This Mistake With a Cook-and-Carry Slow Cooker Could Be Costly

Go ahead and quote us: Slow cookers are one of the best inventions ever. These handy little appliances mean you can be cooking up a pork roast supper while working on a plate of waffles at that cute new brunch spot a few miles away.

Slow cookers mean coming home to beef-and-bean chili on a cold night, barbecue chicken when it's raining, or returning from church to a sweet potato breakfast casserole. They can even make the marathon of Thanksgiving cooking just a little bit easier.

A slow cooker makes it easy to bring a meal to a family with a new baby, bring a casserole to a friend in need, or show up with that buffalo chicken dip everyone loves at the neighborhood potluck.

Bringing food to a potluck or tailgate or delivering meals to a friend is even easier when using a cook-and-carry slow cooker. Those useful devices mean you can cook up a stew, snap a lid on it, and carry it out the door, quickly and easily.

However, there is one mistake that some folks make that can not only ruin the meal, but possibly your slow cooker, too.

Should You Lock the Lid on Slow Cookers While Cooking?

Some of Crockpot's Cook & Carry models come with a handy travel-proof locking lid that can snap on to provide a tight seal.

"A common mistake is when people think they should lock the latches on the side for effective cooking," says Imelda from the Crockpot Team, who assured us that this applies only to the Cook & Carry Slow Cooker. "Those latches are only designed to carry-out food somewhere to avoid spillage."

If there is a locking lid feature on your glass lid, that is only to prevent spills when you're toting the Crockpot to your potluck, not for when you're cooking.

"Locking those latches during cooking might build up pressure and might cause the lid to shatter or even cause the Stoneware to break," Imelda explains.

While the latches on the Crockpot look a bit like a pressure cooker, it's not intended for that use at all.

"Slow cooking doesn't require pressure," says Imelda, adding that the new slow cookers "have a quarter of an inch gap from the lid to the stoneware to give enough space for steam to come out."

Now that you know, you'll never make this mistake, and be you'll be ready to whip up food in your cook-and-carry slow cooker and bring it wherever it's needed.