Kosher Blog

We have been trying this out for a few months, and after many an overcooked chulent, we now put set the pot to cook on low for 2 hours, and then it automatically switches to keep warm. We’ve been doing this for the last few weeks, and it has been fantastic.

I imagine you have some sort of programmable crockpot?

Your crockpot has a removable stoneware insert. Just make the cholent (or whatever else you’d like), put the stoneware insert in a microwave oven and cook the whole thing. Remember, your Shabbos food is supposed to be fully cooked BEFORE Shabbos.

Once it’s been cooked in the microwave oven, and before you light your Shabbos candles, put the stoneware insert in its place in the the heating unit, and set it for “Keep Warm.” That will keep it hot until lunchtime the next day.

We even use
Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners to make the clean-up easy on after Shabbos.

Stupid question - is there any reason you don’t want to simply buy the Rival one you trust? The $25 bucks seems worth it to avoid screwing up any more cholent.

Try one of these instead:

Program it to cook for X amount of hours, and it then switches to warm. It’s my next purchase:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13760055

I have the crockpot recommended by PinkDevora. Didn’t realize yours could not be programmed - our challenge had been figuring out how much “cooking” time vs. how much “keep warm” time. The switch to keep warm is automatic - the only thing that can be set is the lenght of cooking time. I do think it is worth the $50 bucks.

i use crockpot liners (i.e. a large plastic bag) with a cup of water in the ceramic pot … and my chulent ingredients in the bag… i’ve then left my crockpot on “low” for shabbos [i miss my 2 setting one]… it’s worked out ok for me, but your milage may vary.

cleaning is also much easier…

Remember, your Shabbos food is supposed to be fully cooked BEFORE Shabbos.

Not entirely true. If the food is intended for lunch and cannot possibly become fully cooked in time for dinner, it is permissible to put up raw meat or chicken shortly before cande-lighting. In fact, there are opinions that one davka should put a raw piece of meat into the cholent just before lighting candles. (Why do I feel like I’ve written this comment on KBlog before?)

I agree with Marsha’s comment on December 8th, why not just buy another Rival crockpot with 2 settings!!! Or do you want Mom to do it :-)

Love you!

Thanks, Mom. I actually did go out and buy one of the programmable Rival crockpots. It worked admirably, but my corned beef still came out too overdone to slice neatly — of course, it didn’t help that the meat was very lean. At least I had plenty of leftover corned beef shreds to try my hand at hash the next day.

Thanks for all the advice!

why not add more water? I have the same hamilton beach crock pot and I put in more water than I used to with my old crock pot - also - give the chulent a good stir before shabbos so the water gets to the bottom of the food - this should help in preventing the bottom from getting too burnt. Lastly, consider putting little pieces of folded aluminum foil between the ceramic and the heating unit - this will help in allowing some of the ehat to disipate before reaching the cermiac - i would test different size thickness for a few weeks until its operating at an acceptable level - i personally like the water to be bubbling slightly, but not violently like the low setting currently does.

We used a programmable Rival (automatically goes to keep warm after a few hours), and it worked great… until we had some kind of minor electricity outage - as soon as the electricity is disconnected, the crockpot needs to be reset, even if it comes back a few seconds later. After this happened a few times (cold cholent the result at best, rotten cholent at worst), we went back to the old fashioned high/low Rival, it was $15 on sale in Macy’s, and we haven’t looked back.

Does anyone know of a crock pot that can be programmed like a coffee pot–in other words setting a timer to go on at a certain time and then switching to “warm” when finished??

I don’t know of any particular crock pot that has this feature built-in, but you can always use plug your crockpot into an independent appliance timer such as this one:
http://www.intermatic.com/?action=prod&pid=206

We have just begun using a crock pot for preparing cholent (The Hamilton Beach one). Do all crock pots have an auto shut-off? I noticed ours automatically shuts off after a total of 14 hours, which means by 8 or 9 in the morning the warming ceases and by lunch the food is lukewarm. How are you using a crock pot to keep the food hot for lunch or should we get a different model? I understand the safety issue they had in mind, but it’s not very shabbat friendly if it turns off in the morning!

Scott–
This is the crock pot I have now. It’s modestly programmable (up to 20 hours at low or high) and then it automatically switches to a “keep warm” setting, which maintains the food’s temperature until service. I’d recommend switching to this one.

I have the one mentioned in the original post, and I haven’t had a problem. Like someone posted, just add a bit more water and be sure to balance it out within the crock pot.

What about warming trays? Anyone have any advice on warming trays versus the sheet of metal blech? Like one that can be hooked up to a timer? I notice some are outrageously expensive (ie those through judaica shops) but I am not sure if there is an actual difference than, say, one from Target. Any help is appreciated!

My girlfriend was in Israel a while back (I’ve never been) and she swears she saw a crock pot with a ‘Shabbat’ setting. I’d like to find her one for a gift, so if anyone has any info, please email me: janders79@gmail.com