Water in a Slow Cooker? (How Much You Need and Other Tips)

If you have bought a slow cooker recently, then I’m sure you have plenty of questions about its use. One of the most common questions people ask, how much water in slow cookers is required. Well, you are in luck because that is exactly what I will be talking about in this article. 

The amount of water you need in a slow cooker largely depends on the recipe of the dish you’re cooking. Prominent recipe books for slow cookers contain exact indications for the amount of water you need. However, an excellent tip to remember is never filling the pot to more than half its capacity.

There are plenty of other concerns that I’m sure are plaguing your mind right now about slow cookers and how to use them. But here I will try to go through most of all the common questions related to using water in your slow cooker. Things like how much water to use, mistakes to avoid and tips on reviving a dish too watery. I will touch on all of these and more. 

Using Water in A Slow Cooker

No matter how convenient a slow cooker is, you may end up damaging it beyond repair if you miscalculate the water measurement. A slow cooker must need water in its crockpot, but too much will just take away the flavor. Also, too much water can run into the slow cooker base, which will damage the device for good. 

A slow cooker is just an electric crockpot. So, water is something you need to be very careful with. Unfortunately, many believe that a slow cooker doesn’t need any water, which is absolutely wrong. 

If you don’t add water to your dish while cooking a slow cooker, your dishes will end up burnt. You won’t want that. So, add water following the recipe strictly and follow the tips discussed in this article. You will be okay. 

But there is also something called dry slow cooking in which you use less or no water. It is great for cooking meats and foods with high water content. I will discuss this cooking method at the end of this article. So, keep on reading.    

How Much Water Does a Slow Cooker Need?

A slow cooker is an electric crock pot that allows you to throw everything you want to cook in the cooker and forget about it for 8 to 10 hours. So, even if one doesn’t add much water to the food, it will not ruin your dish.

The best thing about a slow cooker is, it allows your food more time to be fully cooked. This extra time helps to make your food more enriched and flavorful. Also, because of the slow cooker’s cooking process, you don’t need to worry about getting your food burnt. 

As every food already contains water, extra water might turn your cooking waterier and thinner. On the other hand, excessive moisture will absorb flavor and make your food bland. So, less is better when it comes to a slow cooker.

The worst outcome from a waterless slow cooker is burnt food. Excessive water can make its way into the base, which will damage the cooker terribly. Some devices even have a fuse which allows the cooker to keep itself from being damaged.

So, while adding water into a slow cooker, ensure the water level is not close to the lid. Then, add water as the recipe suggests. For soup or stew, extra water is welcomed, but it might ruin the flavor for other dishes.

How Long Should You Cook in A Slow Cooker?

Putting food in a slow cooker can make you forget about it for 8 to 10 hours easily. But you might be tempted to use this extra 8 to 10 hours for preparing other aspects of your dish. You must know about the time it takes to cook in a slow cooker to obtain the perfect dish you’re looking for. 

On average, for a four-hour platter, you need to cook it at least for three to four hours on high flame and then four hours on low flame. For a 15 to 30 mins meal, you need to cook it for two hours in high heat and around four hours in low heat. For 30 mins to one-hour dishes, cook for approximately two hours on high flame and about six hours on low heat.  

And if there is any confusion on how many hours you need to cook food in a slow cooker, you can always follow the recipe precisely.

Excess Water in Slow Cooked Foods

Having extra water in a dish is a common problem that almost every cook has to face with a slow cooker. This is because the slow cooker doesn’t let enough steam develop inside the pot. That is why the food takes longer to cook. 

Usually, slow-cooked food contains more water than customarily cooked food as the pot lid holds on to most of the vapor. Watery food not only tastes bland but can barely maintain the intended texture of the dishes. However, with proper knowledge about a slow cooker, you can make your food taste just the way you want it to. 

A good trick to remember is to cut the water amount to around 50% of customarily cooked food. Most of the vegetables and proteins already have enough water in them for cooking perfectly. If you want less liquid in your cooked food, you might prefer adding little to no water at all.

To prevent your beautiful platter from being too light, you can also cover your pot lid with tissue paper from the inside. This will absorb extra vapor and stop your food from getting too watery.

If your food is still too watery, you can remove the lid and cook it on high heat for a while. High heat will slowly take the water out of your dish. If you keep the top open, you can do it for as long as you like.

Does A Slow Cooker Need Water in Its Base? 

The answer is No, and most definitely never pour water into a slow cooker base. Running water in the base can destroy your cooker for life. 

So before getting a slow cooker and making a rookie mistake like pouring water into a slow cooker base, you need to know why a slow cooker does not need moisture in the bottom.

• The slow cooker base has a heated coil in its core. This coil heats the coil and cook’s food, and water plays no role here.
• Read the recipe carefully, and you see none of them says to pour water in the base.
• Pouring water in a slow cooker base can damage the cooker mechanism once and for all.

Some Tips & Tricks to Follow While Using A Slow Cooker 

A slow cooker offers everything a cook is looking for – an economical, healthier cooking method for a low-fat diet. It even requires minimum effort to prepare a dish. 

But all these advantages and 7 to 8 hours of cooking can all go in vain if you don’t know some simple tricks. So here are some tips and tricks to save your time and effort.

• Prepare everything, including the water, beforehand as slow cooking takes time.
• Try to put less meat and more vegetables instead, as the water in slow cooking extracts the meaty flavor more efficiently.
• Trim the fat from meat extensively as it can cause a mess with the existing water. 
• Avoid using too much water. The less the water, the better your meat or fish will come out tasting. 
• Use flour to thicken the broth, as slow cooking can make dishes waterier.
• Try to use low heat in water as it helps to make the food more delicious.
• Add most ingredients, including water, at the beginning of cooking. Rice, pasta, and fresh herbs are some of the only exceptions that you would need to add in between cooking.

