Mini slow cooker

I have a 1.5 L on 220v power and it has 3 settings, Keep Warm, Auto, and 'Fast Stew'

the instructions say you can alternatively cook it on fast stew until its up to temperature, then adjust to one of the other temps

I have no idea what auto is, i guess it goes up and down automatically when needed, but at what temp i have no idea..

and Warm.. it seems as though its not intended to cook at that setting..

I cooked on Auto, and it did quite well, although I think it was really cooking a little too fast / too high of heat

I wanted to try warm, but if it just warms the food up to the food danger zone I will probably have the world's human population of harmful bacteria, many times over, before 8 hours is up..

I use it for cooking beef and pork roasts, i have a separate soup machine that has the crock surrounded in boiling water.. I'd like to use this regular crock for roasts, its the perfect size for 2 people who dont eat a whole lot of meat.. but I think its cooking too fast..

I would like about a 6-8 hour cooking time, the book says fast stew is 3-5 hours, I used fast stew for about 2 hours on about 3/4 kg beef roast, with about 3/4 cup liquid, and then on auto for another 2.5 hours, and the beef came out quite dry.. which may be a problem of too high heat

then i used the auto setting only for about 6 hours for a pork roast of im guessing over 1/2 kg but the meat came out too dry...

i'm wondering if i just didnt let it go long enough.. if its dry at 6 hours, will it become moist at 12 hours? or the dryness the result of fast cooking?

and im not in america, and dont have the safety regulations on warming here, but do u think it will cook on the "keep warm" setting and be more tender?

my thought was that because the crock is so small that the temp might be running higher.. so maybe keep warm would work, I'd like to try it but I'd hate to waste a roast..

will it be more moist the less water you add? i put in about 3/4 cup of deglazing liquid after searing the outside briefly with garlic and onions, added peppercorns and bayleaf and some sea salt. i have read that these work with no liquid, but im quite certain it needs some liquid, is liquid causing dryness? my liquid was boiling, so it didnt do any leaching..

anyway, thanks for any ideas or helpful comments
 
Carol wrote:


Cooks' Illustrated did a comparison of crockpots a few years ago. Their
results were a bit disheartening: Every single crockpot tested would bring
water to a boil, regardless of what setting was selected. The only
difference was how long it took.

If I'm using a crockpot, I do *not* want it to get that hot.

Bob
 
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