In Defence of the Slow Cooker (and Other Unfashionable Joys)

Somewhere along the line, the slow cooker got a reputation problem. It became the culinary equivalent of beige carpets and Facebook minion memes. People started pulling faces when you mentioned it, like you’d just admitted to still using a Hotmail address or enjoying instant coffee.

“Oh… a slow cooker,” they’d say. Pause. “I could never.”

Right. Well. Let me tell you why the slow cooker isn’t that bad, actually, and why people are weirdly rude about it — especially when you’re a working, busy mum just trying to get through the day without losing your absolute mind.First of all, let’s establish something important: we are tired. Not “ooh I stayed up too late watching Netflix” tired. I mean bone-deep, permanent, what-day-is-it, why-is-everyone-talking-to-me tired. The kind of tired where deciding what to cook for dinner feels like a hostile negotiation you never agreed to attend.And yet, every single day, without fail, everyone still expects food. Hot food. Nutritious food. Preferably something that doesn’t look like it came from a packet, or heaven forbid, a freezer.

Enter the slow cooker. The quiet hero. The unsung legend. The plug-in pot that doesn’t judge you for putting four ingredients in and calling it a meal.

But apparently, that’s not “cool”. People will happily spend an hour lovingly sautéing something while drinking wine and listening to a podcast, and then look down their noses at a slow cooker like it’s cheating. As if cooking is some sort of moral test. Like you’ve failed Womanhood Level 3 because you didn’t reduce a sauce properly.

Sorry, Sharon, but I was busy keeping small humans alive and answering emails.

Here’s the thing: slow cookers save sanity. Real, actual, “I might cry if one more person asks me what’s for tea” sanity. Because when you’ve chucked dinner in at 8am, it’s done. It exists. It’s waiting. It doesn’t require you to stand at the hob at 6pm staring into the void while your kids ask for snacks they already had five minutes ago.You don’t have to think. You don’t have to decide. You don’t have to panic-order a takeaway because your brain has left the building. You just lift the lid and there it is. A meal. A victory.And let’s talk about the judgement for a second. Because people are weirdly rude about slow cookers.

“You know it’s better fresh.”

“I don’t like the texture.”

“Everything tastes the same.”

“I prefer proper cooking.”

Alright, Gordon Ramsay, calm down. It’s a chicken casserole, not a Michelin star audition.Also — everything tastes the same? No it doesn’t. It tastes like relief. It tastes like not having to wash six pans. It tastes like sitting down before 8pm.

Because when you’re a working mum, your day is already full of invisible labour. You’re thinking ahead constantly. School stuff. Work deadlines. Appointments. Who needs new shoes. Who hates socks suddenly. Who won’t eat pasta anymore even though they loved it yesterday. The slow cooker removes one decision. Just one. And that matters more than people realise.

It’s also quietly smug in a way I respect. You set it up in the morning, feeling very virtuous, like “yes, I’ve got my life together”. Even if the rest of the day is chaos, dinner is sorted. Past You did that. Well done, Past You.And can we talk about the money saving side without anyone pretending they’re above it? Because slow cookers are brilliant for cheaper cuts of meat, bulk cooking, leftovers that actually get eaten. In this economy, that’s not laziness — that’s strategy. Plus, they’re inclusive. You don’t need fancy skills. You don’t need perfect timing. You don’t need to hover. You can forget about it all day and it won’t burn your house down or ruin dinner because you answered an email too long.

It’s forgiving. Unlike life.

People who are rude about slow cookers often have one thing in common: they’re not the ones responsible for feeding everyone every single day. Or they have the luxury of time, energy, or help. Which is lovely for them. Truly. But it doesn’t make them morally superior.Using a slow cooker doesn’t mean you don’t care. It means you care enough to make life easier for yourself.And honestly? That should be applauded.

Because the goal isn’t to win MasterChef. The goal is to get through the week fed, relatively calm, and without resenting the kitchen. If a slow cooker helps with that, then it’s not embarrassing — it’s genius.

So yes, I use a slow cooker. Proudly. I will chuck things in. I will ignore it for hours. I will serve it with microwave rice and call it a day.And if that makes me unfashionable, so be it. I’ll be over here, eating a hot meal at a reasonable hour, with my sanity mostly intact.

Which, frankly, is more than enough.