Great, I've gained another 10 pounds... Thanks Hamilton Beach!
Pros:
Multiple cooking settings, easy instructions and the Meat Probe.
Cons:
Lid doesn't fit tightly and I had to say "Meat Probe" ...eewwwwwww......
The Bottom Line:
After much due diligence... I wasn't disappointed
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
My wife’s 3 qt Rival slow cooker is disappointing. It burns food and doesn’t hold as much as we would like it to (we’re big food freezers) so for Christmas this year she asked for a new one.
Enter the HAMILTON BEACH SET ‘N’ FORGET 6 QUART SLOW COOKER
It’s awesome.
Innovative listed special features and others which are just common sense.
Let’s go through them:
1) Size- 6 quarts. Big enough to make Chili, Stew or my special extra spicy Sausage and Peppers pasta sauce for a large family or a big feed for 2 and enough leftovers to freeze for cold winter days
2) Shape- Oval… so you can do birds or full roasts. The round crock pots just cheese me off.
3) Appearance- Very Nice. Stainless steel with black trim. If you have a stainless steel kitchen this blends in as a beautiful accent piece. On the front is a small panel where the temperature and time read out in soft blue numbers. This is extra cool for us since our water dispenser has the same set up.
4) Durability- Fantastic. Handles are solid metal with black accents. Lid handle is extra durable resin and stays cool to the touch. Cooker legs are low and wide. The chances of them snapping are nil. Lid, while it doesn’t fit flush, is heavy duty enough that it doesn’t rattle. Also, since there is a small hole in the glass the steam escapes through there. No chance of rattling.
5) Clean up- Easy as pie. Lid and removable interior cooking pot are dishwasher safe. Any dirt just sponges off in warm water. Both pieces are also microwave and oven safe.
6) Cooking Options- Various- Temperature, Manual and Program Modes. Program Mode is just as it sounds. It cooks so subtly on low that there is no way you are going to burn the food. Then it flips to warm. No fear of leaving the house for 6 hrs and coming home to the smell of fried anything. By far the coolest options is the…
7) Meat Probe- there I said it… meat probe. This is an option I haven’t seen anywhere else and alone makes it worth the price. The Probe fits in to a small hole through the lid. One end goes in to the meat and the other gets plugged in to the machine itself. You cook “what ever” until it’s the internal temperature you want and the machine automatically turns to warm. Not sure what temp the inside of your roast should be? No problem. Also on the lid are basic instructions for every kind of meat you can think of. They give you a setting based on medium so you adjust accordingly. Like a well done roast? Set the internal temperature for 170 instead of 145. Like it rare? Set it for 120.
The instructions give you an estimated time that it will take the meat to cook on both low and high, but if you are trying to gauge how much time is left, the front display shows a running count of the internal meat temp. You can tell how fast it's heating up.
Any way you slice it (AHAHAhahahahaha) your food will come out cooked to perfection and exploding with flavor. I’m not kidding. I popped a bit of mushroom onion roast in my mouth and the saliva that flooded through almost made me choke. Not sure what you want to cook? Follow one of the easy recipes that are included. I would recommend picking up the “Companies Coming” Slow Cook cookbook.
With out a doubt, this was the best seventy dollars (Canadian, so about fifty bucks for our American friends) that I spent this Christmas.
It is the gift that will keep on giving and giving … pound after pound… inch after inch… succulent morsel of food after succulent morsel of food… so you better be careful, it will be easy to get carried away with this.
* I have updated this 2 years after purchase and the five star rating still stands. We not only use this often but transport it up to the cottage. It looks and works as well today as it did when I bought it. There are no scratches, breaks, wears or tears on it. The pot hasn't cracked, the side hasn't dinged and it has helped us feed crowds up to 40 people (love those Mushroom, Jalapeno, Parmesian meatballs.)
This product has probably been the best kitchen purchase we've made in the last 2 years.
