replacement?

Thanks!

[Frontier Mom]

I'm wondering as well since my stupid handle keeps breaking off my lid. I've fixed it about 4 times now.

[Spy Car]

Ours has been on hiatus since the "lead scare."

 

I haven't been able to bring myself to toss it, nor has I been able to shake my concerns and use it.

 

I badly miss it though as our slow cooker was very highly used. And with a California summer around the corner the stove-top or in oven alternatives we've used this winter will become less welcome for the heat production.

 

Is there a good alternative? Hamilton Beach (from what I understand) backed of their "lead-free" claim. I'm all ears to a good option :bigear:

 

Bill

[mooooom]

but I haven't been able to find any "safe" replacements - found one on Amazon that had a glass liner - but people didn't give it good reviews. I'm thinking about replacing it with a pressure cooker.

[stripe]

I haven't been using mine either, but I still have it.

 

I use it almost exclusively for cooking dried beans, although I used it with great success two times for an Indian-style rice pudding (basically from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker cookbook), so I too have considered a pressure cooker, but it seems they are all >$50 -- is this true?

[Spy Car]

I haven't been using mine either, but I still have it.

 

I use it almost exclusively for cooking dried beans, although I used it with great success two times for an Indian-style rice pudding (basically from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker cookbook), so I too have considered a pressure cooker, but it seems they are all >$50 -- is this true?

 

We used our crock-pot mainly for beans as well, but pot-roasts/stews were a not uncommon.

 

To tell you the truth, I find pressure cookers very tricky to use with beans. You cook them just a little too long and you've got mush. Too short, and the time-savings factor is reduced. While I got to be pretty intuitive with a pressure-cooker, I ruined a lot of beans before I got there. And I never have like the texture of pressure-cooked beans as well as those that are slow cooked.

 

Our pressure-cooker gave up the ghost recently and I have no urge to replace it. The nice thing about slow cookers is you don't have to be "on your toes," with pressure-cookers you most certainly do.

 

Bill

[stripe]

To tell you the truth, I find pressure cookers very tricky to use with beans.

That is totally disappointing.

[Spy Car]

That is totally disappointing.

 

Sorry. Better to hear this before you buy one. Pressure-cookers are not absolutely valueless. At times I'd forgotten to soak, was pressed for time and didn't have an alternative...and I could stand by to make sure I didn't over-cook the beans, the pressure-cooker helped get some meals on the table relatively quickly.

 

But as a "standard method" pressure cooked beans have more down-sides than up-sides IMO. Not nearly the utility (or almost guaranteed good texture) of slow cooked beans.

 

Bill

[Marylou]

Of course if you're just going to mash the beans to make your own refried beans (pintos) it doesn't matter how soft they get. Add a little garlic and salt. . .yum! But I agree, beans cooked to mush consistency are just not good!

 

I use my pressure cooker every week to make brown rice: 1 c. of H2O in the bottom, then the metal rack, 2 c. of rice in a stainless steel bowl with 3 c. of chicken broth or water in the bowl, too. Cook under pressure for 10 minutes and then allow it to lose pressure before opening. Works every time.

 

Don't they sell plastic bag liners for crock pots? Something similar to those turkey bags? I imagine they are expensive.

Edited March 24, 2009 by dmmosher

[Hillary in KS]

 

Don't they sell plastic bag liners for crock pots? Something similar to those turkey bags? I imagine they are expensive.

 

They do sell them. For me it's sort of a toss up: Do I want my food marinated in lead or phthalates?

 

We haven't used our crock-pot in months as I try to find a workable alternative.

[ElizabethB]

Something like this, but you would need one that cooks for longer lengths of time. I have a friend with an older model that you can cook things in for any length of time. (All the ones that are inexpensive are for white rice and a short length of time only.) You can cook other foods in them as well if the timer goes longer.

 

http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=127574&prrfnbr=909918

 

(A stainless steel rice cooker.)

[ElizabethB]

I badly miss it though as our slow cooker was very highly used. And with a California summer around the corner the stove-top or in oven alternatives we've used this winter will become less welcome for the heat production.

 

 

Toaster oven outside. The new ones are very big. You can cook a whole meal in them if you shop for pans wisely and find a big bread loaf pan or casserole pan that fits exactly in the oven. Plus, if your oven is electric, it uses exactly 1/2 the energy of an oven. If it's gas, it's too much work to figure out the cost difference, but it's a no-brainer in the summer--cook in the toaster oven or on the BBQ outside. I have a friend who lived in California for a while during a hot summer while she was pregnant. She can cook almost anything on the BBQ.

