On Jan 14, 12:25*pm, George > wrote:
> On 1/14/2010 00:23, phaeton wrote:
>
> > All the crock pot recipes I've seen have been geared towards cooking a
> > single big hunk of meat, or a bunch of goodly-sized hunks of meat.
>
> > If I were to cube the meat (beef or pork) into bite-sized pieces
> > first, and then follow the recipe as usual, will they end up
> > overcooked after the 8 or 10 hours prescribed for a big hunk of meat?
>
> > Thanks.
>
> > -J
>
> Depends on the toughness of the meat. Cubed tough cuts "beef especially"
> do really well because they become tender and have a nice "beefy" taste.
> More tender cuts tend to disintegrate.
>
> One of my favorites in a crockpot is pork, sauerkraut and potatoes using
> "country style ribs" for the pork. It comes out perfect with the meat
> being nice and tender but still very intact.
>
> I also like beef barley soup. I typically use cut up beef shank.

That's actually what I was going to do- pork/sauerkraut/potatoes.
Last time I did that the serving-sized chunks of pork were still pink
in the middle, so this time I was going to cube them or at least cut
them smaller to ensure that they'd be fully cooked and tender.
Besides, I prefer eating things that are bite sized anyways. I guess
one could call it masticulatory laziness.

-J