Confession Time......

[EcclesCake]

Despite having owned one (I eventually gave it away) I have never cooked using a slow cooker and find some of the recommendations on here for wonderful recipes quite baffling......no offence intended to slow cooker fans!

What have you never done, guilty secret or secret weapon in the kitchen?

[woofgang]

Mick, brown it first, then deglaze the pan with something yummy. My stews are never ever bland.

[Mick-Talbot]

Mine aren't either, Woof.
But if you haven't got the time in the morning and you just sling in your ingredients, then browning with the halogen oven lid does the trick.

[EcclesCake]

Barmaid, losing your favourite knife is very, very significant; it's like losing part of your arm.....it is after all an extension of your arm!

[EcclesCake]

Electric knives are PANTS!!! Though I've never owned one, just eaten the half chewed consequences of their crime against meat......

.....and cake, at a birthday party the host's Mother used an electric carving knife to get through the icing :-(

[Mick-Talbot]

I have a meat slicer....possibly the best thing I have bought for the kitchen.

[ummmm]

Electric knives are only good for cutting sandwiches.

[owdhamer]

I rebuilt my C 15 BSA in the living room but not in the kitchen.

[MrIncredible]

If you suffer from roast beef shrinkage! use a slow cooker, Gave up buying roast beef because after I roasted it,it always ended up half the size, watched a cooking program (can't remember who) and they showed you how to (cheat) cook the perfect roast beef, Works every time succulent juicy tasty and as big as when you buy it!

[EcclesCake]

Dave, I've bought four mandolines over time, lost the tips of my fingers on many an occasion.....my latest purchase has been...

It's OK.....so far......

[EcclesCake]

^^^ Give me a minute.... ;-)

[EcclesCake]

Hopefully this will be more relevant but not so entertaining.... http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=v+slicer+mandoline&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=908719925460752120&sa=X&ei=_6_QUOW4Au-S0QXIl4CIDA&ved=0CFcQ8wIwAA

[Barmaid]

I used my electric carving knife to cut chunks off frozen things (like bread, or a lump of frozen spinach).

Eccles - it was TERRIBLE, it was as I was preparing dinner for my parents and grandparents as well. I eventually found it in the garage. It very nearly got used for removing body parts........

[sunny-dave]

Mine was/is £100 worth of Japanese steel - with all manner of attachments for making weird juliennes and even pommes frites

Very sharp, very scary and never, ever taken out of the cupboard unless I have a transfusion bag and a nurse on stand-by.

[sunny-dave]

The tip was broken off my favourite knife by someone trying to change the fuse in a plug ... I think they were clinically deaf by the time I had exhausted my vocabulary of expletives ...

[EcclesCake]

Dave, bitter, very bitter, experience has taught me that a cheap and cheerful V slicer is the way forward.

I've got through far fewer No1 Field Dressing's as a consequence.....

[marje]

A mandolin - used once, nearly chopped fingers off, an electric egg boiler, used once, sandwich toaster - now sold, George Foreman, forgot I'd got this, may use it again. Numerous other things as well.

Best thing I've ever had is a small knife I use for cutting, peeling etc. Had it since I got married 43 years ago and would be lost without it.

[EcclesCake]

Hhhmm, I have an interesting 45 degree angle on my favoured boning knife due to misuse by a total numpty.....

[vodkancoke]

I bought a rice cooker which I have never used. It's massive and I live on my own, how much rice was I expecting to make??

[grasscarp]

Sorry Eccles, but you have missed an opportunity with the slow cooker. Last Christmas my daughter and I gave my other daughter a slow cooker. She was so hostile that on Christmas Day said "I hope its not a slow cooker", by the following week didnt know how she managed without it. As you never actually used it I suspect you didnt find the joy. Put a meal on in the morning and come home to a hot delicious meal. Low cost. No slaving over a hot stove. They can be really good, for soups, stews, complete meals etc.

[craft1948]

Is this the same Talbot who posted on here asking how to cook jacket spuds?