A slow cooker is what the majority of people mistakenly call a Crock-Pot™. While a Crock-Pot is a slow cooker, it’s a trademarked named owned by Sunbeam products which may or may not be a part of Newell Brands.

Slow cookers are electrical appliances which are used to prepare a variety of dishes. They are quite useful for unattended cooking over the course of many hours, and are capable of simmering foods at lower temperatures than other methods like boiling, broiling, or baking.

A typical scenario would play out like this: Charles wants hamburgers for dinner. Leslie wants sliders with mustard barbecue pulled pork for dinner. So they compromise and settle on mustard barbecue pulled pork. Leslie then leaves for work and tells Charles to – and I quote, “Make it happen!”

Leslie is mean sometimes. So poor Charles looks up a recipe online and does his best to follow the recipe. Charles is not a good cook, but that’s okay because slow cookers make things super easy. After throwing in the mustard, tomato sauce, apple cider vinegar, pork and various other herbs and spices – he places the lid on the slow cooker and sets it to low before walking out into the cold lonely morning on his way to his meaningless job which he hates, but can’t quit because he has student loans and a huge mortgage.

It’s as simple as that. Now, basic slow cookers are typically round or oval in shape with a groove around the edge where the lid comfortably sits. The lid is usually made of glass, and the slow cooker is usually made of porcelain or glazed ceramic. Vapor from the heating of the food condenses in the groove and creates a seal, albeit a small one.

Slow cookers offer little evaporation, but they excel at breaking down the connective tissues of cheap cuts of meat. The process of cooking at low temperatures like this, allows the slow cooker to create tastier stews and other recipes than if one were to use more expensive cuts of meat.

Using a slow cooker is as simple as placing your desired food (raw) in the slow cooker along with some sort of liquid such as water, broth, stock, wine, more wine, beer, or a mix of many different kinds of liquids. Then the “cook” – I use that term loosely – turns it on and walks away.

While, there is a little more going on behind the scenes, that’s what a slow cooker is all about in a nut shell. Don’t call it a Crock-Pot unless it’s actually a Crock-Pot.