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The kitchen gear that's worth your money
We’ve outlined the kitchen gadgets that are worth your cash as well as those you can safely skip.
Crock-Pot's latest slow cooker comes with Alexa voice control
Belkin has quietly unveiled a 6 quart Crock-Pot slow cooker with a new twist: you can control it with Amazon Alexa. Using the voice assistant, you can not only set cooking times and heat settings, but ask it to check the status of your meal, as well. Otherwise, it very much resembles Belkin's WeMo-enabled Crock-Pot cooker with a stainless steel finish and six-quart capacity that can fit a six-pound roast and serve up to seven people.
Belkin Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker review: Can WiFi make cooking easier?
Frying, baking, grilling, searing, boiling, roasting -- whatever the method, I love to cook. It's not always easy, and sometimes it's just plain hard work, but at least it's the kind of work I enjoy. Even so, I've never used a slow cooker, and have always been a little jealous of my friends who have one. Put ingredients in and deliciousness comes out. It seems so easy! Since I hadn't yet run out to my nearest Target to add a slow cooker to my kitchen collection, I jumped at the chance to try the Belkin Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker with WeMo. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but the idea of a slow cooker I could monitor remotely seemed like a definite plus -- using it to check on the things I cook and making adjustments as needed. And in this case, I could do it from my phone, even while riding on the train or walking to my apartment. Convenient!
Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker: iPhone control of a kitchen classic
"Hold on, I'm updating the firmware on my Crock-Pot®" Those were words I never expected to pass my lips, but they did during the setup of the new Belkin WeMo-enabled Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker (US$129.99). This kitchen appliance is one of a duo from Crock-Pot and Mr. Coffee that are hitting the market, providing a way to control your slow cooker or your coffeemaker from your iPhone. The two devices were first teased to the public at CES 2014 in January, and the Crock-Pot is the first to make it to market. As this device doesn't really fit into our regular review categories, I thought I'd test it the best way I know how -- making pulled pork sandwiches. This involves throwing pork loin, sliced onions, and tangy barbecue sauce into a slow cooker to be cooked for hours over low heat, eventually creating succulent and tender pulled pork that's served up on a bun with a side of cole slaw. What makes the Smart Slow Cooker different from your run-of-the-mill "dumb" slow cooker? Belkin WeMo connectivity. I've discussed other WeMo products on TUAW for years, and have a lot of fun automating lights, fans, even an outdoor fountain with switches and motion detectors. While food safety common sense requires you to pretty much start cooking your food in the Crock-Pot as soon as it's put into the big (6 quart) stoneware dish, the idea behind this product is that you can set the temperature and food timer from your iPhone. If you're going to be late getting home to finish cooking, you can easily reduce the temperature remotely or switch the Crock-Pot to its "warm" setting. Belkin has made setting up the Crock-Pot a breeze. Since I already have other WeMo devices, I already had the free app on my iPhone. I plugged in the Crock-Pot, and immediately the Wi-Fi symbol began flashing red to indicate that it was ready to be set up. Opening Settings > Wi-Fi on my iPhone, I connected to the Crock-Pot's Wi-Fi network, and once I found the device in the WeMo app, it was ready to receive my Wi-Fi network information. Once that was complete, the Wi-Fi symbol turned green, and the device was on my home network. Almost immediately I was notified of an update to the Crock-Pot's firmware, which was installed with a tap. Early this morning I loaded up the Crock-Pot with the necessary ingredients to make my juicy and delicious pulled pork sandwiches, then pulled out my iPhone to set the temperature and cooking time. Note that you can manually set the temperature by just tapping a button on the Crock-Pot, but since I wanted to set a timer I used the app instead. As you can see in the slideshow accompanying this post, the controls tell you how long the meal has been cooking, when it's expected to be done, and what temperature the Crock-Pot is currently at. You can change the temperature or even turn the device all the way off if you expect to be home soon. Of course this is a first-generation device, but I would love to see a future version that would include refrigeration to keep ingredients cold until a later starting time, a webcam to view the cooking food, and a way to remotely give the ingredients a stir every once in a while. As it is, I love the fact that if I'm away from my home for a while and can't make it home on time, I can tweak the temperature of the Crock-Pot or even shut it down. Conclusion The world of connected devices keeps growing, now with the addition of a standard kitchen appliance to the long list of devices that can be remotely controlled, monitored or programmed from your iPhone. Crock-Pot and Belkin have teamed up to teach an old classic new tricks with the Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker, and for a first-of-its-kind product, they've done a fantastic job. Rating: 4 stars out of 4 stars possible
A closer look at Belkin's Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker (hands-on)
After light bulbs and smart outlets, Belkin is looking to tackle small appliances with its WeMo home automation line. The company just announced the Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker and we've already stopped by to see what's... cooking. Those familiar with the popular culinary tool can expect a similar form factor to the current non-connected wares. The silver-and-black color scheme does offer a bit of sophistication though, just in case you were worried. Simplified controls are situated on the front with a single button for toggling warm, low and high settings. With the WeMo app, users can adjust temperature and set timers to ensure proper doneness. Around back, there's a slot for clipping on a lid holder to keep the mess to a minimum when that batch of meatballs needs a stirring. Belkin tells us that this is the first of many partner WeMo devices with items like space heaters and more on the way. If the idea of smart slow cooking already has you sold, this Crock-Pot will hit kitchen counters in the spring for $99.
