ELITE CUISINE MST-250XW MINI SLOW COOKIER 1.5QT ONE POT MEAL

I was concerned by reviews that complained about the small size of this cooker. After trying it out, however, I think it is just right for two people. I have used it primarily to make beef stew, which we both love. Chuck works well, 8-10 ounces, cut up into chunks, or boneless short ribs. Remove any excess fat. Instead of just throwing everything in the insert you will have best results if you first brown the meat on all sides in a skillet with a little oil, but do not cook through. This is just for color and fond flavor, but it is a significant boost and worth the slight additional trouble. Remove and reserve browned meat. Add to the skillet (with little more oil if necessary) about a cup of coarsely chopped or sliced onions and stir to wilt them and incorporate the fond left from the meat. Put the meat back into the skillet and add 1-2 Tbs flour and seasonings of your choice (e.g., paprika, salt, pepper, thyme, bayleaf (or go wild and try a bit of curry powder) and stir well to lightly toast the seasonings while getting them onto the meat, about 30-60 seconds. Then add about 2/3 cup of liquid (water is fine, or broth, splash of wine) and bring just to a low boil, stirring. Put the contents of the pan into the crockpot. It should be about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Have on hand about 1-1/2 cups of raw veggies, maybe 1 stalk of celery, sliced crosswise, 1 carrot, peeled and sliced, bell peppers (red and yellow, or green). Add a mixture of veggies to contents of crockpot, up to within an inch of the top of the insert. You may have too many veggies. Don't overload. Stir to distribute the veggies into the meat and onions. You will probably need to add additional liquid. It should just cover the contents of the pot. Put the lid on the pot and cook on high for half an hour or so, then reduce to low and let cook 3 hours or so until meat is quite tender. Avoid removing the cover. When meat is tender you can change temperature to warm until suppertime. I like to have this with cornbread. I will be trying out some other flavor combinations, but I expect to use this mainly with muscular cuts of beef and pork.

I bought this to make soups and side dishes for two. It's perfect. Two bowls of soup, two bowls of hot cereal, really nice. And it has drip grooves in the pot so condensation runs back in. My only quibble is the bottom gets really hot! Don't place this on a plastic cutting board (like I did) or even a Formica counter. Otherwise, it's just about perfect.Update 3/8/2015: I've been using this for pasta sauce as I like my sauce to simmer for a while and I can just set this and forget it. It holds a 28 oz. can of tomatoes and a 3 oz. can of paste. Perfect. I'm cooking a 1.5 lb roast now and it fits fine. But on to the downside. HIGH is HOT! It WILL burn things. I set it to HIGH for an hour to get things going, then dial down to LOW. Even then my last batch of sauce had a bit of brown on the bottom. This thing has a WARM setting and that may be the key to it. We'll see. But just be warned it does run hot.

Just got this little guy. We plan to use it for oatmeal for two. We noticed immediately that it could not hold 1.5 quarts. When measured to the lip where the lid sits, it holds 4.75 cups, not the 6 that would make up a 1.5 quart pot. The size will likely be ok, but is not what was advertised!

I bought it to home cook small amount of dry beans.Absolutely satisfied !1 and 1/4 cup of any dried beans. Rinsed.3 3/4 cups of water1 teaspoon of salt1/8 teaspoon of pepper1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepperStir everything together.LOW for 10 hours or HIGH for 5 hours (I prefer high for 5 hours)DO NOT LIFT THE LID UP (it will loose 20 min of cooking)Enjoy your home made clean beans.Bono appetite.

Slow cooker worked very good at what I was trying to do and that was make oatmeal the old way and kept it very warm and was able to use what I wanted and put the insert in to the refrigerator for the next day. Couldn't of worked any better.

My 1.5 qt Proctor was great. But this Elite.... does not get hot enough, to safely cook meat. Had a small chicken breast in their for FOUR hours. Still wasn't cooked enough. Gave it away to someone I know.... which the warning that she should only cook beans, veggies, rice and other grains. NO MEAT.

I love the size of this slow cooker. It is now possible for me to make meals for myself and have them ready when I get home for work. I don't have to use the much larger one that I own. I made chile already in it and it was delicious. Had enough for the two of us. Will use the bigger one now only when cooking for a larger group.

What a great buy! Great product and love that it has a temperature control instead of one setting. Used it to make beer cheese for a cocktail party and It kept the cheese perfect for serving in the attractive bowl. Highly recommend!!