What Does Auto Means on a Slow Cooker?

Slow cookers are one of the best versatile equipment that makes cooking much easier and less tiring. It has some amazing features like locking lid, keep warm and auto mode which will solve your thousands of problems. Now you might be wondering what does auto means on a slow cooker? 

The auto on a slow cooker means that the dish inside the slow cooker will start cooking at a high temperature for approximately 30 minutes-2 hours. After that, it will be switched down to a low temperature automatically. In 6-8 hours, the food will be ready by itself without your involvement.

You can cook anything from starters to main courses on auto mode. It can save a lot of your time and energy. If you are confused about how this auto function works, this article will help you to get rid of all your curiosities. So, without further ado, let’s get right to it. 

What Does Auto Mean on a Slow Cooker?

As the name implies the “Auto Mode” is something that makes the machine work automatically. It can cook by itself without anyone’s assistance. After putting all the ingredients together, it will power up to a high setting for a few minutes to hours and then power down to a lower temperature. This speeds up the whole cooking process. 

So, if you tend to not be in your house for 4-5 hours but want to be welcomed with a pot of warm tasty food, the auto function will come to your rescue.  

Preparations for Auto Cooking Mode

You need to be prepared in a little different way to cook on auto-mode in a slow cooker. Since all the recipes and ingredients are not cooked in the same way and require different heating processes. Here are some things to consider before cooking in auto mode.

Choosing Non-veg Items for Auto Cooking

The meat ingredients used for auto cooking are comparably inexpensive and cheaper than other food items. They are easily available and labeled with ‘Braising Steak’ in the supermarkets. Usually, cheaper meats are the toughest ones which make them ideal for slow cookers. For example, you can try these items for auto cooking:

• Beef – Beef skirt, beef shin
• Mutton – All cuts 
• Lamb – Lamb-scrag end (shoulder and neck), lamb shanks 

Choosing Veg Items for Auto Cooking

Try to pick vegetables that take longer to cook. The vegetables that melt quickly are not preferable for auto cooking. For example, you can pick these items:

• Potatoes
• Dry Beans
• Carrots
• Legumes
• Lentil

In case of dry beans, soak them overnight, and drain and rinse them. Or else you can boil them for 10-15 minutes beforehand. This will help them to retain their texture for longer while auto cooking. 

Chopping and Washing

Clean the raw food materials very carefully before putting them in the cooker. Cut the slow-cooking ingredients into small pieces. On the other hand, cut those ingredients into larger chunks so that they won’t melt quickly. For better cooking, sear the meats and add the spices separately before. 

Decomposition of Raw Materials

You need to thaw all the raw ingredients completely before cooking on auto mode. Adding frozen foods directly inside the slow cooker will ruin their texture making them mushy. 

You can thaw food in the refrigerator overnight. And if you are thawing it on the kitchen counter, do not let it warm down to room temperature as that might invite tons of bacteria. 

Cooking On The Auto Mode

Cooking processes are slightly different for auto mode on the slow cooker. Following these simple tips, you can operate the auto function and cook on a slow-cooker easily.

• Put the refrigerated ingredients or pre-prepared materials out from the freezer before 1-2 hours or keep them in the refrigerator overnight. 

• Set the auto-cook button. In some advanced programmable slow cookers you can set the timer or connect it with your mobile through Wi-Fi. Then you can control it from your phone as well. 

• The auto cooking function speeds up in the initial process. It cooks the dish at a high temperature for 30 minutes to 2 hours and then slowly reduces to a low temperature for the remainder of the time. If a food item takes 1 hour in an oven, then it will take 7-8 hours in a slow cooker on auto mode. 

• Slow cookers have a lid-locking feature. Don’t unlock it while cooking. If you want to thicken the watery soup, open the lid at the end and increase the temperature after the auto-cook process finishes.

• If you want to add cooked food, dairy products, or any leftover pasta or rice add them at the last hour of cooking so that they don’t get over-cooked. 

• You can turn on the keep warm mode a. In case you are coming home late, it will keep the food warm for that particular time.

Not all slow cookers have the same facilities for the auto cooking process. Follow the guidelines carefully, which are given in the rulebook with your slow cooker. It will also make you understand the procedure in detail.

Does Auto Cooking Mode Reduce Nutrients?

Auto cooking on a slow cooker or crockpot does not reduce food quality. Sometimes, the lower temperature might preserve more nutrients, which can be lost in rapid cooking processes. 

This slow cooking process makes the dish taste better. The cooker keeps the food fresh and hot for a long time so you can enjoy a healthy meal whenever you come home. 

However, the process is not equally preferable for all the dishes. So be careful what ingredients you are using. 

Safety Tips for Auto Cooking Mode

In slow cookers, there are some particular matters you should be careful about while cooking on auto-setting mode.

• Don’t Eat the Food If Any Power Failure Occurs 

Due to prolonged power failure, the food in the slow cooker becomes unsafe sometimes. Don’t eat that food if any power cut takes place while cooking. 

It may harm your body so throw that away. Don’t even try to feed that food to your pets or any other animal since it will be equally harmful to them as well.

• Don’t keep Food in The Cooker for too Long 

Don’t keep your food on the cooker for a long time once you’ve finished cooking. It will reduce the quality of the food, especially delicate vitamins like vitamin C. 

The food should be kept at a temperature hotter than 65°F and cooler than 8°F, which prevents harmful Bacteria growth possibilities, according to WebMD and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• Don’t Reheat Leftovers More than Once On Auto Mode

Always reheat your leftovers to steaming hot on the cooker. And finish it before it cools down. Reheated food has a better chance of being infected by bacteria as it is more broken down. So, finish reheated food while it’s warm.  

Also, never reheat leftovers more than once in the slow cooker. According to the NHS, it can turn a healthy dish into poison.

Conclusion

I hope by now you have a proper idea of what does auto means on a slow cooker and the dos and don’ts related to it. It’s a wonderful feature to have to slow cook food on short notice. Especially for working men and women who just want some nice and warm food when they return from work.