Slow Cooker

My father has aquired a "slow cooker". This apparently ranks with fire and the wheel as one of the greatest inventions of our time. You can chuck some meat into it (after you've fried it first of course) and then, a mere eight hours later, you can tuck into a nourishing and piping hot stew.

We went round to dad's for tea today, and I must admit the slow cooked meal was delicious. But I still remain a bit sceptical about the overall concept. When I get hungry, I want to eat now. Not one working day later. The idea was mooted that we might put all the stuff in the cooker first thing in the morning, and leave it cooking all day. The idea of frying mince at seven thirty in the morning does not have a great appeal to me.

I've also got a concern that a slow cooker might end up going the same way that the bread machine did, although it would be difficult to do this I suppose. A crucial component of the breadmaker was a little metal impeller which spun at different speeds during the bread making process as it mixed, pounded and otherwise worked on the dough. It had a habit of leaving itself impaled in the bread and, of couse, one day we threw out a loaf containing the precious bit of metal and in the process turned our bread maker into a large paperweight. If the bread it made had been nicer we would probably have eaten it rather than chucking it out. Which is kind of natural selection at work I guess.