huh? I have never heard this before, or done this The whole point of a slow cooker is to bung everything in and let it cook, not having the hassle of prep before hand (or so I thought lol).

I have been using a slow cooker for nearly 40 years and I have never put anything in hot to start with.

With root vegetables, as already said, they need to be cut up small or sliced thinly, and put at the bottom of the SC with the meat on top.

I currently have [gulp] four SCs - two 6.5 litre, one 3.5l and one 1.5l - and next time the little one is on offer I will quite possibly buy another one.

I've never put anything in hot either??? I cook all sorts in mine but never heat it first, we've cooked a whole chicken in there from cold before as well.

In hindsight i'll definitely be cutting the veg smaller next time!

I hope you have better luck with the slow-cooker than me

I tired all sorts, even tried cooking overnight, but I couldn't get on with it. Especially the weird smell - which I'm told only occurs with certain types of SC.

This gives me a idea for a new thread actually

Never put anything in hot here either!
Always cold!

Wouldn't see the point of putting it in hot...as you've already started the cooking off!

Well I've always used it the same way as I'd do an oven cooked casserole, the difference being, it cooks for a lot longer and a lot slower. Hence the reason mine is always hot when it goes in, coz I've fried off the meat to brown it (can't stand that raw meat thing in a casserole with all that scum) onions have also been slowly browned, and coz that's all hot, I then make the gravy in the same frying pan, and chuck it all in! The carrots and veg go in 3 hours before I want to eat it, but then of course, I'm always here to do that.

Try doing it hot, it's a lot safer. I only know that coz I've worked with lots of chef's, I've got food safety certificates myself having run catering businesses in the past, and it's really not good to have such bulk trying to reach boiling point for so long, plus it tastes better coz it's actually cooking for longer. It's all upside down, coz when you think about it, you always cook something on high TO bring it to the boil quickly, and then down to a simmer. I have never in my life thrown a casserole into a hot oven with everything in it cold (like Sheree Hewson did on that come dine with me and it wasn't cooked by the evening ) From memory, I'm sure it actually says this on the cooking instructions that comes with a slow cooker? I remember reading one once, but I don't normally do instructions!

In my cafe I had half a dozen of these things on the go at any one time, but they were full of bacon, sausages, beans etc. and even after 4 hours, the food hand't changed from when we threw it in them, but it was always cooked first.

I have always browned off meat first so it goes in hot mainly to keep the juices flavours in the meat. The instructions for my slow cooker also recommends doing it that way.

Vegetables I always cut thinly and they are usually cooked within three to four hours even potatoes. They always go in raw.

I bought a slow cooker cheap from Asda many years ago that lets you set it for a combination of cooking temperatures and times so if I'm cooking a stew I'll set it fot 4 hours high, 4 hours low and then 4 hours keep warm.

The veg and meat are always cooked to perfection.

It's getting on now but I can't find a another one like it

I always put stuff in cold. What would be the point in using the slow cooker if I had to cook it first? I might as well just cook it normally. Pretty much everyone I know who uses one does the same.

Most, if not all, slow cookers now have three heat settings. High, Low, and Keep Warm. On some makes the Keep Warm setting is marked as Auto.

A lot of people think that if a SC has an Auto setting, if you set it on that it will automatically start off on High and then after an hour [or when the contents have reached boiling point] it will automatically change to the Low setting.

But - unless the box/instructions specifically state that fact, the Auto setting is just Keep Warm.

I used to belong to a food forum and the number of people who were mistaken about that was astounding. People would post that such-and-such a store had SCs for a tenner or some other low price and that it has an automatic setting!!! so quite a few people would rush to that store/supermarket and bought one - and then would post and say that it was useless as they had set it on Auto before they went out to work, came home 7 or 8 hours later and the contents were barely even warm.

Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

And read the label!