It's a Crock

What about making red beans in a Crock-Pot, can you throw the rice in there too? Mr. Farty Poo Poo


With that signature, I am surprised you didn't ask about the gas inducing side effect of beans. Truth is, I don’t know all that much about Crock-Pots - Maybe it is because I have never bought into contention slow and steady wins the race – I would give odds to Aesop on that bet. It could be that slow-cookers a.k.a. Crock-Pots entered into an unholy alliance with Canned Cream of Mushroom Soup and now I just avoid them both. Mostly, I have never used a Crock-Pot because I generally don’t think about cooking until I am hungry and slow cooking requires a modicum of planning and foresight.

Still, all the kids are crazy about slowfood and theoretically the crock-pot seems like a perfect vehicle to prepare a leisurely dinner, especially the type of bean-centric one-pot cooking, which comforts as only a meal can. So, we borrowed a crock for Saucyman Labs and went to work.

Slow-cookers, Crock-Pot is the brand name of cookers manufactured and marketed by the Rival Corporation, operate with an electric element heating an insert usually made of stoneware or ceramic to a consistent temperature. There is a warming/holding setting that keeps foods at least 145ºƒ (Food safety range) and depending on the model, feature one or two settings for cooking foods - usually operating between 175ºƒ and 200ºƒ.

200ºƒ isn’t all that hot - Crock-Pots are the opposite of a sautéing or woking, where a thin piece of highly conductive metal sits directly on a heat source - when uncooked food is added to the pan, the pan's temperature recovers rapidly. The low temperature of the crock means if you add anything at room temp or from the fridge, it will literally take hours for the crock to return to its operating temperature.

Rice has rather peculiar needs, the grain contains two starches called amylose and amylopectin. These starches are the reason you can’t prepare rice or beans solely by soaking them in water until they soften, they need to be heated to internal temperatures between 140ºƒ and 160ºƒ before the starch gelatinizes and becomes edible. Amylose, the dominant starch of short grain sushi-style rice requires a done temperature close to 160ºƒ.

It takes time to get room temperature rice and tap water to its happy starch- gelatinizing place in a slow-cooker. How long? All three of my tests took 2 hours to cook rice, one batch was still a bit crunchy. The upside is that because water stays below its evaporation point, the crock uses less liquid about 1 part rice to 1 1/4 parts liquid (1 to 2 is the normal ratio).

Because of the long recovery time of slow cookers, many recipes recommend bringing rice to a boil, microwave or stove, before adding it to the crock. I found it was less frustrating to cook the rice separately than try to time its completion with the beans.

So, short answer yes you can but it is easier to cook them seperately.