Cuisinart Digital Slow Cooker April 2011

When Cuisinart’s new Digital Slow Cooker finishes cooking, it automatically switches to keeping food warm and ready to serve, unlike many other slow cookers. This sounds perfect for people who aren’t sure exactly when they’ll be home for dinner, especially as the Cuisinart can also automatically switch itself off. We tried out the Cuisinart PSC400U Digital Slow Cooker to bring you our first impressions.

Disappointing casserole

First off our tester tried a lamb shank dish from the Cuisinart recipe book. Setting the timer to cook on low for eight hours was straightforward. By the time our tester got home and was ready to eat, the dish had been keeping warm for over four hours, but the tender lamb shanks went down really well, even if they were slightly dry.

As well as high and low, the Cuisinart Digital Slow Cooker has a simmer setting for longer cooking of stocks, soups and stews. Vegetable soup cooked on the simmer setting was great.

However, an evening meal of chicken casserole was disappointingly overcooked after being set in the morning to cook for four hours on low. There were no recipes or suggested cooking times for chicken supplied with the Cuisinart, apart from the recommendation to use only joints or portions. Our tester used a slow cooker recipe from another cookery book.

Keeping watch

Three of the six main meal recipes that Cuisinart supplies need attention during the cooking time, or finishing off in a conventional oven. This didn’t suit our tester, who is out from early morning to late evening. But for someone who’ll be around for part of the day and enjoys cooking, the recipes did show how the slow cooker could be used for wide range of dishes from stocks and ragouts to dips and desserts.

Digital control at your fingertips

The digital timer allows you to program the cooking time to 24 hours, though it’s hard to think of a dish that would need to slow cook for this long. There’s no delayed start, however.

If you’re out when the pre-set cooking time finishes, a blue light on the display panel shows the slow cooker has switched to warm. At the end of the eight-hour keep-warm period it automatically switches off.

The digital timer is easy to set and clear to read. It counts down the time left, which could be handy if someone else has prepared the meal, as you’ll know how long to go before the food is ready to eat. And for more intricate recipes, you can see how long before you have to adjust settings or attend to the food.

The Cuisinart is quite chunky and the lead is set to one side at the back, so overall it isn’t a great choice if worktop space is limited.

It has a dishwasher-proof round black ceramic pot, which is classy enough to use as a serving dish. It also comes with a removable rack for using ramekins or cooking ‘almost baked’ potatoes.

We used the four-litre Cuisinart PSC400U, which will cook enough for a small family. There’s also a larger 6.5-litre version, the Cuisinart PSC650U, which has an oval ceramic pot. Both have an attractive brushed stainless steel finish, like the Cuisinart CSC560C slow cooker. See our review of this, and check out our Best Buy slow cookers.

Guide price: £70 for the four-litre Cuisinart PSC400U, £80 for the larger 6.5-litre PSC650U. It's available at House of Fraser, John Lewis and Habitat, and online from www.amazon.co.uk.

Pros: The digital timer is easy to use, with a clear display, and you can go out and stay out without worrying about your dinner burning.

Cons: It’s pricey, and takes up a lot of worktop space.