When you think about cooking in the kitchen, primarily with the oven, one of the most common supplies that is needed is aluminum foil. This is because aluminum foil is good for lining pans, easy cleaning, and even cooking, as well as, covering up meats in order to retain tenderness.
However, when it comes to the microwave, it is highly advisable that you do not use foil as it can heat up quickly and spark. This disparity of when you can and cannot use aluminum foil has a lot of people wondering;
Can you put aluminum foil in a crockpot or slow cooker?
Aluminum foil is great in the Crockpot for creating dividers, wrapping up individual pieces of a meal, and for preventing burning in slow cookers that have hot spots. The only thing that you must be careful with is storing your food in the fridge with aluminum foil, as acidic foods can cause molecules from the foil to leak into your food.
To find out how you can use aluminum foil in your Crockpot, check out our sections below.
Why Do You Put Foil Balls in a Crockpot?
In lieu of using a more expensive apparatus, foil balls make great risers to keep food off the bottom of the slow cooker.
Why do this?
Because foods like chicken release a lot of water and leaving them in that water causes it to become soggy. This is also applicable to meals where you are using any kind of liquid, such as a soup, stew, or broth.
Using any sort of riser will not only prevent this, but also allows the food to cook more evenly since the heat can work its way through the slow cooker vessel more easily.
Is It Safe To Use Aluminum Foil in a Crock Pot?
It’s considered somewhat safe to cook with aluminum foil by medical researchers who have spoken about the subject. Placing aluminum foil in Crock Pots and slow cookers has been a thing for quite a while and a lot of people seem to do it.
Cooking with aluminum is known to increase the aluminum contents of food by 3-4 times the initial amount. The additional exposure can’t be linked to any health problems, at least not with the evidence we have today.
The popular belief is that digesting excessive amounts of aluminum can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but the publications that are available today can’t seem to pinpoint a strong correlation between the two.
Aluminum foil will, however, leach into the foods you eat, that’s just a fact. The amount will vary depending on the method of cooking, temperature, and ingredients used in combination with the foil.
Things that can increase the rate at which the aluminum leaches are high temperatures, acidic foods, and specific spices. Well, are these factors something to take into the equation when cooking with a slow cooker?
They are, actually. The slow cooker operates at fairly high temperatures. Even though the slow cooker is designed to cook for a long period of time, you still need high heat to make some cuts of meat as tender as they can turn in the slow cooker.
Preparing acidic foods isn’t rare in the slow cooker either, which means we’ve hit two out of two so far. What’s considered acidic foods? Well, tomatoes, chilis, etc. These ingredients are quite common when cooking in the slow cooker.
The last thing to take into consideration is seasoning. Regularly using my slow cooker has taught me that there’s a lot of seasoning involved in slow cooking. Salt and pepper are two spices I frequently use when I slow cook, and in quite large amounts.
What’s the conclusion of all this?
Well, cooking with aluminum foil in a slow cooker doesn’t have to be unsafe but it will certainly cause the aluminum foil to leach into your food. If you, for some reason, have chosen to limit the amount of aluminum you expose yourself to, it might be wiser to skip using the aluminum foil.
Can I Use Foil as a Lid for My Slow Cooker?
One of the major issues that a lot of individuals run into with slow cookers, is their glass lid shattering. This can happen if you place the hot cover onto a cool counter before it has had time to cool down.
The temperature shock between the counter and the hot lid can crack the lid completely or even shatter it in extreme cases. If you want to use your slow cooker again before you can get a replacement lid, you can use aluminum foil instead.
Why?
- An aluminum foil lid can be secured tightly against the sides of the slow cooker, preventing steam and heat from escaping.
- An aluminum foil lid will not slide off easily and can be made to fit the measurements of your slow cooker.
- An aluminum foil lid does an extremely good job of keeping heat inside, allowing you to use your slow cooker like normal without any recipe modifications.
How Do I Make an Aluminum Foil Lid for My Slow Cooker?
You will need to have access to heavy-duty aluminum foil and a pair of kitchen scissors. Simply, cut out two pieces of aluminum foil, both of which are a little wider than the width of your slow cooker.
You can either choose to take measurements of your slow cooker or just place the aluminum foil up against the slow cooker and measure before cutting. Once the two pieces are cut, lay the layers of foil over the top of the slow cooker and crimp them gently down the sides for a tight fit.
Do this before turning the slow cooker on so that you avoid burning yourself. When your food is done cooking, use oven mitts to remove the foil lid.
How to Line a Slow Cooker with an Aluminum Collar?
A very common issue found with using Crockpots or slow cookers, in general, is that they typically have a hotter side to them. This is most often found at the backside of the pot, opposite the side of the controls.
This hot spot can not only cause dense dishes to burn more easily, but it can also cause your meal to unevenly cook in some instances.
To avoid these problems, you can use an aluminum collar, sometimes called a foil collar, to line the backside of your Crockpot insert. Here is how you would do this.
- Grab some heavy-duty aluminum foil and fold out at least six-layered folk rectangles that measure roughly 16 inches long by 4 inches wide.
- This may mean that you will need to use two to three sheets of foil, depending on how thick your folk is and what grade you have available to you.
- Press the collar against the backside of the slow cooker insert right before you are going to place your food into the Crockpot. The food will hold the foil collar in place during the cooking process.
Another issue that comes up a lot is how to pull your food out of your Crockpot insert without causing the meal to break apart?
You would use the same type of method as the aluminum collar, but you would make a foil liner or foil sling instead.
Here is how you would do this.
- Create the foil collar and line the insert with it, using the steps mentioned above.
- Grab some heavy-duty aluminum folk and cut off two large sheets of it.
- Fit these two sheets into the bottom of the Crockpot insert, so that they are perpendicular to one another.
- Make sure that the extra foil is hanging over the edges of the Crockpot insert. You will use this extra foil as handles to pull the meal out from the slow cooker while keeping it fully intact. You can then immediately transfer the meal to a platter or a glass dish for serving purposes.
Using a foil sling is a great way to pull out casseroles like lasagna or macaroni and cheese without having to spoon it out. Just simply lift it out, place it on or in your dish of choice and serve as needed.
Why Use a Foil Liner in a Crockpot?
Beyond being able to pull your meal out of the Crockpot insert, fully intact, you can use the foil liner to help control how evenly your food cooks. With slow cookers, there is no way to get rid of the excess moisture like there is in an oven, as there is little to no air movement in a slow cooker.
So, when you use a lot of vegetables that are not pre-cooked, then add sauces and liquids on top of them, you end up with a meal that is way too mushy because the excess liquid from the vegetables leaks out, increasing the amount of water you have in the dish.
A liner can help you keep control of how thick your sauces and liquids become, by evenly distributing the slow cooker’s heat across the ingredients. Plus, there’s less of a mess to clean up afterward too!
Can You Wrap Meat in Foil in a Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can! Whether you are cooking a beef roast, chicken breasts, or fish in your slow cooker, you can wrap them in aluminum foil.
When you place your meats in a foil wrap and place them on top of other ingredients, you prevent them from drowning in the liquid that you have added to your slow cooker.
Plus, with items like fish, you contain the smell during the cooking process, so your entire home doesn’t end up smelling like dinner.
The only downside to this is that it means that they will cook at a slow rate, but it beats having soggy chicken, beef, or fish as the final product.