The Complete Slow Cooker: From Appetizers to Desserts - 400 Must-Have Recipes That Cook While You Play (orWork) (The Complete ATK Cookbook Series) Paperback – Illustrated, October 31, 2017

I never much liked using a slow-cooker until I realized I didn't know HOW to use one. This book tells you in what order to put the ingredients in and how much or little fluid each recipe needs. It explains how to prepare ingredients that need to be cut to a certain size or browned before going in so that the finished dish comes out better. Also the recipes explain how and when herbs and spices, and all seasonings, need to be added for the best flavor. Another consideration the recipes cover is the best size of the slow cooker used and the reasons. Now we use the slow cooker MUCH more often and eat very well and inexpensively. This book is worth your time and your money. And you can never go wrong with the American Kitchen series.

Now, finally a cookbook which along with the recipes, this book has photos of most recipes that are listed, and the pages are of a superior quality. Also, I chose this book because it has a spiral backing which allows for the turning of pages and uses as a guide when cooking without trying to hold pages down to prevent accidently turning on its own when trying to cook. However, one need to know that the spiral type of book is more expensive than the normal book pages that comes in a regular format.

of flavor.I've used slow cookers ever since I was in college to a limited extant, but all the books I've had usually rely on either the sacrifice of quality or significant effort up front. Sacrificing quality was always something I lived with to some extent, but as a grad student or working father, I never had the time for all the prep some recipes took.Admittedly, more prep usually means better quality results, but the end result had always been that I had been worn down to about 5 recipes being all I would make in my slow-cooker, and most of those were soups or chili.So I approached this book cautiously. My wife and I do love Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen books, but our use of their recipes has been limited with the expansion of our family. Their recipes tend to be more work and have a lot of prep. And, this book doesn't appear much different, but there are a lot of nice benefits.We've now cooked 5 recipes out of the book, and they've all been great. First, the book has nice color labels on the recipes, which give you a quick idea of what you are getting into. There are recipes identified as "Easy Prep" or "All Day" for instance. The first couple of chapters provide a lot of information and tips, which I think are fantastic for giving a background into how the recipes work (typical ATK type stuff). In terms of recipe preparation, there are some that take a lot of work, but the authors also worked in short-cuts as appropriate.I know there are some who complain about the reliance on microwaves in the initial stages of a recipe. For instance, many recipes have you softening onions or garlic using oil. I guess if you are strongly against microwaves, I can see the complaint, but what a lifesaver. It's much easier to soften the onions for a few minutes in a microwave than 20 minutes on the stove-top at 6am. The microwave for this purpose is a revelation to me. Browning meat can still be a hassle, but I've gotten into the habit of doing that the night before. The other revelation is that the overall processes for many recipes are pretty consistent from recipe to recipe, and it works. This has actually allowed me to adjust recipes found elsewhere (soups, stews, etc) to work. This book works well beyond its bounds, which has made a great Indian cook book even greater. This is why I've always liked ATK books. They explain a lot, which makes it easy to adjust recipes to your liking.The only thing I would express caution about the book is their reviews and recommendations of crock-pots. This probably doesn't matter if you are reading this review (which presumes you'll read others), but their top recommended slow-cooker gets horrible reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. The book inspired us to get a slow-cooker with a timer, but we ended up buying a Hamilton Beach because despite the caution in this book, the internet suggests that the Hamilton Beach products can work just fine. We've only had the slow-cooker 2 weeks, but I'll review it once I have more to stand-by.I've never had such a great slow-cooker cookbook and will likely get rid of the others I have.

I have three slow cookers, and use them frequently, so I'm always on the lookout for some new recipes. I also have several of the cookbooks from America's Test Kitchen, and generally find that they are well-tested and successful. I've only tried one recipe from this cookbook - for ground beef stuffed peppers. They turned out fine, but I really don't see any reason to do stuffed peppers in the crockpot, as it was more work and not as good as the ones I make by pre-cooking the stuffing and peppers, then finishing them in the oven. And the traditional method takes less time. The cooking time for the peppers in the book offered such a range, several hours actually, that it was impossible to estimate when they would be ready for dinner. I did read many of the other recipes, and since I have quite a bit of experience in using slow cookers, I have a pretty good idea which ones will work. There were too many dishes that really don't do best in a slow cooker, and that require too many steps. It seemed like the authors were assuming that buyers have no other cooking options, and expect to use the slow cooker for everything. The other problem is that too many of the recipes require or recommend oval-shaped cookers. I have two round ones, and only one large oval cooker, so I couldn't use most of the recipes unless I'm making large quantities in the oval cooker. So if you have an oval cooker and few other kitchen appliances, this is the book for you. On the positive side, the book does offer tips for enhancing flavors in slow cooking which are applicable to many dishes. I'll keep trying and hopefully will find several recipes that are unique, fairly easy, and fit in a round cooker.