How long does it take to cook small amounts of beef?

Question

I have a small crock pot (slow cooker) that I take on the road (trucker). I buy small peices of meat, probably about 12-16 oz. and put it on when I get to the motel. any suggestions you can give me on this subject would be appreciated. [e-mail]

Answer 1

A slow cooker is only appropriate for cuts of beef that are naturally tough and must be braised, (cooked in liquid at a low temperature for an extended amount of time).

The best candidates are chuck, brisket, short-ribs and shank.

That said, 2-3 hours should do although you can go longer.

NEVER slow cook tenderloin, rib steaks or rib-eye, sirloin, or strip cuts.

Answer 2

Get rid of the slow cooker, and get a George Foreman grill. It will last longer, get hot quicker, easy to clean up, and you can cook more than beef with it. Nevertheless,,,depending on the type of crock pot you have, most don't have temperature settings, so you will have to wait for it to heat up. At 350 degrees, 12 -16oz. of beef will start to become medium-rare 2 to 4 minutes, medium 5 to 6 minutes, well done 9 to 12 minutes.

Answer 3

Depending on cut of beef, other ingredients and if you are going to cook it on the low setting anywhere from 5 to 7 hours. Using the high setting will cut down the time.to about half. You can get lots of crock pot recipes on line at http://southernfood.about.com/library/crock/blbeef.htm and also at http://crockpot.cdkitchen.com/recipes/
http://www.justslowcooking.com/ There are many other sites on the net to get crock pot recipes and information on crock pot cooking techniques. Just type "crock pot cooking" into your search engine and explore the literally thousands of possibilities.