Congratulations your new slow cooker – a marriage made in heaven!

There are so many books on slow cooking – add one or two to your cookery book library and they are not expensive so will not break the bank. You'll have the usual instruction booklet with your cooker and no doubt a recipe book too. 

Carrying on after Falling into Autumn I thought you'd like a few basics on the finer points of Slow Cooking, á la me. 

The settings on your cooker will vary, depending on the model you've bought. The low setting is used for all day or overnight cooking and the high is for 3-6 hours which is the quicker method.

There is no end to what you can do with this magical piece of equipment.

The general rule is seal your meat or poultry before cooking. Some cookers are stainless steel and enable you to use directly on a hob, others are ceramic and not suitable, in which event you'll need to seal your meat and vegetables in a frying pan. Soften vegetables and garlic in a little rapeseed oil before adding flavourings like tomato paste which will enrich a casserole. Tomato paste should be “cooked” i.e. added to the pan after sealing your meat and before adding your stock. If you squirt tomato paste directly into the slow cooker you get a bitter and unpleasant flavour and you'll wreck your casserole. Hot stock should be added to whatever you're cooking and the general rule is that there should be sufficient stock to be half to two thirds deep.

If I slow cook a joint of gammon (smoked or unsmoked) I use vegetable stock. When I've removed the joint from the stock I freeze that stock when it has cooled. What that stock gives you is the base for anything you like, for example, a veloute sauce which, with gammon, chicken and leek makes a scrumptious pie or a base for a soup.

I suppose what I love about the slow cooker is the ability to cook cheaper cuts of meat that take forever but that have the most flavour. For example, buy braising steak or shin beef when it's on offer – add onions and beef stock - leave it to do its magic. That can be a meal in its own right with mashed potato, or you can turn that into a base for a pie. Adding (cheating of course) a puff pastry sheet as a lid.

Herbs and Spices –

Whole spices are best crushed – ground variety are fine but both should be added to the frying pan when you are softening onions, etc., to release their flavour.

Dried mixed herbs should be treated the same way. Soft herbs i.e. parsley should be added at the end of the cooking time.

Hope this has helped. As always there's more …..... and rules are made to be broken.