On Sat, 30 Apr 2016 11:06:30 -0400, "Steve Freides" >
wrote:

> We've been using our slow cooker for a few months and are very fond of
> it. A couple of things we don't understand, though.
>
> 1. Our favorite thing to make is a 5 lb. pork butt with some root beer,
> brown sugar, a couple of onions, and a small can of chipotles in adobo
> sauce. (And we salt the meat liberally, too.) We don't understand why
> the meat comes out tasting great, with just a hint of hotness, but the
> sauce in the pan is _much_ hotter, and the onions are positively
> flaming. We throw out the onions, and put just a little of the sauce
> into the pan when we make a bbq sauce to put on some of the pork.

I think all spiciness goes into the sauce. I made Sunday Gravy for
the first time about 10 days ago and used hot Italian sausages as one
of the meats. The gravy itself was spicier than any tomato sauce I've
made that involved hot Italian sausage, but the sausages themselves
weren't spicy at all.
>
> 2. Is there any formula for cooking time? For a 5 lb. pork butt, we do
> overnight, about 9 hours, on high, and that seems to work out well. We
> do notice, however, that not _all_ the fat is rendered, and we're
> wondering if maybe another hour or three would be even better - but 12
> hours on high seems like a lot. What does it look like if you overcook
> something in a slow cooker? So far, we have undercooked but never
> overcooked.
>
For me, I turn it on high for 1 hour just to bring things up to temp
and then turn it to low. If you start off with a grocery store
quality pork butt, it's hard to believe that all the fat is not
rendered after 9 hours on high. Maybe something is wrong with your
slow cooker. Have you checked it with a thermometer?

--

sf