We’ve been recommending the Hamilton Beach Set & Forget 6 Quart Programmable Slow Cooker since we first published this review in 2013. We’ve found that it still offers the best performance and features of any available slow cooker. The Set & Forget consistently cooked foods at a gentle simmer, making the most tender pot roast in our tests.
The capacity is large enough to serve dinner for the whole family. The Set & Forget has a ceramic crock, which we prefer for even heat distribution. That said, you will need to use a separate pan if you want to sear meat or sauté aromatics before placing them in any slow cooker. The Set & Forget also made the most tender roast, heating it slowly over time (the final internal temperature measured at 212 °F after five hours).
The alarm made it easy for us to program the machine and know that the cooking cycle had actually started. With other cookers, we didn’t know whether the machines had begun cooking until the first minute had counted down on the timer, and we also didn’t know when they had switched to the warm setting. A small green light indicates which setting you’re using on the Set & Forget. A slow cooker is a convenient, simple-to-use kitchen hamilton beach toaster appliance—particularly if you’d like to cook food while you’re out of the house. With a slow cooker, you can prep your food before work and head to the office without worrying about your meal overcooking or cooling into the food temperature danger zone. Marianne Gravely, a senior technical information specialist for the USDA, assured us that cookers heat up to above 140 degrees Fahrenheit quickly enough to be food-safe.
These oval, 6 Quart Slow Cookers take up little space, yet have all the room you need to prepare a large chicken, pot roast or ham. Even if you typically use your slow cooker at home, you’ll be impressed by the attractive design, easy-to-use features and simple dishwasher cleanup that a Hamilton Beach® Slow Cooker offers you. The Little Dipper warming pot that accompanies the Crock-Pot 6-Quart Countdown Digital Slow Cooker with Little Dipper Warmer isn’t necessary for most people, and the cooker doesn’t have a locking lid. Stay or Go® Slow Cookers offer you all the advantages of easy, no-watch cooking with the added benefit of worry-free travel.
We think this size is the most versatile, but if you’re most often cooking for one or two, you could consider a smaller machine. But it doesn’t have a locking lid or a probe thermometer, and costs more than our pick. If you want a longer timer or a more precise probe thermometer, we recommend the Hamilton Beach Temp Tracker 6 Quart Slow Cooker. The Temp Tracker is similar to our top pick but has a 24-hour timer (instead of 14 hours), more built-in slots for a probe thermometer, and a medium setting as well as high, low, and warm. Unlike with the Set & Forget, the probe thermometer reads to the degree, and you can set it to a wider range of target cooking temperatures. But this model ran a little hotter in our tests, and we’re not convinced that everyone needs the extras, which go above and beyond the “set it and forget it” slow cooker mantra.
The Temp Tracker also has a ceramic crock, just like our top pick. This model offers a dial to select heat settings, temperatures, and program times, plus buttons to cancel a cycle and to select either the keep-warm or hold-temp option. The backlit digital panel brightens when you’re programming the machine, and it displays remaining cooking times and temperatures throughout the cooking cycle. The keep-warm and hold-temp buttons light up accordingly when the machine kicks over to either setting. Like our pick, the Temp Tracker comes with a one-year warranty. Since owner reviews often claim that slow cookers either cook too hot on low settings or don’t heat up fast enough, we tested how well the cookers could reach and maintain temperatures.
Ideally, the cooking liquid should simmer below the boiling point of 212 °F. This low, moist heat helps dissolve connective tissues in tougher cuts hamilton beach toaster of meat and breaks down fibrous vegetables and beans. Host the best event ever by letting a roaster, slow cooker or crock pot do the heavy lifting.
It combines the functions of a slow cooker, roaster, rice cooker, food steamer and more in one versatile appliance. To test, we filled each cooker with a pound of cannellini beans and aromatics covered in several inches of water, and cooked them for eight hours on a low setting. Using a probe thermometer, we recorded the cooking temperature every hour. If you want a cooker with manual controls, the Hamilton Beach Stay or Go 6-Quart Slow Cooker may be a good option. Like our pick, the Set & Forget, it has a locking lid with a tight-fitting seal and a ceramic crock, and we’ve been consistently happy with Hamilton Beach’s cookers.
One end of the probe plugs into the cooker and the other sticks through a single hole in the lid so that you can insert it into a roast. In our tests, the probe slid easily into our 3-pound chuck roast, but it may be too short to reach smaller pieces of meat. Many have locking lids and built-in handles for easy transport. There are even Hamilton Beach slow cookers that feature car adapters for power for when you’re camping or eating on the go. For help choosing the right Hamilton Beach slow cooker, see our Small Appliance Buying Guide.