Reheating food in a crockpot / slowcooker on Yom Tov

salamanca ↓

Tue, Mar 12 2019, 6:20 am

I have a question about heating up cold foods in a crockpot on Yom Tov. On this site, I have read of mothers who say that a crockpot is not designed to do this and the food would spoil, and mothers who say that they do heat up food in this manner. Excepting the method of placing food in a separate bag inside very hot water that is in the crock and heating up the food in that manner, in your experience, what are dishes that you have successfully and not successfully reheated in a crock. Please respond only if your experience is with large amounts of food, not just enough for one or two people.

Thanks!

miami85

Tue, Mar 12 2019, 7:42 am

I've warmed up cold food on top of my cholent pot lid--not for a "large" crowd, but for a "Table's worth" of people on Shabbos, never had a problem, not sure why "in" the crockpot would be a problem. My food has been quite warm after coming from the fridge in the morning and ready for lunch around noon.

MiracleMama

Tue, Mar 12 2019, 7:52 am

salamanca wrote:

I don't have any advice about which foods work best. I do question the bolded above. How is it that you can put raw food in and let it sit for hours until it's cooked through but putting already cooked food in to warm up is going to cause food poisoning? I'm not understanding this logic. If it's an issue of the "keep warm" setting being to low, so just leave it on "low" instead.

ra_mom ↓

Tue, Mar 12 2019, 9:04 am

I've dropped in twist tied bags of food to rewarm into a crockpot full of hot water one pesach when our plata malfunctioned at candle lighting time. The food was hot within an hour or so after being immersed in the hot water.

↑ salamanca ↓

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 5:59 am

MiracleMama wrote:

I've read online that you shouldn't reheat cooked food in a crockpot because it takes too long to get to the "safe" temperature and bacteria will grow. OTOH, I've read online to throw out everything in your frig if the power has been off for two hours and I know that that is nonsense.

So I wanted to know if anyone reheats large amounts of food directly in the crockpot. For example, a large amount of meatballs in sauce or a sliced roast in gravy, or soup that contains a good amount of vegetable and chicken as opposed to plain broth.

↑ ra_mom ↓

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 6:37 am

salamanca wrote:

Sure. I've reheated meatballs in sauce on high for 2 hours.

↑ salamanca ↓

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 6:45 am

ra_mom wrote:

Sure. I've reheated meatballs in sauce on high for 2 hours.

Thanks ra_mom. I wasn't thinking of having the crockpot set on high b/c I would need it on low when making chulent. I guess low would not heat up food fast enough.

↑ ra_mom

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 7:05 am

salamanca wrote:

Thanks ra_mom. I wasn't thinking of having the crockpot set on high b/c I would need it on low when making chulent. I guess low would not heat up food fast enough.

You can keep the crockpot on low with water in it, then line with a crockpot liner on top of the water, and the food reheats as quickly as if you have it on high since it's sitting right over boiling water.

↑ salamanca

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 7:11 am

ra_mom wrote:

That's interesting. What would you say is the minimum amount of water to put in an 8qt pot to heat up the food enough and not have the water all boil away?

N'sMom

Wed, Mar 13 2019, 7:13 am

I make chili during the year in the crock pot and I always make enough for two nights bc it's better the 2nd night. I fridge the chili in the crock overnight and reheat the next day. I have done this dozens of times and it''s fine . As someone said up thread, we put in raw meat and chicken and that's safe, so cooked should be no problem.