Cuisinart MSC-800 7-Quart 4-in-1 Cook Central Multicooker, Stainless Steel/Black

For the ten years I've been married, I've thought I just didn't have the slow cooker gene. So many people rave about their effortless Crock-Pot dishes, and yet mine always turned out dry, stringy, leathery, and mushy-tasting. I finally accepted it as one of those things I just don't have the talent for, like gift-wrapping and pretty much anything athletic.When I started troubleshooting with friends, I found out a few tips that made me rethink the situation. Our 6-quart (because my then-fiancé insisted it was the necessary size) was actually too big for most of the cooking I did. Then, the slow cookers of today run at much higher temps than the old-school ones we remember our moms using. I finally looked up the Amazon reviews on the specific model we'd received as a wedding gift and discovered that, with several hundred reviews, it had a 2-star rating for the same reasons I'd struggled with. Ah.I finally let go of my loyalty to the wedding gift and decided to try another model. Don't laugh, but this is a GAME-CHANGER. I was concerned that the 3.5 quart slow cooker would be too small, but it's ideal for our family of four. Roasts, whole chickens, soups, all sorts of things are in there, and I find that I have it out on the counter being used more often than I have it in the cabinet! I threw in a whole chicken the first day to make shredded stuff for a soup, and the results were what I always thought it was supposed to be: falling-off-the-bone tender, juicy, perfectly done. I then put the carcass back in with some vegetable scraps I'd been saving, and after setting the slow cooker to 'simmer' for 24 hours, I had a phenomenal organic chicken stock. (If you haven't looked up the health benefits of this stuff, you're in for a pleasant surprise.)There are two features that I won't do without now: the ability to program time in half-hour increments up to 24 hours (yay!) and the four settings: high, low, simmer, and warm. Turns out the 'simmer' setting is almost the same as what 'low' used to be years ago, which is ideal for things like bone broth. Being able to set the temp to 'warm' from the start is also a wonderful feature, and I really enjoy having that flexibility.The insert is remarkably easy to clean, and the exterior just needs a simple wipe-down with a damp cloth. The footprint is reasonably small, so that having it on the counter all day does not eat up the entire space. Much as it pained me to donate a generous wedding gift, I really am wishing I'd bought this particular model years ago!!

I've had the Cuisinart OSC-350 3.5-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker for about 6 months now, and so far love it. It's the perfect size for a single person (like me) to make a meal and have leftovers for one or two more meals later in the week, or for a couple to have a meal. Also, I'm fairly new to slow cooking--this is my first one. That said, I'm an avid cook and baker. I decided to give it a try because I liked the idea of coming home once a week or so and having a meal virtually ready to serve.From an operational perspective, this is the little engine that could. The oval shape (rather than round) is ideal for roasts or or a loin cut. The ideal amount of meat is probably somewhere between 1 and 3 pounds, depending on what else you put in with it. It has four temperature settings: three for cooking (high, low, and simmer), plus a fourth setting (warm) for once the countdown timer on you selected cook setting reaches zero. This is great for anyone who works days that are longer than the recommended cook times. Personally, I've found that the low setting corresponds well with what most cookbooks recommend for the low settings. (That said--it's rare that cookbook authors ever use the same slow cooker as you, so it's always helpful when you get a slow cooker to test the different settings to see how long it takes water to boil or to see the temperature after a certain amount of time; most cookbooks level set in the intro with what the author's expectations are so you can adjust times up or down accordingly.) The ceramic insert is very easy to clean, making the use of those "slow cooker" bags you see at grocery stores unnecessary.From a cooking perspective, the food I've made has turned out wonderfully so far. The user manual includes a few recipes, but I've never tried them. Some reviewers said they've been disappointed in the food they've made; frankly, that's because they're probably using inferior recipes that treat a slow cooker like a magic dumping pot where you just toss a a bunch of ingredients, push on, set the timer, and leave it alone. In fact, a slow cooker is a tool just like any other kitchen aid. Most tasty recipes do require some prep work. For example, when making a beef stew taking 10 or 15 minutes to brown even half of of the beef makes a huge difference in flavor. The same goes for caramelizing onions. And there are some ingredients that are just too delicate to stand up to 5 or 8 or 10 hours or cooking, no matter how low the heat--and therefore are best added between 20 and 60 minutes before you serve the meal. If you're looking to eliminate all prep work, well, I hate to burst your bubble but a slow cooker won't do that. Instead, it front loads the prep work so that any work immediately before your meal time is minimal (from 0 mins to 20 mins or so depending on the recipe).I've found two cookbooks pretty failsafe for even a novice slow cook user like myself. "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker" for small slow cookers has recipes that are already portioned out for slow cookers ranging from 1 qt to 3.5 qts like this one. I've also enjoyed "Slow Cooker Revolution" by America's Test Kitchen--it's by the experts, so you know the recipes are great; however, it's designed for using a larger slow cooker (5 qts to 7 qts), so you generally need to size recipes down to a half or a third (cooking times are generally the same)--if you're not comfortable with downsizing, then it's probably not the cookbook to start with.I hope you enjoy this slow cooker as much as I have. Should anything change in my experience with my slow cooker, I will update this review accordingly. Happy cooking!