Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Do you use your crockpot on the high or low settings for your broths and other recipes? Is there a difference nutritionally whack makes low and slow for longer a better option?

I've been cooking my GF beef bone broth on high for 24 hrs, and while delicious I wonder if it can be even better- my initial search suggests lower temps mean a clearer broth.

Please share your thoughts! Thanks.

flag	asked Mar 20 2012 at 12:58 Jen 3,076●1●5●16

Kamal · Answer 1 · 2012-03-20 16:06:49Z UTC

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When slow-cooking something new, I experiment with the heat settings, ala America's Test Kitchen. I haven't noticed a difference in most things, but when slow cooking tendon for inclusion in pho, the longer the better BY FAR!

For bone broth, nothing has effected the broth for me except for roasting ahead of time. Incidentally, I just wrote a post about slow cooking for chronic pain today.

answered Mar 20 2012 at 16:06

Kamal♦
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Love roasting the bones first- the flavour is so rich – Jen Mar 20 2012 at 17:07

I must say that I also experimented with roasting vs not roasting my bones before making broth and to me it makes no difference in the flavor. I cook my broth on low for 36 hours. – Wcc Kamal Stabby fan Mar 20 2012 at 22:14

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You contrarian! Hold on, maybe you should open paleocontrarian.com... – Kamal♦ Mar 20 2012 at 22:45

I'm not a contrarian, I'm just kind of lazy to be honest. I roasted the bones the first several times I made broth, but one day I just threw the bones into the crock pot without roasting them. That batch tasted the same as my previous batches where I roasted the bones. What really helps the flavor of the broth is buying bones with some meat on them as opposed to using bones with very little to no meat on them. – Wcc Kamal Stabby fan Mar 21 2012 at 2:25

I can dig it. Bone broth is actually kind of a funny concept, as opposed to just stewing meat on the bone. – Kamal♦ Mar 21 2012 at 13:44

Nels · Answer 2 · 2012-03-20 15:57:30Z UTC

It's a common misconception that HIGH and LOW refers to different cooking temperatures. Both HIGH and LOW cook the food at the same temperature but a HIGH setting takes less time to reach that temperature while a LOW setting brings up the temperature of the food slower. On HIGH, the food reaches the simmer point of 209 degrees in 3-4 hours, while on LOW, it takes 7-8 hours to reach 209 degrees. For more info, see here: http://www.crock-pot.com/CustomerService.aspx?id=faq&fgid=44

I usually cook my bone broths on high for 24-hours to leach out the maximum amount of nutrients.

barefeet · Answer 3 · 2012-03-20 13:18:47Z UTC

I use the low setting, mainly because my crockpot offers only four options: 4 or 6 hours at the high setting, or 8 or 10 hours at the low setting. I choose the 10-hour settings every time and usually do a 10-hour one overnight then 10 hours while I'm at work all day.

That works well for me. I haven't made comparisons to a batch cooked on high.

henny · Answer 4 · 2012-03-20 13:44:34Z UTC

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I have high, low, and keep warm settings on my crockpot. I find keep warm is fine for overnight and longer cooking times. It is warm enough to keep the food safe and slow enough to suck all the goodness out of the bones.

answered Mar 20 2012 at 13:44

henny

	I've never considered cooking something on warm- very interesting! Do you just set it on warm and leave it, or begin with boiling water/ high until it gets hot and turn it down? Thanks! – Jen Mar 20 2012 at 14:02
	I just turn it on warm and leave it. I watched to see what happened the first time with a bunch of chicken bones and it was just fine. It will actually get pretty hot as it cooks for awhile. – henny Mar 20 2012 at 19:33
	By the way, the chicken broth I had frozen was a life-saver for recovery from my recent bout of Motezuma's! That and a tiny bit of rice made everything A OK again. – henny Mar 20 2012 at 19:39

Andrea Reina · Answer 5 · 2012-03-20 14:08:13Z UTC

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Some chef recommends using a (specific type of) pressure cooker for making stock, so higher temperatures are not necessarily a bad thing, but aesthetically if the liquid doesn't boil then that results in a clearer stock.

answered Mar 20 2012 at 14:08

Andrea Reina
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Gwong · Answer 6 · 2012-11-26 10:50:06Z UTC

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I've heard that the healthiest broth is fish broth. My question is, doesn't simmering the broth for hours denature the Omega3 in fish?

answered Nov 26 at 10:50

Gwong
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Crock pot cooking: high vs low temp

6 Answers