Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Can You Spot the Pot?

My Crock-Pot* has become an eccentric. It seemed normal enough when I bought it twelve years ago at a Goodwill thrift store in Albany. In fact, it seemed to be a brand-new, in-the-box Crock-Pot. For ten dollars. It didn't occur to me that perhaps it was at a thrift store in the first place because it had a defect.

But I think it does. And I think the defect is that it has no insulation on the outside, so it gives off a lot of heat. Slow cookers aren't supposed to generate a lot of heat, are they? I'm always hearing about how great they are to use in the summer because they don't heat up your kitchen. Mine does. Which is why I put it out in the shop in the summer when I use it.


When the meat is done, perhaps I could shred it with A.'s industrial grinder. I mean, it is right there on the same table.

I use the Crock-Pot so seldom, however, that I've never thought it worthwhile to get a new one.

When the plastic handle on the lid came off, A. carved me a new one out of wood. Then that broke off and I used twisted-up aluminum foil for awhile before he made me another new one. He decided to be funny with that one and made it out of a ram lamb's tiny horn. 

Ha ha. That A. Such a card.

Now that one has gotten brittle with the heat and is disintegrating. Also, one of the plastic handles on the side of the main body of the Crock-Pot has snapped off, so lifting it has gotten a little tricky.

But it still cooks. So I'm still using it, despite its, uh, quirks. 

At least I could never be accused of disposable consumerism.

* Yes, it is an actual name-brand Crock-Pot, so I don't have to call it the generic "slow cooker." Not that I would worry overly much about that, anyway, even if it was a generic slow cooker.

5 comments:

tu mere said...

Seriously environment friendly and thrifty. However, there does come a time when placing something, even though it's still heating, in the dreaded dump makes safety sense. Just a thought before the big move.

Anonymous said...

I agree with ta mere! The fact that the pot puts out heat (and they are not supposed to) would worry me. Mary in MN

Sherry said...

I have three crock pots (name brand ones). They do get very hot on the outside - and instructions tell you to be careful touching them on the outside. But there is nothing finer than coming home from work to the smell of something wonderful cooking in them and dinner is all ready. And I would think, with three young, very active boys in the house, that you would use a crock pot more often. I like the "dump it in and forget it" recipes.

FinnyKnits said...

Oh dude. So right there with you on this. I used Bubba's hand me down crock pot that his grandmother gave him when he moved out west from Kansas in 95. It was already 20 or so years old at that point. The thing was a champ, but it heated up the kitchen to hell hot levels and was always at risk of burning the kitchen down. I, however, didn't replace it until the liner cracked in so many places that even my aluminim foiling couldn't keep shit in.

FinnyKnits said...

Oh dude. So right there with you on this. I used Bubba's hand me down crock pot that his grandmother gave him when he moved out west from Kansas in 95. It was already 20 or so years old at that point. The thing was a champ, but it heated up the kitchen to hell hot levels and was always at risk of burning the kitchen down. I, however, didn't replace it until the liner cracked in so many places that even my aluminim foiling couldn't keep shit in.