Some Disadvantages In Slow Cooking.
Slow cookers are electrical cooking gadgets that keep a low temperature for long hours for unsupervised slow cooking. Slow cookers are also called crock pots. They are commonly placed on countertops. It is used to cook food requiring low heat and long cooking time.
A slow cooker is usually made of porcelain or ceramic enclosed in metal housing with heating element controlled by a thermostat. The pot cover is commonly transparent glass to see what's cooking inside. For more details www.cooking-groundbeef.com .The pot both serves as a container of the food to be cooked and also a source of heat. They come in many sizes, from liter to 7 liters.
A common slow cooker operates at maximum heat of 190 to 200oF. The temperature while it cooks is below 212oF or 100oC, approximately 160oF on low temperature setting. A steady heat from 175 to 200oF is retained by the heating element.
As a general guide, a low setting is used for cheap cuts of mutton, venison, beef, lamb and other red meat. It softens the connective tissues and takes 10 to 12 hours.
Medium setting is used for red meats. High setting is more for pale meat like chicken. This setting cooks faster for about three to four hours with temperature a little higher than that of medium setting.
Auto cook makes food taste better than those cooked with temperature setting of low or medium according to some actual tests. The automatic cook setting initially cooks on high temperature then shifts to low and maintain that temperature continuously. Some slow cookers do not have this setting.
The keep-warm is sometimes referred to as hold setting. It prevents the food from getting cold while keeping its flavor and preventing it from drying out. For more details www.cat-head-biscuit.com .The slow cooker automatically shifts to keep-warm when the cooking time is reached. It is useful when the crock pot is going to be unattended longer than the required cooking time.
The indicator light is a useful visual aid to know that the slow cooker is on and working.
Check the power cord if it has enough length to reach the power source. Using extension cord is dangerous because liquids might be spilt into it and possibly causes a fire. It is a good idea to purchase a crock pot with a removable liner for the simple reason that it is much easier to clean.
Cheaper cuts of meat when cooked for a short period can be difficult to chew because of its connective tissue and muscles. But then long boiling can dissolve the connective tissue making them dry and hard. Slow cooker's long and slow cooking will make the tissue soft and the muscle easy to chew.
There are some disadvantages in slow cooking. Sometimes through the process the food loses significant nutrients and vitamins. Enzymes are quickly denaturized when heated at high temperature, giving them less time to act throughout the cooking time.
Vegetables also have a tendency to lose nutrients when its enzymes are not denatured rapidly, as slow cookers cook at heat considerably below the boiling point. Vitamins are retained well when vegetables are quickly cooked because its cells do not potentially lose acids.
Some beans contains toxin that can be eliminated by continually boiling for 10 minutes or longer. It is recommended to boil raw beans before cooking in slow cookers to prevent food poisoning.
Does anyone have any ideas for critter proofing a chicken house?
Does anyone have any ideas as to how to critter proof a chicken/duck/geese house from weasel, raccoons, ect?
Coons are easy…Be doubly sure all openings over 2 In.are closed or boarded up….Coons usually won’t get thru chicken wire but if they find out they can you will have to put plywood over the openings and use fans to cool the chickens or they will sufficate in hot weather….
Weasels are another problem…They have been known to dig under concrete chain walls to get in…
My grandfather used to sprinkle ground hot pepper around the chicken house…It would work for a while …Any opening that is boarded has to real good…They will break or chew a board to get in…Blocking open places with tin or metal will work better…
Pet chicken housing?
A friend of mine keeps chickens outside his country home. There was one little chick from his last hatch that was sickly, and to make a long story short, I now have a pet chicken. I intend to keep it through the winter and return it to my friend’s home when it’s bigger. I have a couple of questions.
We are currently keeping it in a 10 gallon aquarium, which it’s quickly outgrowing. We let it out for several hours every day, but I don’t like the mess it leaves behind. Its home is now lined with small rocks, but I was considering a clumping cat litter to make cleaning easier. Will this hurt the chicken if it happens to eat the litter? We have a very small house. Is there a more suitable living arrangement that can be made?
Also, it’s become quite a pet. Flying up onto your lap to sleep, taking food from your hand, just hanging around you, etc. If I take this chicken back to my friend in the spring, will it have adjustment issues? Will it be able to live with the others?
My friend can’t help much with these questions because all his chickens live outside in a chickenhouse and wander the yard. He’s never kept any indoors, or removed them from the rest for a period of time.
I don’t have a garage or even a fenced yard, so the house is where we’re keeping it till spring. It’s not barbaric to keep a *baby* chicken in an aquarium – it’s only about 6 weeks old – but it will be when it’s bigger, which is why I’m asking for advice here.
I don’t know about the housing but um..
when you take it back the others will probably attack it or peck it a fair ammount, I don’t know why, They just do.
It’s like bullying/putting it into it’s place, because it’s a newcomer.
They’ll stop after a few days or a week or so. but yea if you introduce it back to the whole farm-scene know that it will get pecked or hurt a little.
shouldn’t the friend be able to answer these questions for you?
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EDIT: Housing isn’t really an issue depending on how long you intend on keeping it. Most egg farms cruely keep their chickens in small cages where they can’t move let alone stand up.
but if you (like you say) let it out to walk around and such, then yea, no biggie. You probably would feel really mean confining it to that small a space though, so.. yea its your call.
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Is it possible to get sick from cleaning out a chicken house?
Two days after cleaning our chicken house, which hadn’t been cleaned in several years, I started getting these symptoms: splitting headache, fever, chills, aching muscles. these are the same symptoms as Lyme Disease, which I was treated for two years ago. The symptoms are persisting, so I’m wondering if there could be a connection with the dust or manure in the chicken house.
depend on what kind of chicken it was
Why do the commercial chicken houses want chickens not to be exposed to sun?
I was watching the documentary “Food, Inc.” and one of the chicken house ladies had her contract terminated because she declined to upgrade her farm to one without sun light. What would be the reason for having a chicken go through its whole life without sun? Why does it benefit the chicken industry? I would think that the Vitamin D would be good for them, but maybe it damages the skin or something?
Please tell me!
it says in the movie it makes the chickens get a tiny bit fatter.
exposure to natural light can effect your hormone levels but I dont know why darkness makes them grow a bit larger but it said that was the reason.
How many chickens are in a chicken house?
I need to know some info for my paper about how many chickens are in a chicken house. I am not talking about a at home back yard chicken house I mean a big chicken house that they raise chickens for Tysons and other large companies. Please help!
Sounds like a loaded question!