Retro Crockpot Cooking

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

The crockpot that is available today is usually a sleek, stainless steel, modern looking piece of equipment. But the one I remember from my youth was that pale avocado shade of green and had pastoral scenes stenciled all along the bottom edge. Just thinking about that crockpot brings me back to the days when we had a weekly beef stew made with whatever cut of meat was on sale and a can of mysterious ingredients called Soup Starter. I don’t know if Soup Starter is still available, but it consisted of freeze-dried vegetables, onions, herbs and spices. In the morning, my mother would throw in some fresh carrots and potatoes for good measure, and dinner would be ready at 6:18 PM, which is the exact time my family ate dinner every night.

Although that pale green crockpot has been long sold at a garage sale, my mom decided to keep the recipe booklet that came with it. An avid cookbook collector, she has a little collection of these booklets from various appliances and they are really fun to look at once in a while. When I last saw her, she gave me the recipe booklet, which is titled “The All American Crockery Cook Pot Cook Book” and features some of the all time classics of retro crockpot cooking.

The booklet, circa 1972 and printed in two-color pages (red and blue), is a far cry from the slick marketing materials that now come with appliances. But it’s apparent that whoever wrote it put a lot of time and some fun artwork into it. The inside cover has a few catchy little poems: “Does your cooking while you are away. Morning, afternoon or the whole day.” and “Cook-Pot Time Makes Meals Divine." Perhaps it is called Cook Pot by the manufacturer (Grandinetti) because the use of crockpot was registered for use as a brand name by Rival in the early 1970s. It seems as if the word slow cooker did not come into use until much later, when comfort food cooking became newly trendy.

Over the last few years, there has been a movement back to retro style comfort foods such as meatloaf. As our lives become increasingly busy and complicated, we want to turn to time-tested recipes that work. In this little recipe book, there are crockpot recipes for dishes like Braised Lamb Shanks and Bouillabaisse, menu items you might find at the hottest bistro in town.

In a lot of good old fashioned recipes, adding a can of mushroom soup is a requirement. I made the Turkey Tettrazini recipe found in the booklet a bit more modern by substituting fresh mushrooms for canned, but the mushroom soup adds some creamy goodness as well. Another recipe you don’t hear of too often anymore is Swiss steak. I have a faint memory of getting my haircut as a child and my newly married hairdresser talking about it being one of her husband’s favorite recipes. The name always sounded intriguing to me, although I am not sure what makes it Swiss.

So even if your crockpot is of the shiny new variety, there is no reason not to go retro! With that in mind I share two recipes from the Crockery Cook Pot Cook Book:

Serves/Makes: 4

• 2 1/2 pounds round steak
• 1 package onion soup mix
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 can (10.75 ounce size) cream of mushroom soup

Serves/Makes: 4

• 3 cups cooked, diced turkey
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 can (10.75 ounce size) cream of mushroom soup
• 3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds
• 1/2 pound white mushroom, sliced

***To serve***

• Parmesan cheese
• cooked spaghetti or macaroni pasta