Choosing Ingredients for Long-Haul Slow Cooking

The beauty of the slow cooker is that you can transform less-expensive ingredients, like dried beans or tough cuts of meat, into delicious meals with little effort. While you can cook pretty much anything in a slow cooker (in my first book on the subject there’s a salmon recipe and a brownie recipe, for crying out loud), if your goal is to let the dish cook for eight hours or longer with no intermediate attention there are some limitations on what you can use. All but the most hearty grains and vegetables will break down too much; very lean meats can overcook and become somewhat dry or grainy. Following are some of the ingredients to consider using in your eight-hour slow cooker dishes, and the ones I rely on most in the recipes in this book. If you want to adapt standard long-cooked recipes for the slow cooker, look for ones that feature these ingredients.