Slow cooking

A slow cooker, also known as a Crock-Pot (a trademark owned by Sunbeam Products but sometimes used generically in Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States), 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). A wide variety of dishes can be prepared in slow cookers, including ones typically made quickly, such as cocoa and bread.

The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago, under the leadership of Irving Naxon, developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker. Naxon was inspired by a story his Jewish grandmother told about how back in her native Lithuanian town, her mother made a 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 bought Naxon in 1970 and reintroduced it under the Crock-Pot name in 1971. Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1970s, 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. In 1974, Rival introduced removable stoneware inserts making the appliance easier to clean. The brand now belongs to Sunbeam Products, a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation. Other brands of this appliance include Cuisinart, GE, Hamilton Beach, KitchenAid, Magic Chef, West Bend Housewares, and the now defunct American Electric Corporation.

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