Hacker News Reader

Comment by bowsamic | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a fan of the flavour of food cooked in a slow cooker. I feel like it has a specific quality to it. Like, I can tell it is slow cooked, and everything loses its definition of flavour. If I cook a stew in a dutch oven the carrots still taste like carrots, but in a slow cooker the carrots kind of taste like the rest of the stew in a vague way.

I don't know how to describe it but there is definitely a noticeable "slow cooker flavour"

View on HN

The substantial difference is that slow cookers use a ceramic/porcelain vessel, and dutch ovens are made (usually) out of enameled cast iron. Gives a different kind of fond.

A dutch oven on a standalone induction "burner" is a fine slow cooker.

That is absolutely not the reason. It's because slow cookers generally cook at a high temperature for far longer, resulting in far more muted flavours. People generally don't leave a stew to cook for that many hours when using the stovetop, since they pull it when it's ready. The weird "slow cooker flavour" is simply due to overcooking.

Try cooking with similar temperatures and times with both types of cookware (I have done this) and see if you still feel the same way.

The fond-friendly nature of the enameled-cast-iron dutch unit is one of its best qualities.

I don't have enameled cast iron dutch oven I actually only have an aluminium thick base saucepan and my old slow cooker was some kind of coated metal, like teflon

You probably know this already, but teflon (for the same reason it prevents sticking) essentially prevents good sears and good fond. The price one pays for ease of cleanup.

I wouldn't say it prevents good sears but of course it prevents good fonds. Anyway I don't have it anymore since my wife became a vegetarian and honestly I enjoy cooking directly too much. I don't want to leave it to cook when I can get better results on the stove

This. Teflon temperature limits you away from the crazy hard sears, but that's ok, the Maillard reaction hits its peak around 350F so you still can get plenty of great browning flavors.

I find the biggest difference is in nonstick, the fond sticks to the food instead of the pan. So you can't deglaze and make a sauce. On the other hand, sometimes the nonstick is better, like with seafood imo.

As an ESL speaker I always incorrectly assumed "dutch oven" referred to clay pots:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_pot_cooking#In_European_c...

Thanks for the clarification. It turns out I have a dutch oven, exciting! :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com