Rival FD350 Round Fondue Polished

Advantages: Stylish, Reliable, Easy To Clean, Perfect for Chocolate
Disadvantages: Costly, No Lid, A Little Small For Meat Dishes

...with friends, wine on hand, skewered bread at the ready. Whilst living in Switzerland, I secured myself a fondue set of my own, a cheap, utilitarian version, which was perfectly adequate but slightly unexciting. Fondue, in my opinion, is more than just a meal, it is an event, and the right pot (or caquelon) makes all the difference. Finally, I invested in the wonderful Le Creuset Gourmand, and whilst I've tried and tested a number of caquelons over the years, I have yet to find one that comes close to rivalling it. LE CREUSET have been crafting high quality kitchenware from cast iron since 1925. The company is based in Fresnoy-Le-Grand, in a rural area of Northern France in which cookware has been cast in the same way for centuries. During the course of the Twentieth Century, the company became indispensable to culinary fuddy... Read review

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Advantages: little fuss, easy prep, tenderises tough meat, very versatile
Disadvantages: not cool wall, requires a small amount of advance planning

...chocolate cakes and more. The possibilities are surprising for such a small and unassuming gadget! For ideas of what is available, you can visit Amazon’s cookbook section using slow cooker as a search term, my own Budget Meals site, and Justslowcooking.com’s extensive free library of slow cooker recipes in addition to literally hundreds of pages of recipes found by Googling the term CROCK POT RECIPES. ~~~~What makes this one special?~~~~ Morphy Richards is a fairly well known and generally reputable quality brand, and when on the lookout for a large oval replacement for my smaller round slow cooker, I was attracted to this one due to its looks, brand reputation, price, and simplicity of design. The outer case is polished stainless steel with a black dial and handles, one to each end of the oval. The dial has three positions, low, medium... Read review

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Advantages: Perfectly melded flavours
Disadvantages: Remember to plan meals ahead

...This slow cooker is well worth the investment. You can put the ingredients in before going to work in the morning, turn it on, and come home to a freshly cooked dinner. Thus far, I've learned that cooking stewing beef on high for 4 hours gives chewy results, but browning it first and then cooking it on low for 8 hours gives tender resutls with a good texture. The flavours have plenty of time to meld, yeilding a delectable broth. I've never cooked a stew with such well rounded flavours in a pot on the stove. The trick with vegetables is to cut them up into small pieces - I found that cubes of potatoes took 12 hours to cook on low, which was too long for my liking. Just remember not to put the ceramic section under cold water directly after cooking because that would make it crack.... Read review

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