MORE CROCK POT HINTS

When cooking food in your crockpot remember that items like carrots, potato's and other root vegetables take longer to cook.

Make sure that you place them in the bottom of your pot so that they will get full benefit of the heat to cook.

If they are larger, you may want to cut them up into smaller pieces to help them to cook faster.

Less expensive cuts of meat are tougher and generally will benefit the most from being cooked in a crock pot.

They will have more time to tenderize as they cook.

Sometimes seasoning ingrediends like herbs, citrus and vinegar will loose it's flavor when cooked for a long time in a crock pot.

If at all possible, wait to add these items about an hour or so before you are ready to serve.

If you are cooking larger cuts of meat that are not fully submerged in the liquid, try to turn them about half way through your cooking time. This will ensure that the meat is more thoroughly and evenly cooked.

While your food is cooking, it is very tempting to lift the lid to check on it and see how it is doing. Remember that the same rules apply as when you are grilling or smoking food, if you lift the lid important heat escapes and this can slow your cooking time.