Slow cooking makes food flavorful and mouthwatering, but to get the best result all the time, follow the tips as discussed. 

Mistakes You Should Avoid While Using A Slow Cooker

Not many cooking devices offer the versatility and convenience that a slow cooker does. Best of all, a slow cooker allows you to throw all ingredients and enables you to forget about it for hours while you take care of any other dishes you might have on the stove. 

With so many facilities it provides, anyone would want to cook in a slow cooker. But many things can go wrong in a slow cooker, even for a pro chef. If you are a rookie slow cook chef, you need to be more careful. Escaping some mistakes can improve your slow cooking dramatically.

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Some of them are discussed below. Keep these suggestions in your mind, and you can see yourself growing into a master slow cooker chef in no time!

Using Too Much Water 

The first and the major rookie mistake is to use too much water. A slow cook keeps both food’s heat and boiling point low, resulting in long hours of cooking and bland tasting food. 

To skip this mistake, try to use as little water as possible. All food ingredients already contain enough water. Adding excessive water to this will ruin your food’s taste. So from now on, use less water for a slow cooker than you usually use. 

Adding Liquid Dairy Products Too Soon 

To cook dairy products in a slow cooker, you have to be extra careful. Experts suggest adding dairy products around the end of cooking. 

If you add liquid dairy products like milk, cream, cheese, or sour milk too soon, they will get separated and curdle because of the water.  So, if you want to use a milk-based product in the slow cooker, wait until the right moment and follow the recipe.

Lifting the Lid Too Soon

As tempting as opening the lid can be, doing it while cooking food in a slow cooker is a mistake. Opening the lid will cause you to spend more time to get food adequately cooked as water will tend to escape the pot in the form of vapor.

A slow cooker cooks’ food by trapping the vapor and heat, and it takes a long time to get it heated enough. Opening the lid repeatedly will gain you a few more extra cooking hours, nothing else. So, only remove the cover if you need to put in some ingredients.

Overfilling the Pot

Overfilling a pot with water is the worst mistake ever when it comes to cooking in a slow cooker. The slow cooker takes a long period to cook food which can make food watery and bland. So adding more water will not help your dish at all. 

Sometimes overfilled water gets into the slow cooker base. Doing this can damage your cooker permanently. 

If you don’t know how much water to add, you always cut water up to 50% of the standard recipe. Three-quarters of the designated amount can also give you a satisfactory result. 

Making Only Soup or Stew

A common misconception among slow cooker users is that they assume a slow cooker is only designed to make stew and soup. Slow cookers cook great soup and stew, but there is so much more you can cook with a slow cooker. Dishes like curry, casserole, meatloaf, custard can easily be prepared in a slow cooker besides soup or stew. 

While making soup or stew, overheating for a long time can make vegetables mushy. To prevent that, cut vegetables into bigger pieces. This will allow your dishes to overheat without turning into mush and maintain the flavor.

Avoid these rookie mistakes at all times and you are one step closer to making the perfect crockpot dish. 

Slow-Cooked Meals Too Watery: What to Do? 

As we’ve mentioned earlier, slow cooked foods require just the right amount of liquid for them to be perfect. They hold on to moisture very well. So, even a little excess water can ruin your dish. But, what if you’ve already done the deed? Is there a way to revive the meal you worked so hard for? Yes, there is. 

First, you can take off the lid and wait for a while for the water to evaporate. Many dishes will thicken pretty quickly as they start cooling down. If you would rather have your dishes piping hot, consider cooking the dish for a bit longer at high flame with the lip open. This will rapidly evaporate the water and thicken your dish to perfection. 

If you are making a stew or soup and think it needs to be thicker, then try adding some butter and cornstarch or flour. Make sure you cook the dish well for a while or not. It might have a raw flour smell and taste. 

These are some simple tricks that may come in handy if you even end up with a runny stew or curry. I can’t tell you how many times these methods were a lifesaver for me. 

Dry Cooking in A Slow Cooker

Dry cooking in a slow cooker has some additional benefits. A slow cooker simmers food so rarely that any food can dry off too much and end up getting burnt. 

To dry cook in a slow cooker doesn’t require much expertise either. A little bit of oil and other ingredients will do the magic. For example, to cook chicken breast in a slow cooker, instructions are to put roasted breast on onions and no water. You can make your dish enough dry and textured through this procedure but not too dry for your liking. 

Chicken thighs, vegetables cook best in a slow cooker.  If you fear food getting burnt, you can add a small portion of water. But then again, for a slow cooker, the less the water, the better the outcome when it comes to cooking foods with high water content.

This is something to consider when deciding how much water you should put inside your slow cooker. Some dishes just taste way better with no water at all. So, do your research on the food you’re making before you fire up your slow cooker. 

Conclusion

If there’s one cooking device that allows you to have little time to yourself in this fast-paced world, then that’s a slow cooker. Now you can leave for work, leave the cooker on and come home to see dishes all cooked well. You can prepare healthy, flavorful dishes from any cuisine using a slow cooker. The intuitive device even maintains food’s nourishment and makes the food more delicious. 

But nothing will come out ideally if you don’t know how to use an essential ingredient for any slow cooker which is water. To make the best dishes with your slow cooker, you need to know how much water in a slow cooker is perfect for which dish. Always remember to cook following the standard recipe and guidance. Happy cooking and thanks for stopping by.