Lift the lid only occasionally to stir the food and check for doneness. Fill the crock pot no less than half-full and no more than two-thirds full. Add the meat, then the liquid, such as broth, water or sauce. Because vegetables take longer to cook in the crock pot, place them on the bottom and the sides. If you cut up the meat/poultry and vegetables the night before, make sure you store them in separate containers in the refrigerator to limit bacterial growth and to avoid cross-contamination. If unthawed meat/poultry or large pieces of meat/poultry are placed in the crock pot, they will not reach 140 degrees quickly enough and possibly result in a foodborne illness. These appliances were not made to help thaw or cook large pieces of meat or poultry. When cooking meat or poultry in the crock pot, make sure it is completely defrosted and cut into small pieces. If the temperature does not reach 140 degrees within four hours, there is a problem with the crock pot, and it should be thrown away. Quickly take the temperature, because it will drop rapidly when the lid is opened. It would be better to prepare a thick food, such as chili, gumbo or stew, because this would take longer to reach the temperature as compared to a thin food, such as chicken noodle soup. Prepare a recipe and check to see if the temperature rises above 140 degrees F within four hours on the LOW setting. To determine if your crock pot is reaching this temperature, you will have to experiment on a day when you are home.

Since bacteria grow rapidly between the temperatures of 40 and 140 degrees, it is of great importance that food not to be in that range for more than four hours in order to limit this growth. The food safety concern surrounding any crock pot is its ability to reach a temperature above 140 degrees within four hours.

Crock pot temperature conversion