The Crockpot 5.6L Time Select Slow Cooker is a dream for tasty stews every time

For many of us, a slow cooker is an essential kitchen item, especially in winter when casseroles and stews are made in abundance. The 5.6L Time Select slow cooker from Crockpot claims to have a pot big enough to feed seven people and offers two different ways to cook your meals. 

This particular cooker also features a special scheduled meal function that automatically adjusts temperature and timings so that food is ready exactly when you want it - ideal if you’re short on time or have a set meal time. There’s also the option to set the slow cooker up to 12 hours in advance. 

The manual function works the same way as most slow cookers with its programmable countdown controller that can be set for as many hours as you need. There’s the option of a high and low cook setting.  

With an RRP of £75 this slow cooker sits in the mid-range price bracket and has most of the features you would expect. The black pot is detachable from the cooker and impressively can be transferred to the oven and used up to 250 degrees.

I put this sleek grey slow cooker to the test over the festive period and tried out a range of recipes that used all of the various functions to see if it was worthy of earning a place in our guide to the best slow cookers. Keep reading to see how I got on. 

Crockpot 5.6L Time Select Slow Cooker product specs

• Type: Slow cooker
• Dimension: H29.3, W41.2, D25.4 cm
• Cooking area: 5.6-litre pot
• Weight: 3.5kg
• Maximum temperature: 230 degrees
• Cooking modes: two - manual setting and scheduled meal function
• Power: 230 volts
• Colour: Silver
• Material: Brushed stainless steel

Yasmin Rufo

Yasmin is a freelance writer for Ideal Home and has considerable experience in product testing and review writing. Her expertise is in tech and gadget reviews with a focus on household tech, specifically smart technology.

Yasmin has previously worked at the Evening Standard as a Shopping Writer covering roundups of the best tech and household products on the market. She enjoys staying up to date with latest releases and trends.

Unboxing the product 

On the first appearance, the Crockpot is a lot larger and heavier than expected. The cooker was well-wrapped and came wedged between two plastic casings - unfortunately not recyclable. 

Along with the cooker, there’s a separately wrapped lid and an instruction manual that is clear and easy to follow. However, it doesn’t contain any information on recipes, so you will have to find them on your own online. Luckily, the Crockpot website has an endless stream of recipes from appetizers to desserts to warming drinks. 

The plug is relatively short so the cooker needs to be placed very close to a socket. The simple interface is very self-explanatory and I was able to get started with a casserole within minutes of unboxing it. 

Making minestrone  

One of the first things I wanted to try in the Crockpot was a warming and hearty soup, so what better to make than a minestrone? 

I chopped up heaps of vegetables such as tomatoes, courgettes and celery. I added in a can of black beans and 1L of stock. 

Thanks to Crockpot’s clever settings, you don’t need to worry about over or under-cooking your food. I simply selected the type of food I was cooking (vegetables) and how full the pot was (half full), and then the machine calculates the cooking time - in this instance, 3 hours. 

After three hours, my soup was ready: the vegetables were soft but not mushy, and the stock tasted delicious. 

Making brownies 

Although the cooker doesn’t come with recipes, the Crockpot website has plenty of meal ideas, from quick snacks to family dinners to sweet treats. 

I was intrigued by the brownie recipe, so I gave it a go. The ingredients were all similar to usual, and the method was quick and easy to follow: combine all the ingredients in a bowl and then pour it into the cooker on a piece of baking paper.

The recipe online doesn’t give details on using any particular functions as it just says the cooking time is two hours, so I manually set the timer.

After the cooking time, I took the brownies out of the pot and was surprised to see them well-cooked. Whilst the brownies tasted fine, I wouldn’t use the slow cooker again for puddings because of the length of time it takes to cook the food. Not only am I too impatient to wait that long, but the amount of energy the cooker used was more than the oven would have used for 20 minutes to bake brownies. 

Making Christmas casserole 

With plenty of time on my hands during the Christmas holidays, I was keen to put the Crockpot through its paces. 

Despite my best efforts to eat an extraordinary amount of festive food, I had a lot of leftover turkey to get through. Many turkey sandwiches later, I thought I’d try making a Christmas casserole by adding the remaining meat to the slow cooker alongside vegetables and a tin of tomato. 

As I had already cooked the vegetables for another meal previously, it took far less time to cook than the Minestrone. I selected the meat option on the Crockpot and manually reduced the time as I didn’t want my vegetables to go soggy. Within an hour my casserole was ready, and serving it with rice made it a delicious and hearty meal. 

The great thing I found with the slow cooker is that you don’t necessarily need a recipe to follow - you can add any meat, vegetables and liquid to the bowl, and it will cook perfectly every time. 

Making roast chicken 

One of the biggest draws of the Crockpot is the 'schedule meal' function that allows you to set the time you want the food to be ready, and then the pot will automatically calculate when it should start cooking. 

To try this feature, I used the Crockpot recipe for roast chicken. 

The first thing I noticed was that the recipe calls for a wire rack. Unfortunately, although some slow cooker models come with accessories such as a wire rack, Crockpot doesn't. Luckily I had a wire rack that would fit inside the cooker. 

I placed the chicken in the cooker and followed the instructions of adding mustard, seasoning and 200ml of beer. I set the scheduled meal time to 7 pm and selected the 1kg Chicken option. The cooker calculated it would take four hours to cook. 

After that time passed, I checked on the chicken and was disappointed to find that it still needed more time to cook. After 45 minutes, the chicken was cooked inside, but the skin wasn't crispy. I, therefore, had to grill it for 30 minutes until it was ready to eat. 

I had high hopes for the roast chicken, but given it needed another hour to cook, I think it would be easier and quicker to cook it in the oven. The scheduled meal function is certainly handy, however I was disappointed it didn't work. 

How does it compare to similar models and its predecessors? 

The 5.6L slow cooker is one of the largest models Crockpot sells and has more features than others, noticeably the keep warm and scheduled meal function. The interface is more modern and user-friendly, and it’s handy that the cooker automatically updates cooking time based on the weight and type of food.

However, in comparison to other slow cookers such as the Russell Hobbs Good To Go 6 which is similarly priced, the Crockpot has far fewer precise food settings. For example, the Russell Hobbs pot has specific rice and sous vide functions that make it more versatile than the Crockpot. 

The Crockpot is one of the sturdiest and most well-built cookers that I’ve tried. The stainless steel is durable, sleek and sits well in almost all types of kitchens. 

Should you buy Crockpot’s 5.6L Time Select Slow Cooker? 

There’s no doubt that a slow cooker is a useful kitchen appliance that makes cooking simpler than ever before. Crockpot’s Time Select slow cooker has some great features such as the ‘schedule meal’ function, and the sleek interface is clear to use. 

The pot looks great, and its smaller 5.6L size makes it easy to carry around and place on kitchen surfaces even if you don’t have much space. However, if you’re looking for a slow cooker to make large meals in, you may be better off purchasing other larger models for the same price. 

At £75, the Crockpot does a good job of creating soups and casseroles, but I would expect it to have a larger cooking pot, a range of accessories such as a wire rack and more functions such as a rice setting. 

About this review, and this reviewer 

Yasmin tested this slow cooker at home for several weeks in accordance with Ideal Home's testing protocol. She tried out a variety of recipes, including desserts, to establish if this slow cooker is worth your investment. 

Given the cold weather, Yasmin has become obsessed with making warming soups, stews and casseroles that are packed full of flavour and goodness. Therefore, there’s no better product to put through its paces than Crockpot’s Time Select Slow Cooker. Over the past few weeks, she's tried out a range of recipes from the usual meaty casseroles to delicious and simple desserts.