On Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 10:07:40 PM UTC-8, isw wrote:
> In article >,
> wrote:
>
> > On Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 10:29:01 PM UTC-8, isw wrote:
> > > In article >,
> > > Moe DeLoughan > wrote:
> > >
> > > > On 1/22/2015 11:16 PM, isw wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Cooking is chemistry. Chemical reactions proceed at a speed determined
> > > > > by temperature. The conversion of tough catch-in-your-teeth cartilage
> > > > > and gristle into unctious gelatin doesn't really get started until the
> > > > > temperature reaches about 165-170 F, and the meat needs to spend
> > > > > considerable time above that temperature for the process to do its magic
> > > > > (to a point, higher = faster). Waiting two or three hours for a slow
> > > > > cooker to get to a temperature where things can even get started is just
> > > > > wasteful.
> > > >
> > > > So in other words, you want a low cooker, not a slow cooker.
> > >
> > > What I want is a cooker that can be set to whatever temperature I want,
> > > gets to that temperature fairly quickly, and then maintains that
> > > temperature with half-degree precision.
> > >
> > > And with the controller I added to the broken All Clad unit, I have two
> > > out of three. the slow cooker that I started with just doesn't have a
> > > powerful enough heater to get to a higher temperature very fast. And of
> > > the three "wants", not having that one is at least possible to live with.
> >
> > Get rid of the crock -- the temp controller does everything
> > the crock does, and more. The crock is a thermal mass that
> > stabilizes the temperature. But in your application that
> > means it simply slows down the heating process.
>
> It's almost entirely the mass of water that determines how quickly the
> temperature will rise. If you compare the specific heat of the liquid
> (mostly water) to the specific heat of the crock, and figure how much
> larger the mass of the water is than that of the crock, you'll see why
> your statement is not correct.
>

If the time to heat the contents does not depend on the crock,
then preheating the crock would have no effect, and thus Isaac's
original question was pointless.

QED