Yum, what a crock.

I'm sure many people thought that crock pots would be in the graveyard of forgotten small kitchen appliances by now. Yet they endure.

I was---(don't ask!)---perusing an old issue of Popular Mechanics the other day and came upon a blurb about a new crock pot that was designed to approximate an indoor bar-b-que pit. It even looked like a minature replica of a black 50-gallon drum.

And, moreover, there's actually a crock pot that plugs into your car's lighter, so you can cook yourself a nice hearty meal as you roll down the highway.

Now, that is worth contemplating.

Somehow crock pots and Popular Mechanics together reminded me of that episode on “Home Improvement” where Tim does a “Tool Time” show on cooking with power tools and blowtorches.

But I digress.

I was merrily in the kitchen yesterday, preparing one of the Pepper family’s festive menus to mark a special occasion, when I got to thinking about crock pots.

You see, there are many times in cooking when one needs to be guided by the maxim that “there’s no cooking like slow cooking.”

The problem, I have found, is that often “slow cookers” are anything but. They’re just too hot to be truly, gloriously, maddeningly slow.

So here’s how I used my basic WestBend Crockery Cooker crock pot to cook a mouth-watering picnic ham that exemplified slow-cooking at its finest.

It was easy.

1. Put the meat in the crock pot, fat-side up.

2. Add about a cup of water to the pot.

3. Season with your favorites. I use the indispensable salt and pepper, garlic powder, and a nice dusting of McCormick’s BBQ seasoning powder.

4. Turn the crock pot on HIGH and set the stove timer for 15 minutes.

5. After the 15 minutes elapses, set the crock pot on KEEP WARM. That’s right: not on low, but on KEEP WARM.

6. Let the meat cook at least 5 hours. Plan on 7-8 hours to really do the job. Check with a meat thermometer toward the time you think it will be done.

Once again, somehow simplicity is the most elegant quality of all.

With our usual accompaniments of sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, black beans with cilantro, Waldorf salad and broccoli in cheese, this was a “picnic” to be remembered. And don’t even get me started on the wonderfulness of the leftovers!


*** Thermographic infrared photo of a crock pot taken with a PD-300 IR Camera.