An Old-Fashioned Slow Cooker Is the Perfect Kitchen Appliance

You don’t need a fancy display or Wi-Fi capability to cook the most delicious beans without much effort

Photo: Gloria Cabada-Leman via Flickr/CC BY 2.0

LED display. Wi-Fi connection. Alexa-enabled. Are we really talking about slow cookers? In a techno-appliance world gone mad, I am clinging tightly to my circa 1970s, no-fi appliance. It offers one knob, three options:

• Off
• Low
• High

I spend my work days staring at a large screen, and much of my free time consulting a tiny, glowing display. For the same reason I like to read books printed on paper rather than via an e-reader, there’s something comforting about an appliance that doesn’t have a keyboard’s worth of buttons. And it absolutely cannot and will not connect to the internet.

My slow cooker doesn’t need to be “smart” to work well.

Yes, it does have some eccentric/cautionary details. The outside gets extremely hot. The first time I used it in my apartment I was compelled to put a nearby note of warning for my roommate. Like most New York City kitchens, it’s spatially challenged. You quickly learn a certain tight-quarters dance to avoid bumping into things either sharp or hot.