1. You should keep a watchful eye in ensuring that the food is not stirred too much in a crock-pot. Since removing the cover leads to huge amounts of heat escaping, one should take care to stir food only if the recipe calls for such an action.

2. There are a few ingredients, which can be put in only when the cooking is completed. Sour cream and milk should be put in only in the final quarter of the preparation time. Seafood should be added in the final hour of preparation, but for the recipe instructing otherwise.

3. When cooking in a crock-pot, keep in mind that rice and pasta are prepared in a different way. To get the right pasta consistency, it should be cooked in boiling water till it is soft, and then put into the dish in the final half hour of preparation. For an excellent product, people should make use of converted rice that is long grained. In case the rice is not properly done all the way through, you can put in about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of water for each cup of rice. Regarding beans, they should first be boiled prior to being cooked in a crock-pot.

4. Frozen foods can also be used when cooking in a crock-pot. In the case of frozen meats, you should add about 1 cup of tepid liquid together with the meat. In addition, these foods should be cooked for an extra 4-6 hours on low heat or 2 hours on high heat.

5. It is not at all dangerous when raw meat is cooked in a crock-pot. The internal temperature of meat tends to rise to 170 degrees in the case of beef and it touches 190 degrees in the case of poultry. There are two vital issues to commit to memory and those are that meat should be cooked for the prescribed length of time and the cover should not be taken off from the slow cooker. It is not necessary to brown the meat prior to cooking it, except if you like better the appearance and taste of browned meat.

6. When cooking in a crock-pot, the most delicious taste comes from the addition of spices and whole herbs. If the spices and herbs are ground and then added, they tend to lose their taste rapidly in the course of the increased preparation time, whereas whole spices keep their taste throughout the full preparation time since they discharge their flavor very slowly.

7. Crock-pots can also be used for baking purposes and for preparing desserts. You should take care to see that cakes and breads are not beaten excessively, but should stick to the suggested recipe instructions.

Water should not be put into a crock-pot unless expressively stated. Let breads and cakes to cool down for about 5 minutes prior to taking them out from the baking dish.

Religiously following these essential instructions can make crock-pot preparations simply divine!