Swan SF17021RN Retro Slow Cooker with 3 Temperature Settings, Keep Warm Function, 3.5L, 200W, Retro Red

Product Information

Functions: additional functions on the slow cooker including browning, reheating, reducing and whether it is hob or oven-safe An increasingly popular way of cooking, sous-vide is a French term that simply means ‘under vacuum’. You place your food inside a sealed pouch and then pop it into a temperature-controlled water bath to cook. Some things can deter us all from cooking. Having to transfer food from a pan to a pot, cleaning up or that annoying puddle of water you get from putting the lid down on the worktop when it comes to the best slow cookers. If that's you, you need this model, which can act as a cooker and a serving pot that you can plonk down straight on the dining table. Most slow cookers will have similar standard controls – high heat for meals cooked in less than a few hours, low heat for all-day cooking. A 'keep warm' mode should hold food at a serveable temperature without actually cooking it. Some cookers will switch to 'keep warm' automatically after an elapsed cooking time, while more basic models need this altered manually.

If you receive any damaged items on your delivery, please state the full extent of the damage on the driver’s delivery note when signing for the goods. This function can be found on the majority of slow cookers, helping to retain the temperature of your food without cooking it further – handy when you’re struggling to round up the family! The sides of the slow cooker did get quite hot, so you do need to keep it out of reach of little ones, but the cool-touch handles are a nice feature and make it easy to manoeuvre. It's also relatively lightweight for moving about the kitchen.

How easy is the Swan 3.5L Retro Slow Cooker to clean?

Slow cookers with digital controls may also have a delay start, which is ideal if you’re out of the house for more than eight hours. This means you can start cooking at a time to suit you – while it’s hard to overcook recipes with a lot of liquid, this gives more freedom with dishes that could potentially start to dry out. A timer is another handy feature – this will either turn the machine off after cooking or put it into a limited time keep warm mode. An avid foodie, she loves nothing more than trying new culinary creations in the kitchen, which often includes testing out and researching the latest time-saving gadgets for Mumsnet, including slow cookers, air fryers and multi-cookers. When testing these slow cookers we were keen to try out each of their main cooking settings, so while a more simple manual slow cooker was used to make a stew or simple curry, we pressure cooked meat and steamed fish in the more complex slow cookers on the market. When slow cookers came with digital settings we attempted delay-start recipes and tested how easy they were to use. The controls tend to be similar on most slow cookers with a ‘low’ setting for longer, slower cooking throughout the day and a ‘high’ setting for faster cooking with similar slow-cooked results. You can activate a keep warm setting to keep your food ready for as long as six hours after your cooking mode has finished. The sear mode took only a few minutes to pre-heat and we were able to brown our onions before adding curry ingredients, which delivered a lot of extra flavour.The slow cooker's 'reduce' function was useful for bubbling away excess liquid after slow cooking.

The inner pot needs to be at room temperature before you start cooking. If you've kept a slow cooker dish in the fridge, you must wait for it to warm up before turning it on. Removing the need to sauté in a pan before transferring to the pot, the Sage Fast Slow Go is as useful for slow cooking converts as it is to experienced cooks. Functioning as both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, it includes sensors at the top and bottom to monitor temperature. This makes inconsistently cooked stews a thing of the past. This function starts your cooking off on a high setting before automatically reducing the temperature to the low setting for the remainder of the cooking time. Controls are simple. A knob to select from three heat levels: high, low and auto. The latter is the most useful: a high heat until your dish comes up to temperature, then drops to a lower heat to cook slowly and economically. A little red light above the knob indicates whether it’s on or not.Cook delicious meals the convenient way with this easy-to-use and stylishly retro 3.5-litre slow cooker. Once you’ve chosen your ingredients, simply pop them in the cooking pot, adjust the timer and choose from either the high or low heat setting. You can then let the appliance do all the work and safely leave it to cook while you go about your day. If you fail to return the goods, we will collect them, and will charge you the direct cost of collection. If you fail to take reasonable care of the goods before they are returned to us, and this results in damage or deterioration, we will charge you for the reduction in value. Using a mild washing up liquid, warm water and a soft sponge, getting food residue off was easy and didn't require too much elbow grease. I was pleased that the cream pot hadn't stained from my tomato-based sauce, too. This is not intended to be a full statement of your rights under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Full details of your rights are available from your Local Authority’s Trading Standards Office. How To Return A Product By sealing food in pouches, the juices and subtle flavours that could otherwise be lost during conventional cooking are retained.

I was pleased to find it wasn't all substance over style, however. During testing, it was easy to use (it just needs plugging in and the dial adjusting to your chosen setting), and the results were delicious – it produced a tasty, creamy curry without any of the wateriness that can sometimes occur with slow cooker dishes.The first thing you need to consider with any slow cooker is its capacity – each will list its bowl size in litres. Bear in mind that this won’t translate to the same amount of food, as you shouldn’t fill slow cookers to the brim. This gap allows your food to bubble and simmer properly. The usable cooking space will be around three-quarters of its bowl size, for example, a five-litre cooker can accommodate around four litres of food. You really can't beat the Swan Slow Cooker when it comes to design; available in 10 colours and with a covetable retro aesthetic, it was a clear winner for the top stylish buy on our shortlist of the best slow cookers.

A competent and good-looking slow cooker, but shop around and you can either spend less or get more features for your money. If you wish to return your item to Robert Dyas, you can do so by one of the following methods: 1. Request a Collection via Robert Dyas Customer Services Make sure all items returned are complete; any incomplete items will not be credited and will be classed as unauthorised. Please note that during particularly busy periods, it may take a little longer to receive your delivery and our carrier may attempt to deliver to you on a Saturday. They aren’t just for stews and casseroles either. In fact, they're real multi-taskers, even up to the challenge of cooking a whole cut of meat – including sweet and salty coca cola ham or a tender beef joint. Vegetarian family favourites such as macaroni cheese are also a go-to. Take a look at our collection of must-cook slow cooker recipes for more inspiration.Slow cookers are also brilliant for less-than-confident cooks, easily creating all those meals that seem a bit scary on the hob. That’s because slow cooking develops the flavours of food for richer, tastier results. It’s not just dinners that slow cookers excel at making either. They make great porridge, granola, stewed apples, bread and butter pudding, fudge and dips. You can use your slow cooker to melt chocolate, as a Bain-marie. How much should I spend on a slow cooker? Basic slow cookers won’t get hot enough to sauté meat or vegetables, so you’ll need to do this in a pan before transferring the contents to the bowl. However, more expensive models offer a different one-pot solution. This can either be bowls that you use on your hob or in your oven in place of a pan (some will even be induction compatible). They will need to be moved to the slow cooker base. Machines with a sauté function for high-heat browning can simply be switched to slow cooking. Slow cookers range in size from a compact 1.5 litres to a 6.5-litre bowl, so be sure to choose the right size for the way you intend to cook. As a rough guide, 1.5-3 litres will feed one or two people, 3-5 litres, three or four people and anything over five litres should suit a large family, with six litres or more ideal for batch cooks who like to fill the freezer. Alternatively, a larger cooker is great for those who like to eat what’s leftover for lunch the next day.