We are two adults who cook once a week and eat leftovers for four or five days, so I want capacity, but the cupboard it has to live in is 35cm deep and I am not leaving it on the counter. I keep going back and forth between the bigger round one and the slightly smaller oval. Does the shape matter enough to trade away two quarts, or should I just buy the biggest thing that fits?
Oval, and it is not close for how you cook.
The reason is what fits inside. A whole chicken, a rolled joint, a rack of short ribs or a loaf tin all sit properly in an oval and none of them do in a round. A round cooker forces you to cut things up, which is fine for stews and annoying for everything else.
The capacity question is less important than it looks because these machines want to be between half and two thirds full. An eight quart cooker doing a two person batch is running at a quarter full, and food in a thin layer over a large hot base scorches at the edges and overcooks. You would effectively be buying capacity you cannot use.
Six quart oval for two people who batch cook is close to the ideal size. You can fill it properly with a batch that feeds you for five days.
The loaf tin point is worth expanding. A tin inside an oval opens up things like meatloaf, bread pudding and cheesecake, which are the recipes people think slow cookers cannot do.
Also check the oval fits the cupboard front to back including the handles. My first one fitted the shelf and not the door, which I discovered while holding it.
If the budget stretches, a small three quart as a second machine is more useful than going bigger. Two people, a weekday side dish or a small batch of beans, and it lives in a much easier cupboard. Mine gets used more than the big one does.
Counterpoint on size, since everyone is saying go smaller. If you batch cook specifically to fill the freezer, the bigger one is genuinely useful, and you just have to accept doing full recipes rather than half ones. I cook eight portions of chilli in one go in a large machine and freeze six. It is only a problem if you try to cook small amounts in it.
Whichever you get, look for one with a simple mechanical dial rather than a programmable timer if you plan to keep it a decade. The electronics are what fail on these, and a dial with low, high and warm does everything a batch cook needs.
@signup_bonus_sy · 10mo ago · 2 replies
One practical thing before you decide: check whether the insert is dishwasher safe and how heavy it is when full. An eight quart stoneware insert full of stew is genuinely heavy and awkward to lift out of a deep cupboard, and that is the thing that decides whether the machine gets used weekly or lives at the back forever.
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@flaxseed_fran · 10mo ago
This is the reason my large one is in the loft. Lovely machine, but I stopped reaching for it because getting it out was a two handed job that needed clear counter space first.
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