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Tips for successful slow cooker cooking. CLICK HERE

Don’t forget these safety tips. CLICK HERE

Jane’s guide to buying a slow cooker

For starters, don’t call it a “Crock Pot” unless the brand you’re admiring is a Rival. The plug-in braisers are slow cookers. Rival’s brand is Crock Pot.
Rival may have been the first, but it isn’t alone in the market. Many manufacturers make slow cookers, and there’s no one best choice. Which brand and model you buy will depend on how you plan to use it.
However, some features are handy to have, no matter what brand you buy. For general cooking, buy a slow cooker that has a ceramic lining. The plug-in exterior of the appliances cannot be submerged in water, so having a removable ceramic lining make clean up much easier.
For cooking, buy a model that has at least a high and a low setting. Most recipes are begun on the high setting to bring the ingredients quickly above food-poisoning temperature, and then switched to low temperature for prolonged cooking. After the ingredients are hot enough for safety’s sake, the low setting will keep them that way.
Buy a size that meets your needs. If you’ll only use your slow cooker to keep your favorite artichoke dip warm at pot-lucks, a 1-quart model may do. If you envision cooking chicken cacciatore for the whole family, buy the biggest slow cooker you can find.
Although some food-safety experts warn against cooking whole chickens in a slow cooker, those who insist on doing so anyway should buy an oval version. It will hold a chicken more easily than a round slow cooker.
Now, to the nitty-gritty: Should you plunk down about $150 for a 6.5-quart All-Clad Slow Cooker, or will the 6-quart Hamilton Beach model, which costs less than $30, do the job just as well?
The granddaddy of appliance raters, Consumer Reports magazine (www.consumerreports) will make you pay to read its slow-cooker reviews. So we found these free sites where other consumers have rated slow cookers. We chose sites that have a substantial number of consumers rating each product:
My Simon: http://www.mysimon.com/9000-10998_8-0.html (ratings by brand, price range and features)
Shopping.com: http://www.shopping.com/xGS-slow_cooker (ratings by brand, price range and features, along with price comparison at various stores)
Epinions — http://www.epinions.com/Crock_Pots_and_Slow_Cookers/search_string_~slow%20cookers/adv_search_~1 (easy-to-read consumer comments, extensive list of items reviewed).