 

I've made a 1/2 to 3/4 size lasagna in the toaster that would feed 6 normal people, but my husband ate it all. I've also cooked about 20 potatoes in there.

 

Edit: Electric burners that can go outside will work if the food doesn't need high heat. You can also buy a camping propane unit, they are a bit messier to play with, but have higher heat.

Edited March 24, 2009 by ElizabethB

[3lilreds in NC]

A good friend of mine just got an All-Clad slow cooker with an aluminum insert and he was very excited. WOW, are they expensive, though.

 

I've still been using my Rival, which is the poster child for lead crock pots. :glare: I know I need to deal with this but haven't had time yet.

[Spy Car]

A good friend of mine just got an All-Clad slow cooker with an aluminum insert and he was very excited. WOW, are they expensive, though.

 

I've still been using my Rival, which is the poster child for lead crock pots. :glare: I know I need to deal with this but haven't had time yet.

 

The "aluminum insert" made me blanch, but it appears it's "steel".

 

Bill

[Annie Laurie]

A good friend of mine just got an All-Clad slow cooker with an aluminum insert and he was very excited. WOW, are they expensive, though.

 

I've still been using my Rival, which is the poster child for lead crock pots. :glare: I know I need to deal with this but haven't had time yet.

 

I looked at All-Clad slow cookers and they're made in China, which didn't leave me feeling much more assured.

 

I haven't used my slow cooker in a long time, almost a year, but I did finally give in and use it Sunday because we were going to be gone all day and I wanted dinner ready when we got home, and we need to tighten the belt and not eat out or buy last minute groceries. Mine is a Hamilton Beach and I didn't feel great about using it.

[Jenny in Florida]

The "aluminum insert" made me blanch, but it appears it's "steel".

 

Bill

 

I looked at this one. As I recall, it is aluminum, but it's anodized, which supposedly seals it.

 

It is extremely expensive, though.

 

I know this won't please everyone, but we ended up buying a Sanyo combo rice/slow cooker. The insert is aluminum, but it's titanium coated.

 

It's this one: http://us.sanyo.com/SANYO-Store/10-Cup-Micom-Rice-Slow-Cooker

 

I've been pleased with it, but it takes some getting used to. Because it seals much more effectively than a traditional, ceramic-insert slow cooker, I'm having to learn to adjust my recipes. You don't lose anywhere near as much liquid in this one.

 

It's easy to clean, though, which is nice. I used to dread wrestling with the heavy ceramic insert, and I lived in fear of dropping and breaking the glass top. Neither of those is a concern with this unit.

 

It's more expensive than a Rival, but not as pricey as the All Clad.

[Spy Car]

I looked at this one. As I recall, it is aluminum, but it's anodized, which supposedly seals it.

 

It is extremely expensive, though.

 

I know this won't please everyone, but we ended up buying a Sanyo combo rice/slow cooker. The insert is aluminum, but it's titanium coated.

 

It's this one: http://us.sanyo.com/SANYO-Store/10-Cup-Micom-Rice-Slow-Cooker

 

I've been pleased with it, but it takes some getting used to. Because it seals much more effectively than a traditional, ceramic-insert slow cooker, I'm having to learn to adjust my recipes. You don't lose anywhere near as much liquid in this one.

 

It's easy to clean, though, which is nice. I used to dread wrestling with the heavy ceramic insert, and I lived in fear of dropping and breaking the glass top. Neither of those is a concern with this unit.

 

It's more expensive than a Rival, but not as pricey as the All Clad.

 

Maybe there are two? The All Clad I saw on-line was steel.

 

Bill

[Jenny in Florida]

Maybe there are two? The All Clad I saw on-line was steel.

 

Bill

 

It has a stainless steel outside. Maybe that's the confusion?

 

There actually are two units, but one of them has a ceramic insert and the other the anodized aluminum. Here's the page from the manufacturer's website with the product descriptions: http://www.all-clad.com/collections/Electrics/SlowCooker.htm?First=Yes

 

And here's the description of the unit on the Williams-Sonoma page: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku8260341/index.cfm?pkey=cpressure-slow-cookers&ckey=pressure-slow-cookers

[stripe]

I am going to go to my local Chinese mega-store that has a lot of appliances (soy milk maker, anyone?) and see what they've got. (Obviously I am not opposed to buying things that were made in China.)

 

I can't figure out why pressure cookers are so popular in India for cooking legumes if they produce such bad results.

[Katiebug_1976]

I guess I don't get out much. I am totally lost. I love my crockpot, but if there is some reason I should not be using it, I would love to hear about it. I haven't heard anything about a "lead scare." Please clue me in.

