A slow cooker, also known as a crock-pot (after a trademark owned by Sunbeam Products but sometimes used generically in the English-speaking world), is a countertop electrical cooking appliance used to simmer at a lower temperature than other cooking methods, such as baking, boiling, and frying. This facilitates unattended cooking for many hours of dishes that would otherwise be boiled: pot roast, soups, stews, and other dishes (including beverages, desserts, and dips).
History Of The Slow Cooker
Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1940s when many women began to work outside the home. They could start dinner cooking in the morning before going to work and finish preparing the meal in the evening when they came home.
The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago, under the leadership of electrical engineer Irving Naxon (born Irving Nachumsohn), developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker for the purposes of cooking a bean meal. Naxon was inspired by a story from his mother which told how back in her native Lithuanian town, his grandmother made a traditional Jewish stew called cholent which took several hours to cook in an oven. A 1950 advertisement shows a slow cooker called the “Simmer Crock” made by the Industrial Radiant Heat Corp. of Gladstone, NJ.
The Rival Company from Sedalia, Missouri, bought Naxon in 1970, acquiring Naxon’s 1940 patent for the bean simmer cooker. Rival asked inventor Robert Glen Martin, from Boonville, Missouri, to develop Naxon’s bean cooker into a large-scale production model which could cook an entire family meal, going further than just cooking a bean meal. Martin also designed and produced the mass-production machines for Rival’s manufacturing line the Crock-Pot. The cooker was then reintroduced under the name “Crock-Pot” in 1971. In 1974, Rival introduced removable stoneware inserts, making the appliance easier to clean. The Crock-Pot brand now belongs to Newell Brands.
Other brands of this appliance include Cuisinart, GE, Hamilton Beach, KitchenAid, Magic Chef, West Bend Housewares, and the now-defunct American Electric Corporation. (Wikipedia.com)
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 pounds of beef stew meat
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup cooking sherry
1 packet dry onion soup mix
2 tablespoons Campbells Flavor Up
1 onion, sliced
4-ounce can of mushrooms
seasonings
also, try: Slow Cooker Chuck Roast
