Cleaning slow cookers can be a painful and awkward process. They are heavy and some do not even disconnect from its power source. This means that you have to be extra, extra careful while cleaning. If you have ever cooked with a slow cooker, you also know that it seems you can never get your slow cooker back to its original sparkle.
Did you know there is an easy cleaning hack to make the slow cooker clean itself?
You will need five materials for this cleaning hack:
- Water
- Baking Soda
- Distilled White Vinegar
- Dish Soap
- Dish Scrubber
Give your slow cooker one good rinse from the sink to rid your slow cooker of the easy food particles before beginning this process.
You will be left with the hard food grime and stains that can feel near impossible to remove without an insane amount of elbow grease, but not anymore. Make sure that your slow cooker is turned off before beginning the self cleaning trick. You will want to fill the slow cooker with water, the heat level does not matter at this point. The slow cooker needs to be filled with water to cover all the food muck. So, the amount of water will change with every use.
The next step is to add distilled white vinegar to the water. How much distilled white vinegar will depend on the size of your slow cooker. Life Should Cost Less advises,
“Add about one cup of distilled white vinegar for a 6 quart cooker, or ½ cup for a 3 quart.”
Now it is time for create a volcano of cleanliness.
If you ever created a volcano as a science project you will know that combining distilled white vinegar and baking soda will create a reaction. You do not want this to happen with you slow cooker so you will have to do the next part slowly. The amount of baking soda needed will be the same measurements as the vinegar was listed above, one cup for a 6 quart cooker or ½ cup for a 3 quart cooker.
You will add a small amount of baking soda at a time. Let the baking soda’s bubbles subside before you add in any more baking soda. You will repeat this process until you have added in all the baking soda.
Sarah had already started to notice some of the gunk starting to fall off by just adding in the baking soda!
Once all the ingredients have been added you will want to cover the slow cooker and turn it on low.
The shortest amount of time to let the slow cooker sit with the cleaning mix is four hours but many, including Sarah, let the slow cooker sit overnight. Plan on waking up to a slow cooker of grossness, it will be one slow cooked concoction that you will not want to eat a bit of! Most of the grime and food particles will have been removed from the sides and be found floating in the water. Yuck!
The last step will be to empty the slow cooker and give it one more quick cleaning. You will find that it will be much easier to wipe your slow cooker clean with only dish soap and a dish scrubber. All that elbow grease will not be needed anymore. You will now have a sparkling clean slow cooker like never before.
“The best bonus of cleaning it this way is that in addition to doing such a great job cleaning it, this method removes any funky smells or tastes as well,” Life Should Cost Less adds.
Watch the easy cleaning hack in full right below.
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