 

Thanks,

[Blueridge]

I am wondering if rice cookers can double as crock pots?

Ginger

[Jenny in Florida]

I guess I don't get out much. I am totally lost. I love my crockpot, but if there is some reason I should not be using it, I would love to hear about it. I haven't heard anything about a "lead scare." Please clue me in.

 

Thanks,

 

Well, I'm still not sure just how serious a problem it is, but the ceramic inserts of some slow cookers have tested postive for lead. And what many people have found when they try to get information out of the manufacturers is that they are unwilling to promise us there is no lead in theirs. Now, whether the amount of lead that might seep into your food is really dangerous is an open question. However, some paranoid folks (like me) found we really couldn't feel good about continuing to use the crock pots we had, "just in case."

 

Here's a link to the thread where this was discussed: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65604

 

Hope that helps.

[Tammyla]

I sent our Rival to the dump, but still haven't been able to bring myself to use the Hamilton Beach one either.:glare: I'm beginning to wonder if I'll find a good alternative. During the winter I started using our Staub (French) oven pot with good results. Now as spring has arrived and summer looms...I won't want more heat in the kitchen.

 

Anyone know of a good ss pressure cooker. OH, and an electric one would be welcomed.;)

[Spy Car]

It has a stainless steel outside. Maybe that's the confusion?

 

There actually are two units, but one of them has a ceramic insert and the other the anodized aluminum. Here's the page from the manufacturer's website with the product descriptions: http://www.all-clad.com/collections/Electrics/SlowCooker.htm?First=Yes

 

And here's the description of the unit on the Williams-Sonoma page: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku8260341/index.cfm?pkey=cpressure-slow-cookers&ckey=pressure-slow-cookers

 

You're right. Scratch that.

 

Bill

[Doran]

I have grown to love my Rival cooker in the past three years and am loathe to give it up. I spent some time poking around on the internet this morning and found this discussion to be helpful. At the end of the day, it doesn't look as though there is any certain solution, and depending on who you choose to believe, you can find good and bad in all the options available "out there". One poster in the linked discussion has tested her Rival with a home test kit and found it to be negative. Interesting.

 

I actually own a lovely stainless steel pressure cooker which I gave up using awhile back as I grew more committed to the Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon) style of cooking. Fallon does not advocate pressure cooking because of what it does (or does not do) in terms of rendering the nutrients in certain foods accessible to our bodies. Now, I'm not such a firm Fallon follower, and I'm wondering about my pressure cooker all over again.

 

The thing is, I could become concerned about some aspect of the toxicity of living at every turn. It's mind boggling the numbers of issues that are available for us to worry about. In some respects, the whole concept of tossing out "perfectly useful pots" (yes, I'm using that term very loosely here) troubles me enormously. Here we are surrounded by petroleum based food systems, upholstered furniture, carpeting, clothing, shoe leather, automotive exhaust, incinerator fumes, plastic packaging, and more, yet we are chucking our crock pots into the land fill for fear of leaching lead.

 

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate and share these concerns and wish we had simpler means of detoxifying our lives. But, in the scheme of things, I suppose I'm just not entirely convinced that tossing my Rival crock pot and buying something spanky new (which has contributed its own share of damage simply by being produced) is the best solution in the big picture.

 

:confused::confused::confused:

[Jenny in Florida]

I Here we are surrounded by petroleum based food systems, upholstered furniture, carpeting, clothing, shoe leather, automotive exhaust, incinerator fumes, plastic packaging, and more, yet we are chucking our crock pots into the land fill for fear of leaching lead.

 

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate and share these concerns and wish we had simpler means of detoxifying our lives. But, in the scheme of things, I suppose I'm just not entirely convinced that tossing my Rival crock pot and buying something spanky new (which has contributed its own share of damage simply by being produced) is the best solution in the big picture.

 

Agreed. I really wanted not to worry about this, but found I just kept looking askance at my crock pot and coming up with excuses not to use it. My feeling, ultimately, was that this was an easy fix. I can't completely clean up my kids' environment, but I can deal with this.

 

And, while I agree that I'm not happy about creating more land fill, in this case I felt protecting my kids justified the chucking. This, for me, wasn't a big picture thing, but a family portrait.

[Tammyla]

:iagree: And wonder or worry more about the crock-pot cooking more as a result of the heat component involved with the leaching of lead into the food our kids are eating and the price their bodies and brains pay. Now if it was just me and dh...we would just use it.

