Friday, March 21, 2008

Sad new recipe


I have not posted a new recipe for several weeks. Back in February we tried a new recipe from one of my favorite slow-cooker cookbooks. This was the recipe:

Teriyaki Chicken
6 bone-in chicken breast halves
2 16-oz. cans pineapple chunks, one can drained, one can undrained
1 c. teriyaki sauce

Put in cooker and cook 6 to 8 hours on low, or 3 to 4 hours on high.

But it did not turn out well for us. We put the ingredients in the cooker at 8:00 a.m., left for church, and arrived home ravenously hungry and ready for our delicious lunch at 1:00 p.m. only to find a burnt mass in the cooker. It was awful. It wasn't just burnt, it was a carbonized lump that had fused with the metal insert of the cooker.

We soaked the cooker liner in water for a few days. The lump did not budge. We chiseled at it with knives, tried to pry it out with forks - to no avail. I thought I might have to throw away my cooker (horrifying thought!) and get a new one (and this one is only a few years old), but that didn't seem like a good use of money.

Karin finally went to the store for me and bought as much baking soda as she could buy with $4.
And for a week this was my new recipe:
Removing Burnt Food From Cooking Pot
-lots of baking soda
-water to fill pot
Boil water and soda in pot for 30 minutes. Allow to cool. Remove burnt residue. Repeat if necessary.

It took 6 lbs. of baking soda, and 4 times of boiling the water and soda to remove all that nasty stuff. But I have my cooker back now!

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4 Comments:

Blogger Dana in Georgia said...

Sounds like the problem may have been the heating element in the cooker, rather than the recipe itself.

I dont think I've ever had anything *burn* in a crock pot.

More importantly, how did you feed those ravenous family members?

PB&J?

7:52 AM  
Blogger Tracy Batchelder said...

Oh what a mess! I guess it's always best to test a new recipe when you're home to keep an eye on it. Still, it doesn't seem like it should have burned in that amount of time.

8:16 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

My own theory is that it was too little liquid - and that liquid had a high sugar content - for the amount of cooking time. And I did wonder if my cooker might cook a bit hot.

The babies ate pb&j and the older people ate leftover pizza. NOT the meal we were expecting!

10:00 AM  
Blogger Donna Boucher said...

Wow. That's awful!

What a mess!

10:55 AM  

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