Tag Archives: experiment

Slow Cooker Ham & Rice – Results

Follow-up to today’s Slow Cooker Ham & Rice Experiment …

OBEY!Wouldn’t it be handy if I could somehow succinctly sum-up my slow cooker ham and rice experiment — perhaps using a 1-10 score card system or a red/yellow/green-light indicator?

Well … I don’t have that … so let’s break it down in short order.  Ready … GO!

The Rice

Rice rice baby!
Pretty idyllic looking rice, huh? Yeah, mine didn’t turn out this nice.

In the previous post I wrote two ways to slow cook rice.  I’m going to have to try this again because my 2 parts water to 1 part rice flopped.  About half of it turned to mush.  I received a text from my mom about 4 hours into cooking saying that she does equal parts water and rice then cooks on high for 1 hour.  OOPS!  When I’ve had her slow cooker rice it’s turned out great.  I’ll have to try this the next time I need rice.

The Ham

Hammy ham ham!
Also NOT my ham …. looks like a good one though!

Cooking the ham for 8 hours was of course easy.  When I pulled the pieces out of my 2 slow cookers the work to clean it out (remove the fat, bone, etc) was straightforward but a bit time consuming … but then at times I can be fastidious.

At the beginning of this work I took a nibble and the ham seemed to be on the bland side*.  I didn’t know if this was because of the way I cooked it or if it was just a lower-salt ham**.  As my ham cooled the flavour seemed to return.  I suspect this happened as a result of the water I cooked it with steaming out.

Johnny's Seasoning Salt
The Johnny’s

Ultimately I opted to give the ham a little boost improvising a simple glaze with what I had on hand.  In a 2 cup  measure I started with a healthy splash of apple cider vinegar.  Then I added a healthy dollop of molasses followed by a hearty sprinkling of Johnny’s Seasoning Salt, then about as much warm water as the molasses.  After mixing I felt that the volume was a bit low, so I doubled everything except the vinegar.  In increments I poured this around on the meat, tossed the meat, and repeated until all of my ‘glaze’ was in.  I then cooked on high for another hour.  It didn’t ‘glaze’ of course, but it made additional elements of flavour.
(Hindsight — I could have used a cap or two of liquid smoke as well.)

In the end, it turned out pretty tasty — not fantastic, but I think this shows promise.  This is definitely worth another attempt along with some further tweaking.

(WARNING – SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION in another 3… 2…)

Well, back to work on completing my ***FIRST RECIPE BOOK***.  It’s pretty close to being done!

* It made me think of the 1979 Coppola film “Apocalypse Now” when the character Jay ‘Chef’ Hicks talked about military cook training when they boiled beautiful cuts of meat — I thought my ham was destroyed.
** If you’re not familiar with how ham is cured there are 3 common ways, 2 of which use a special pink salt which gives ham its color.

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Slow Cooker Ham & Rice EXPERIMENT

Trying something new-to-me today — I’m preparing ham and rice slow cooker style!

Black slow cooker ... it must be EVIL!
Not my actual slow cooker … too bad, then it’d match the rest of my appliances!

While I’ve baked plenty of hams, during the past week I thought about how I wanted to prepare the one in my fridge.  Lately I’ve been busy up-to-my-ears and I wanted something that would be Low Hassle.  Then it occurred to me — I should be able to slow cook a ham (read: DUH!).  I posted the idea on my Facebook profile and of course other folks have done this before.  Doing it, I’m told, is simple — put the ham in the slow cooker, add about a pint of water, and cook it on low for about 8 hours and then it falls off the bone!

(WARNING – SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION in 3… 2… 1…)

WOW — that’s practically identical to my Slow Cooker Pulled Pork featured in my soon-to-be-published ***FIRST RECIPE BOOK***!

I got started about three hours ago.  The ham was big enough I had to cut bits off and fit it between my 2 regular-size cookers.  When it’s done I plan to clean the meat — getting rid of the fat, bone, etc.  The friend who said she prepares ham this way sounded like she shreds it, too.  My original thought was that at this point I would add a glaze for flavour, as I would BBQ sauce to my Pulled Pork, and re-cook it on high for 30-60 minutes — but folks who replied said that wouldn’t be necessary.  So I think I’ll keep it simple for this first time around.

As for the rice, I’m doing my mom’s trick in my small cooker — usual 2-1 ratio of water to rice and let it go all day (note that this cooker only cooks on one temp which I believe is high).  Believe it or not I think this is the first time I’ve all 3 of my slow cookers going at once!

UPDATE – My mom said she does 1-1 water & rice and cooks for 1 hour.  I did 2-1 and cooked for close to 4 hours.  It came out sticky but … well, I got lucky.  Results may vary, experiment, you’ll find out what works for you.

All that and some french-cut green beans … yeah, I think I’m going to have a nice dinner for the next number of nights — not bad for a single guy!  (*Read my follow-up to this experiment here.*)

Lastly, I realized a LOL lately…
Slow Cooker = Easy-Bake Oven for Adults

This is the gender-neutral version of the Easy-Bake Oven that Hasbro designed to satisfy one individual's complaint. Seriously ... we're getting offended about this now?!? How about just learning to cook with a REAL stove and oven....

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