8 best slow cookers for effortless comfort food, tried and tested

Crock-Pot is one of the big names in the slow cooker world, and the brand’s CSC112 held up very well during testing. We used this slow cooker to create a chocolate-orange bread-and-butter pudding. It was as delicious as it sounds. You can take the bowl out of this slow cooker and use it on the hob, which cuts down on washing up and faff. The huge oval bowl has a generous capacity and was perfect for feeding a crowd. We loved that there’s a timer and keep-warm options, which meant we could leave it to cook away and get on with other jobs. The high, medium and low settings offered just the right level of versatility for us – the medium setting cooked our recipe perfectly, in line with the method.

If you’re looking for something simple but that gets the job done, this Salter slow cooker is the way to go. Costing less than £30, this is incredible value for some cheap and easy dinners. There is no saute function here but we were able to whip up a delicious roasted tomato soup. We selected the medium settling on the dial, and then let the appliance do its thing. At this price, there are a few sacrifices, and one of them is that there isn’t a timer – so, you’re going to need to rely on your memory or phone timer here. It won’t switch itself on to keep warm, either – you have to do this manually. However, we still think this little slow cooker is a great buy – ideal for students and smaller families.

We set about making a steak-and-ale pie filling with this slow cooker. The recipe called for searing off the beef and the onions before adding everything to the pan. We were able to get the appliance up to searing temperature pretty quickly (it warms faster with the lid on). The design of this slow cooker means the pan has a wide base, which was great for getting a lot of direct heat onto the meat, to sear it quickly. However, once we added the liquid and other ingredients, the pan took a long time to cool down to the right temperature. We also missed a timer function on this slow cooker. However, you can also steam, grill and sear using this multicooker – handy if you’re short on hob space.

To test this slow cooker, we made a smoky chilli con carne. This required us to brown mince and pork medallions first, which we could do in this unit. A wide surface area on the pan meant we could efficiently sear lots in one go, too.  Once we hit the slow cook button, the screen offered us high or low settings, plus reheat, buffet or warm options. Our chilli cooked all day without drying out – we were able to keep an eye on it through the glass lid. We liked that this model has a buffet option, which keeps food slightly warmer – the perfect eating temperature.

Great for smaller families, couples or if you’re cooking for one person this slow cooker is simple to use. You can lift the bowl out and brown off ingredients first – we made a pesto chicken stew this way, browning off the meat first. You can then pop the bowl into the appliance, put on the lid and select from high, medium or low on the dial. This is literally all there is to it. You cannot set a countdown timer, nor does it switch to a keep warm function – you’ll need to remember to switch it off, so your food doesn’t overcook. We found the slow cooker maintained an even temperature, and kept in a lot of moisture, so we had a succulent stew at the end of cooking.

If you’re very short on space but hear the siren’s call of lots of different kitchen appliances (air fryers, steamers, slow cookers, etc), the multicooker actifry can deliver all that in one for you. Along with slow cooking, this multicooker air fries, sautés, steams, bakes bread and even makes yoghurt. There’s a tier system, so you can cook on two levels at once, if you’re air frying or steaming. Plus you can steam rice in it – we were thrilled to dump our rice cooker and convert to this. We focused on cooking a veggie stew with herby dumplings while testing this model. You can use the sauté function first to brown off ingredients, and then switch to the slow cooker function to get stewing. We loved the “later meal” function, which meant we could put the appliance on a delay to come on. Meanwhile, the keep-warm function added yet more convenience. For a busy family, this is hard to beat as a kitchen appliance.

We made an absolutely delicious bolognese sauce with this slow cooker. Thanks to the sear function, we were able to brown off the mince, onions and pancetta before getting on with the main event. The controls make it pretty easy to switch between functions, although, we wish the modes were written on the appliance, as we found it hard to remember what the different symbols meant. When in slow cooker mode, the appliance lets you choose from high or low heat settings. There’s a timer, too, so we could leave our ragu sauce cooking without a care in the world. Once the set time was up, the appliance clicked into keep-warm mode, which operates for four hours and then auto shuts off, got extra peace of mind.

The digital controls on this slow cooker made it really easy to use. We could click through heat settings (low, high or warm) and get things fired up quickly. The Lakeland slow cooker stayed evenly warm throughout cooking, without drying out our pulled pork. One downside we noticed is there’s no keep-warm function once the timer has counted down and cooking has finished. However, there is a delay timer – so, we were able to set the appliance to come on later, so we could return at the end of the day to freshly cooked pulled pork.