What we love: The Cuisinart Cook Central is a simple and well-designed slow cooker that produced batch after batch of succulent chicken and tender stewed vegetables. It excelled in our tests, and at a reasonably affordable cost, we consider it a consistent and dependable choice for both casual and frequent slow cooker cooks.
The Cook Central has a modest, functional suite of settings. The slow cook function has warm, simmer, low, and high settings—warm is for keeping already cooked food at a palatable 165°F for up to 8 hours, while simmer, low, and high cook at preset temperatures of 185°F, 200°F, and 212°F, respectively. The machine also features a brown/sauté function for searing meats prior to slow cooking, a key step if you want appetizing pulled pork and pot roast. That function brings the machine up to 350°F in roughly 6 minutes. If you’re into steaming (like a lot of chefs are lately) the Cook Central has a steam setting and comes with a steamer rack for when a craving for Pork and Shrimp Cabbage Rolls or Smoky Orange Chicken Thighs strikes.
In comparison to older models of slow cookers, the Cook Central gives the user greater control over time and temperature. You can set the cook time for up to 24 hours, and adjust the temperature anywhere between 150–400°F. In general, the more transparency a machine has about temperature, the better.
Build-wise, it has a nice stainless steel exterior that doesn’t get too hot. And it comes in a variety of volumes, including 3.5 quarts and 7 quarts.
What we’d leave: We wish that the Cook Central came with a locking lid, since transporting slow cookers for things like potlucks and sporting events is definitely a thing. We also aren’t in love with the inner cooking pot, which has a PTFE-based nonstick coating. However, these coatings remain common in lower-temperature cooking appliances (including many name-brand rice cookers), and that worries less than high-heat applications.
How we tested slow cookers
To assess how a slow cooker would treat both meats and veggies, our primary food-based test was making Slow Cooker Green Chicken Chili, which includes whole chicken thighs (that ideally shouldn’t hit an internal temp above 195ºF) and large cubes of sweet potato, which can easily end up either intact or mushy. We cooked this recipe at two temperatures—on high for four hours and on low for six hours—and compared the results (and appeal) of each batch
In order to understand the programming and temperature presets more completely, we also did a water test, measuring the changes in temperature throughout the cooking process of each machine after the first 30 minutes, and then each hour thereafter. According to the USDA, slow cookers shouldn’t hold food in the “danger zone” between 40ºF and 140ºF for too long, and, according to the Michigan State University Extension, the ideal peak temperature for a low setting on a slow cooker should be around 185°F. We also paid close attention to which slow cookers brought water up to 212ºF which, if you remember high school science, is the temperature at which water boils. Some cookers’ high settings are preset for this temperature, so if you’re in a “rush” and need food cooked in, say, four hours, you’re essentially boiling the hell out of it. We’re here to slow cook our dinner, not ruin it.
How we judged slow cookers
Not every appliance that can “slow cook” is a “slow cooker.” There are a lot of multi-cookers on the market offering a slow cooker setting, but we’ve found that they often produce different results. We also found that recipes written for slow cookers don’t always translate well to multi-cookers. This was especially true for Instant Pot pressure cookers, which are just too different to compare. They certainly have a purpose, but if you’re wondering why we don’t recommend Instant Pots in this review, that’s why.