Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Deluxe 6 Qt. Slow Cooker

As any of my regular readers already know, I love to cook! And second only to finding or creating a great new recipe, I love to discover a new kitchen appliance or gadget that makes the process even more enjoyable.

I recently gave slow-cooking another try. The last time I had, was many, many years ago. And in the meantime, slow-cookers have come a long way! I tested out the Hamilton Beach Set & Forget Deluxe 6 Qt. Slow Cooker and overall, I'm very impressed with this small appliance. A far cry from my little, old crockpot type cooker, from years ago! ;<)

What did I like about this slow cooker?

It has a nice large ceramic liner, that's easy to clean and allows for a large meal to be prepared in it.

As a vegetarian, for me that's usually a soup or stew. But I've got a lot of other recipes planned to try in the near future, in this slow cooker, including: lasagna, steamed breads, desserts...it's actually a very versatile way to cook and definitely not for just a big piece of meat or chicken as a lot of people still think. I'll be sharing a couple of excellent slow-cooker cookbooks here in the near future too.

This slow-cooker has a nice chrome finish on the outside that's easy to clean. A handy spoon rest in the lid handle, complete with spoon.  Easy to read and program, front panel. Very quiet operation. Reasonably priced too. Today I noted this slow-cooker at Amazon on sale for just $49. Well worth the price. And a 5 year limited warranty.That's the first time I've seen this for any small kitchen appliance.

And for people who do enjoy cooking meat, poultry in a slow-cooker, there is a handy temperature probe included.

And what didn't I like?

Rather minor negatives but perhaps things the company might want to consider for future models and marketing. This particular model features metal clips to secure the lid if you want to transport your slow cooker to another location: potluck dinner, another room...and avoid spillage.

These clips are only for this purpose and not to be used when cooking in the slow cooker.

 I found the video a bit misleading (click through to the product page to see this) as no mention was made of whether these clips were to actually be used for cooking but it appeared that way. I finally found the recommendation for transport use only, in the FAQ section at the company's website. I did not note any mention of this in the users guide I received either.

Speaking of the users guide, I did note that after cooking time is complete that the unit will beep and then revert to WARM mode for (total of) 14 hours and then shut off. This is too long, IMO in terms of food safety. I was surprised by this. Not something I would personally recommend.

As I said, minor complaints.

Overall, I'm impressed with how easy this slow cooker is to use and how good the cooking results are too. I will definitely be using it on a regular basis.

Stop by the Hamilton Beach site for lots of great recipe suggestions for slow cookers and their other appliances too.

Overall rating for this product: Very Good. 4 out of 5.