VitaClay Smart Organic Clay Pot Multi Cooker - Toxin Free Clay Rice Cooker, Delay Start Slow Cooker, Stew Cooker, Electric Soup Pot, Yogurt Maker, with Natural Earthen Clay Crock, 8 Cup / 4.2-Quart

Don't get me wrong. I am happy with this product in some respects, but unless you use only the recipes in the book that comes along with the Vitaclay, you'll have to make some major adjustment to the slow cooking time you'd use in a traditional crock pot. I thought I could throw out my old bulky crock pot only to find that I needed to pull it out of the yard sale pile to test the temperature difference between it and the Vitaclay preset temperatures. I will not be using it for slow overnight cooking because it overcooks all the regular crock pot recipes I have. My husband recommends (I haven't tried yet) starting the meal in the Vitaclay, then removing the clay pot and placing it in the oven at a low temperature for the true low, slow temperature cooking.

La mejor decisión que pude tomar respecto a la compra de un crockpot. La comida queda deliciosa y tengo la tranquilidad de que la cerámica contribuye a mi salud.

Thus is the healthiest rice cooker I could find anywhere.

I'm really impressed with the function of the VitaClay slow cooker. For instance, I've been trying to make Kuri squash soup for years with the skin on. It has always seemed that no matter how long I cook it for, or at what temperature, the skin always has rough bits that remain through the blending process. With the VitaClay, the squash cooks in less than 1.5 hours and the skin/squash is perfectly creamy. Chicken soup (cooked with the bones) was incredibly flavorful. What an excellent appliance. Would definitely recommend.

I was a little concerned because of some of the reviews on other VitaClay products, but decided to give it a try anyway. I really liked an idea of having a clay pot in the multi-cooker. Well, I have no regrets whatsoever that I gave it a chance. I love the delayed start option, with three toddlers it makes breakfasts much easier with hot cereal being ready by the time everybody gets out of their beds. Yesterday I've cooked enough cereal for two mornings and all I had to do today is to add milk ind put it for 30 sec in the micro, while last night I braised some fresh turkey, added diced veggies and whole grain pasta, and put the pot in the fridge. This afternoon I simply added some water and put it in the cooker for 30 minutes and the lunch was ready. It's great! The taste is great, I don't have to think about it wile it's cooking, I didn't notice any aluminum on the bottom of the pot, as one of the reviewers mentioned, and another one said that she was concerned about the steam condensing on the aluminum cover and then going back to the food through the wholes in the clay lid - I've found an easy solution, I simply put a terry washcloth on top of the clay pot lid and it absorbs all of the moisture from steam. Some mentioned that it cooks too fast for the slow cooker. I think I will agree, but I never liked the food from the slow cooker anyway, so if you're looking for the slow cooker, just go for the traditional crock pot. All in all I really recommend it so far to anybody, who wants to save time in the kitchen. UPDATE 8/8/2009 You've got to be really careful with pouring cool water over the hot pot. Of course it's a common sense, but sometimes things happen. My pot had cracked and I needed to order a replacement pot and it turned out to be a not an easy task. Only 3 places on the internet ship these pots, but one has a 1 star review from a previous buyer for not shipping their orders, another one promises free shipping with no minimum orders and immediately tries to charge you $11 for shipping and the last one is the manufacturer's site [...] which charges you $20 for the shipping (the cost of the pot is around $25). It is also important that you order the right pot, because different models use different pots and the only place to find that out is [...] were you have to download the Excell file in order to find out the model number of the pot you need. I did place an order with the manufacturer after all. UPDATE 5/15/2010 I recently had a wonderful experience with making yogurt and cheese using this multi-cooker. Using the termometer I heated the milk, using the reheat cycle to 180F, turned it off and let the milk cool to 115F (thermometer similar to this one, it will beep once the desired temperature is reached Polder THM-360 Dual Probe Cooking Thermometer, Black ), than just added some plain yogurt as starter, I used greek yogurt, replaced the clay lid, placed a terry cloth on top of it and locked the top cover of the multi-cooker. It was turned off but kept the temperature beautifully for long enough to let the yogurt cultures work the milk into a great, thick yogurt. Last night I used half milk and half yogurt, just used reheat cycle again until the milk curdled (7-10 min), let it cool and strained it overnight in the yogurt strainer Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Cheese Maker . This morning we've had beautiful crepes filled with creamy yogurt cheese, mixed with some vanilla bean paste, rasins and a little sugar. I love this cooker even more now )