Nevertheless, I continue to encounter similar occurrences despite all that prudence. Something stunned me a few days ago as I was browsing my favorite Facebook group for kitchen-related items. A homeowner shared a photo of their stovetop, which looked like chili. The surface was so coated with chili that it was impossible to see. According to her, the chili was slow-cooked for six hours on high heat in a crockpot. She returned it to the burner for another hour since it was still underdone. As she prepared to transfer the cooled crock to the refrigerator, its base collapsed, causing the chili within to stream out in all directions. Cleaning it up is something I am completely ill-equipped to handle. If that were me, I’d definitely weep for at least a couple of hours before trying to figure out how to clean up the mess.
In this case, where did I go wrong? A large number of commenters agreed with her: putting a crockpot on the burner is the one thing you should absolutely never do. How come, though?
Could I use the cooktop to cook in a crockpot?
No way! Crockpots aren’t meant to be used on stovetops. Soups, stews, and chili all benefit from the low-temperature cooking of crockpots and other slow cookers. The ceramic component of the crockpot is meant to be cooked slowly over low heat, rather than quickly over high heat on the stove. For the following reasons, it is not safe to place a crockpot on top of the stove:
Because of their ceramic construction, crockpots (also known as slow cookers) are vulnerable to cracking or breaking when subjected to sudden fluctuations in temperature or direct heat. You are subjecting a ceramic insert to a kind of heat it was never designed to handle when you place it on a burner. Electric or gas stove burners provide a concentrated beam of heat that may swiftly bake ceramics. As we seen on the notorious crockpot, this may cause fractures or even the base to shatter or break off.
