What Are Slow Cooker Temperature Settings?

Slow cookers are handy when you want to prepare one dish meals, especially when you don't want to heat up the oven. However, they're called slow cookers for a reason -- it typically takes four times as long to cook a dish as it would in a conventional oven.

Slow Cooker Temperatures

Slow cookers have High to Low settings, but the difference is not really in the temperature -- it's in the speed that the cooker comes up to its "simmering" temperature. In the case of the Crock-Pot brand, the temperature is 100 degrees Celsius or about 212 degrees Fahrenheit. A low setting may take 7 to 8 hours to reach simmer, and a high setting will take half that time. Some brands only reach a maximum temperature of 212 F.

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Converting Cooking Times

Roasting or braising the food in a preheated oven gives you a faster ramp-up time to the desired cooking temperature than cooking in a Crock-Pot. If you've decided to roast or braise at 325 F, you can get there in 10 to 15 minutes instead of 4 hours. And if you've been browning and sauteeing on the stove top first, your pan will already be heated through.

Because a conventional or convection oven heats to the cooking temperature much faster, a dish that may take 2 to 3 hours in the oven will take 8 hours on a low setting in a Crock-Pot or other slow cooker.

A general rule of thumb is that a dish that takes 1 to 2 hours at 325 F in the oven requires 4 hours in a slow cooker.

Whole and quartered chicken times will be similar -- 1 to 1 ½ hours in a Dutch oven equals 2 hours on high in a slow cooker.
Whole shanks or large cuts of meat will be approximately the same as well, 2 to 3 hours in either.
Beans may only take 1 to 2 hours in a cast iron Dutch oven, but will require 2 to 3 hours in a slow cooker.

However, in some cases you want to cook food slower -- as in the case of coarse cuts of beef that require long, slow cooking to tenderize. To cook a dish on medium in a slow cooker, triple the time required for oven roasting. When cooking on a low setting, figure that the dish will take four times as long.