Those looking for more inventive fare, however, may wish to turn to the Art of the Slow Cooker by Andrew Schloss (Chronicle, 2008, $24.95), which features 80 recipes for dishes such as Seafood Caldo With Chorizo and Duck With Red Wine, Wild Mushrooms and Forest Herbs. Unlike Good, who emphasizes how easy slow cooking is, Schloss points out that the method is not effortless.
The recipes in his book are divided into "simple everyday" and "spectacular entertaining." The ingredients lists, even for simple fare, can be extensive and the preparation time can be considerable. Typically, the recipes call for precooking - browning meats, marinating, toasting and grinding spices, etc. The Barbecue Pork and Beans, for example, calls for soaking dried beans overnight. In Good's book, the beans in a similar dish are canned.
The Sausage-and-Tomato Ragu With Pasta dish I tried was hearty and full of flavor, but every ingredient was cooked before going into the slow cooker, which raises the point: Why use a slow cooker at all?
T he Best Slow & Easy Recipes by the editors of Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen, 2008, $35) takes the middle ground in how much effort to put into slow cooking. This book contains 250 recipes, not only for the slow cooker, for also for roasts, stews, braises and other slow methods.
The authors describe the recipes as "uncomplicated cooking that's worth the wait."
As fans of Cook's Illustrated know, recipes include instructions that tell you not only what to do, but how and why. The weekend chili recipe I tried was prefaced with 1 1/2 pages of explanation for why the recipe is as it is.
But the folks in the kitchen keep real life in mind. They concluded that browning the meat before putting it in the cooker didn't add appreciably to the flavor and that canned beans work just fine. Texas chili aficionados will quibble with the presence of the beans at all, but I found the thick, flavorful chili the perfect dinner on a cold winter night.
GIVE-ME-MORE BARBECUED RIBS
(makes 6 servings)
Ideal slow cooker size: 6-quart
4 pounds pork ribs
1/2 cup brown sugar
one 12-ounce jar chili sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon hot sauce
Place ribs in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour half of sauce over ribs. Cover. Cook on low 8 to 10 hours. Serve with remaining sauce.
