Took me 3 years to figure out why my pot roast was always dry

I kept wondering why my chuck roast came out tough no matter what I did. Turns out I was lifting the lid every hour to check on it, which dumped all the heat. Finally timed myself last month and realized I was losing about 20 minutes of cooking time each time I peeked. Now I just trust the timer and leave it alone, anyone else have a slow cooker habit that took forever to break?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_ross29d ago

My sister had the exact same problem for about two years before she figured it out. She used to lift the lid to "check the liquid level" every 30 minutes, and her pot roast came out like shoe leather every time. I finally got her to try a clear glass lid so she could see inside without opening it, and that made a huge difference. Now she also uses a cheap oven thermometer stuck to the outside of the pot so she can monitor the temp without touching anything. It is amazing how much heat you lose from just one peek, especially with older slow cookers that don't recover fast.

the_richard29d ago

Man that is such a common mistake and I get why people do it. A buddy of mine used to do the same thing with his pork shoulder. He had this old Crock-Pot that his grandma gave him and he could not figure out why everything came out dry. He would lift the lid to poke at the meat and see if it was falling apart yet. I finally told him to just stop touching it and let it do its thing. He got mad at first because he thought he was being careful. But once he broke that habit his pulled pork turned out perfect every time. Now he sets a timer and walks away from the kitchen completely.