Crock Pot vs Slow Cooker
It really depends on the way you ask the question when you’re looking for the difference between a Crock Pot and a slow cooker. Asked in that way, the answer is: There really isn’t a difference. A Crock Pot is a slow cooker of a particular brand. However, if you ask what is the difference between a slow cooker and a Crock Pot, you end up with a slightly different answer.
Slow cookers are designed to cook food over an extended period of time, using the moisture that is sealed in during the warming process. It is made of a heating element, which is generally electrical, a ceramic dish, and some sort of easy sealing lid. The lid is typically made of glass, plexi-glass, or a high class plastic.
When you see recipes in published cook books that refer to the slow cooker as a crock pot, or croc-pot, they are actually in violation of basic trademark laws, since the Crock Pot is a registered trademark of the brand name Rival. The exception to this is if the author of the cook book believes that the final result of the slow cooked meal will be enhanced by using the actual name brand Crock Pot.
The Crock Pot was technically the original slow cooker. The Naxon Utilities Corporation purchased the rudimentary version known as the beanery, as a production model. From there, they continued with refinements that now define the slow cooker. Since 1970, the Crock Pot has been on the market. Other slow cookers were designed from the same basic components once it was understood how the original was made.
The Beanery was designed to cook only beans. The slow process softened the tough beans that were picked in their natural state. It took several attempts to refine the Beanery to allow for the lengthy cooking periods of other types of food.
Summary:
1. A Crock Pot is a slow cooker.
2. A slow cooker is not always a Crock Pot.
3. Crock Pots and slow cookers are made from 3 basic components; the ceramic dish, a method of heating independent from the stove or oven, and an easy seal lid.
4. Recipes written for slow cookers are in violation of trademark laws when referring to the generic slow cooker as the crock pot or croc-pot.
5. The Crock Pot was the first actual slow cooker that we know and use today. Before that, there was a version known as the Beanery.
6. The Beanery was a slow cooker that only cooked and softened beans.