Official Crock-Pot Slow Cooker iOS app is a tasty addition to your device
Just about every couple that gets married in America can expect to get a Crock-Pot slow cooker as a wedding present, which is why I expect that the new Crock-Pot Recipes app (US$3.99, universal) is going to be wildly popular. For me, a Crock-Pot is a relatively new acquisition. My wife and I were vegetarians for many years, so cooking stews, soups and other long and slow-cooking meals with meat was not something we did. When we bought our Crock-Pot, I still didn't use it all that much since none of the included recipes really excited me. Since the Crock-Pot Recipes app has come out, I've pulled the slow cooker out of storage and made two really great meals, filling our house with enticing cooking aromas for hours in the process. Yes, and it's not even Crocktober! The app comes with more than 250 recipes preloaded. Every month, you can download new free recipes as well -- a nice little bonus that ensures you'll never get bored with the same recipes. There are also a number of recipe "packages" that are available as in-app purchased through a built-in store. Those include a $0.99 "Soups and Stews" package, desserts in the $1.99 "Sweet Endings" package and one package that's perfect for the upcoming Super Bowl -- the $2.99 "Game Day Grub." The app does more than just let you look up a bunch of recipes. When you're using it on your iPad or iPhone, the app goes into a "prepare mode" that puts the instructions in an easy-to-read mode. There are many voice commands that can be used to scroll through the steps without putting greasy or messy hands onto your screen. In some cases, some items in a recipe may turn green when using the voice command system, which means that they can be controlled by voice as well. %Gallery-176902% Each recipe includes three primary categories: details, ingredients and preparation. Details shows a picture of the prepared recipe, a rating by other owners of the app, preparation time, a theme (such as "500 calories or less" or "Holiday") and the level of difficulty rated from easiest (one spoon) to hardest (three spoons). Ingredients shows all of the ingredients and quantities you'll need to prepare the recipe, and preparation either shows a detail instruction set or the "prepare mode" bullet list discussed earlier. Crock-Pot Recipes also has a personal recipes box. You can drag recipes into the recipe box for future reference or add your own recipes. That's perfect for those family recipes that have been passed down through the generations on scraps of paper, since you can finally get them in a digital format. One tab I didn't really "get" was the Meal Builder, which allows you to drag multiple recipes into a single area. I can see that this might be useful if you're considering using a fleet of Crock-Pots to create a multi-course meal, but it seems superfluous since you can just call up individual recipes. There's a built-in Crock-Pot Store for buying those recipe packages described earlier and adding the free monthly recipe packages. Finally, an Info button provides a ton of information you may need while cooking. Conversions gives you info on imperial and metric equivalents for baking pan sizes, dimensions, oven temperatures, dry and fluid volume measurements and weights. Have you run out of an ingredient during cooking? A substitutions list shows you what you can use instead (for example, a substitute for 1/4 cup of butter is 3-1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil). There's a shopping list button as well that is quite helpful. In any recipe, there's a "+" button that is used to add the recipe to your personal recipe box, add to the meal builder, share the recipe (on Facebook or by email) and add it to your shopping list. You get a nice list of ingredients, sorted by the area in the store in which you'd most likely find them. Crock-Pot Recipes has multiple timers, all of which can be voice-controlled while cooking, and what looks like the beginning of a series of how-to videos. Unfortunately, there's only one video available right now, although I'd assume that the publishers plan on adding more in the future. There are some much more useful articles that are part of the app. If you're in a quandary about what to make for dinner, you can always use the "Stir" feature. Choose a theme or ingredient ("I feel like Italian tonight"), and then shake your iPhone (or tap Stir on the iPad) to get a list of alternatives. Knowing the popularity of Crock-Pots and slow cooking in general, I think this app is going to be quite popular. There are a few minor quirks I ran into during my review, but for the most part Crock-Pot Recipes is amazingly polished for a new app.
Hello Kitty gets her own crock pot
Unfortunately, the Hello Kitty crock pot arrived a tick too late to be considered for any snazzy kitchenware awards, but we're sure it's a real winner in the hearts of fanboys and girls everywhere. Aiming to take the difficulty out of cooking and give even the culinarily-challenged a surefire way to concoct a solid round of soup, the HK slow cooker should handle your roasts, veggie soups, and chowders with ease, and what better to season such delicacies in than a pot full of cute? Sadly, we've no word on price nor where to purchase this fine piece of countertop cookware, but giving your future meals the ability to simmer in cheerfulness is priceless indeed.[Via CNET]
