Perhaps my favorite excuse for using the slow-cooker is my preference for the taste of long-simmered meats, including the less tender cuts.

Another economical advantage is that relatively inexpensive, tough cuts of meats can be used. With its low wattage, the slow-cooker is an energy-saving appliance. “Another thing that I often hear from Crock-Pot owners is that there’s such a nice feeling about coming home and smelling chili or pot roast cooking when they enter the house,” she added. “The (paid) working woman, like myself, no longer has to feel guilty about not being in the kitchen all day because she can prepare a meal the night before or in the morning and not have to worry about it during the day,” says Roxanne Whittenburg, manager of the Rival Home Economics Department in Kansas City. What made these cooks swear by this long, slow cooking category?

No longer surprising is that the pot has survived, thanks to those who still believe that slow cooking makes sense, particularly when you belong to the paid work force. It wasn’t just for its wild name “crock-pot,” but the idea was associated with going back to cooking in stone vessels in 7000 BC when you’re in an era of fast automation, or instant this and instant that. When first introduced about 15 years ago, this gentle method of cooking “forever” in stoneware was conceived as crazy. “Cooks all day while the cook’s away,” explains it all in the logo of Rival Crock-Pot, the original electric slow cooker appliance. Do you have time to cook? Then take time and do it slowly in a slow cooker.

Old rival crock pot models