 

 

 

 

I have grown to love my Rival cooker in the past three years and am loathe to give it up. I spent some time poking around on the internet this morning and found this discussion to be helpful. At the end of the day, it doesn't look as though there is any certain solution, and depending on who you choose to believe, you can find good and bad in all the options available "out there". One poster in the linked discussion has tested her Rival with a home test kit and found it to be negative. Interesting.

 

I actually own a lovely stainless steel pressure cooker which I gave up using awhile back as I grew more committed to the Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon) style of cooking. Fallon does not advocate pressure cooking because of what it does (or does not do) in terms of rendering the nutrients in certain foods accessible to our bodies. Now, I'm not such a firm Fallon follower, and I'm wondering about my pressure cooker all over again.

 

The thing is, I could become concerned about some aspect of the toxicity of living at every turn. It's mind boggling the numbers of issues that are available for us to worry about. In some respects, the whole concept of tossing out "perfectly useful pots" (yes, I'm using that term very loosely here) troubles me enormously. Here we are surrounded by petroleum based food systems, upholstered furniture, carpeting, clothing, shoe leather, automotive exhaust, incinerator fumes, plastic packaging, and more, yet we are chucking our crock pots into the land fill for fear of leaching lead.

 

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate and share these concerns and wish we had simpler means of detoxifying our lives. But, in the scheme of things, I suppose I'm just not entirely convinced that tossing my Rival crock pot and buying something spanky new (which has contributed its own share of damage simply by being produced) is the best solution in the big picture.

 

:confused::confused::confused:

[Spy Car]

I have grown to love my Rival cooker in the past three years and am loathe to give it up. I spent some time poking around on the internet this morning and found this discussion to be helpful. At the end of the day, it doesn't look as though there is any certain solution, and depending on who you choose to believe, you can find good and bad in all the options available "out there". One poster in the linked discussion has tested her Rival with a home test kit and found it to be negative. Interesting.

 

 

Doran, I'm not trying to be an alarmist. Quite to the contrary actually. And I too love (or loved) by crock-pot. The problem with DIY lead tests is they wound't pick up the small amounts of lead that evidently leech from a crock-pot.

 

It requires sophisticated test equipment. A news-station did independent tests and found results that raised concerns. And the leaching problem is much worse when the crock-pot is heated (as it is designed to be).

 

No one (even the manufacturers) disputes that there is some amount of lead leach. But Rival will not tell you how much. Only that there has never been a recall by the FDA, and there products meet FDA standards.

 

OK. Can you provide me with the test results so I can make an informed decision?

 

Sir, we make hundreds of models of crock-pots.

 

I have the model and serial numbers right here.

 

Sir all or crock-pots meet FDA standards and....

 

Yes so can you provide me with the testing data my model crock-pot?

 

Sir there has never been a recall of any Rival brand....

 

Could you provide any testing data on any model of crock-pot?

 

Bottom line? No

 

Bill

[Doran]

Doran, I'm not trying to be an alarmist. Quite to the contrary actually. And I too love (or loved) by crock-pot. The problem with DIY lead tests is they wound't pick up the small amounts of lead that evidently leech from a crock-pot.

 

It requires sophisticated test equipment. A news-station did independent tests and found results that raised concerns. And the leaching problem is much worse when the crock-pot is heated (as it is designed to be).

 

No one (even the manufacturers) disputes that there is some amount of lead leach. But Rival will not tell you how much. Only that there has never been a recall by the FDA, and there products meet FDA standards.

 

OK. Can you provide me with the test results so I can make an informed decision?

 

Sir, we make hundreds of models of crock-pots.

 

I have the model and serial numbers right here.

 

Sir all or crock-pots meet FDA standards and....

 

Yes so can you provide me with the testing data my model crock-pot?

 

Sir there has never been a recall of any Rival brand....

 

Could you provide any testing data on any model of crock-pot?

 

Bottom line? No

 

Bill

 

 

 

I get all that. I truly do. And, I understood that about these pots from the moment I first laid eyes on these discussions. But, I still can't sort out the relative risk when looking at all the toxins in all the products with which I am in contact every day, and whether I'd be better off spending my time researching replacements for my traditional home furnishings (on which my children sleep, and play and read, and...let's just say that cumulatively, they spend loads more time on the furniture and carpets than they do ingesting foods which were prepared in my crock pot.) than on whether I should deep six my slow cooker. Even though we're comparing apples to half lives here, I think you get the point. Yes, sometimes it feels good to act on that which we can act. Other times, and for me increasingly so, as I narrow and eliminate more and more choices from my life, it feels reactionary and a tad foolish. I haven't quite figured out where I fit on this particular topic, that's all.