Hamilton Beach 5-Quart Portable Slow Cooker, Silver

 (3 customer reviews)

I bought one of these a short time back from WalMart for $19.99 on their website on their Pick it up today offer. I chose to get it there instead of Amazon because it is over $20 cheaper there- I could have gotten two of them for the price of one here.

I am a foodie and write about cooking. I am currently doing recipe testing for a friend who is a cookbook author writing a cookbook on slow cooking vegan recipes.. I do a lot of cooking every day and was so pleased that a slow cooker I got for $20 works so well. It is big and looks attractive. The lid seals nicely and it heats up quickly and well. The foods I have made in it- a wide variety of things- have been cooked to perfection.

My First Slow-Cooker.
After using this for the first time, I realized more than half of my work is spent on washing, peeling, and cutting food and not the actual cooking process. So, buying a slow-cooker didn't cut my time spent in the kitchen.

Since I still have to prepare everything, I don't use the slow-cooker very often. Maybe three or four times a month. I have used this for over a year now, and one thing that I would like it to have is a timer to control when to turn off/keep warm. Sometimes, I want to go out the whole day and have some fun, without having to rush back home and turn it off.

The outer metal case is light, and the inner stoneware pot is very heavy. So be careful handling it. This slow-cooker is easy to use since it only has four settings - Off, Warm, Slow, and High.

5-quart holds a good amount of chili & beans to feed 6 hungry adults.

Overall, good value for the money.

I have used this product three times and am happy with its cooking performance and ease of clean-up. It's too early to know how durable it will be, but I have never had a Hamilton Beach product that didn't last, so I'm not worried.