SLOW COOKER RECIPES?

The venerable crock—of Crock-Pot fame—can cook most anything, can’t it?

Q: “My mom-in-law gave me her Crock-Pot a month ago so I’ve done my first dishes in it. Pretty cool! If you have slow cooker tips, I’m all ears.” MJ, Denver

A: Hey there and thanks for the question. If, along with the Crock-Pot, which is a bona fide “slow cooker,” you’d also consider an Instant Pot, despite its name, in that category, here are several ideas for you, MJ.

For example, I routinely make delicious homemade, whole-milk—OK, with a nice splash of cream—yogurt in my Instant Pot. Unlike a Crock-Pot, it can maintain a pitch-perfect temperature of 110F for as long as you like—and that, yogurt-making must have. My Instant Pot and I make mine for 12 hours; we just pull an all-nighter: I sleep; it makes the yogurt.

Here's one terrific soup that I made in my own Crock-Pot, though, François Massialot’s “Potage Sans L’Eau,” from his cookbook published in 1691. He didn’t have a Crock-Pot; you now do, MJ.

Because of prohibitions on working on the Sabbath, Jews have developed several hearty recipes that for decades they cooked, beginning Friday night, in the dying embers of that week’s fire. Now they use Crock-Pots set to “Low” to do the same.

And for the Instant Pot: Above all, I use it as a rice cooker (and, there, it truly is “instant” . . .). It is flawless.

Our son, Colin, makes a mean chile verde in his own Instant Pot. I have also cooked the same recipe in a Crock-Pot. The recipe derives from a long-time colleague at The Denver Post.