CROCK POT means CONVENIENCE
When it comes to the kitchen, there have been a number of appliances which have been considered unbelievably innovative at least for the short term; often, however, this opinion is abandoned as the appliance itself drops to the wayside and is forgotten almost as quickly as it had come to prominence. It is pretty much a given that today's late night infomercial marvel is tomorrow's forgotten appliance, just taking up space in the home.
One most impressive exception to this rule has been (and continues to be) the Rival Crock Pot brand slow cooker. For decades now this kitchen appliance has truly been helping domestic cooks succeed in the kitchen. So much has been said by so many about this kitchen marvel. Truly, what says the most about the CrockPot is the fact that it is so popular the world over as a kitchen slow-cooking appliance. This well earned popularity has been earned over the decades and has so far appeared to stand the test of time. This popularity and longevity is the result of basic concepts that are behind the success of the Rival Crock Pot: it's ease of use and its time saving nature.
The Crock Pot really is easy to use. I say this as someone who does not have the most experience in the kitchen and who has reached the point of confidence and competence with only a limited number of kitchen appliances - and some of those only because my charitable wife effectively held my hand as I learned my way around them. Saying this however, I have had no real issues or concerns with the Crock Pot. Even the most challenged kitchen cavemen can learn their way around it. If you can clean peel and chop up your vegetables, or unwrap and wash the meats you buy at your local grocery store, then you are halfway there because you have learned how to prepare your ingredients for their time in the crock pot; it isn't really a leap from that to actually cooking them in the slow cooker, because it pretty much involves just throwing your chosen ingredients into the slow cooker and setting and forgetting it for a few hours. That doesn't sound too hard, does it? And if you do end up cooking your meals with a Crock Pot slow cooker, I'm sure that you will find some way to take advantage of all that extra time you will have as a result of using the slow cooking method to practically let your meal cook itself!
Saying what I have about having extra time leads me to my other point that I was making about the Crock Pot and its time saving nature. No matter how much things change, there will always be one constant: people always seem to have too many things to do and not quite enough time to do them all in. This applies to everyone, and not just to those responsible for making sure that dinner is always on the table for their family. Whether you are cooking for a whole family or just cooking for one, we should all appreciate anything that legitimately gives us back some precious time instead of just eating it up. The Rival Crock Pot slow cooker is definitely one such tool.
Think about it: what more than simply prepping the necessary ingredients and then throwing them into the slow cooker do you have to do? Sure you can do more, as much or as little as you like, really, but it is really up to you in the end. In fact, as I came to realize, the more you use it and grow accustomed to its workings, the more you may feel compelled to do with your Crock Pot recipes. Keep in mind that the more you get used to using it, the more you can do with your slow cooker in the same amount of time as when you started out just doing the basics.
I could spend time and words regailing you with the familiar ( and often long-winded ) story of the person who comes home in the late afternoon after working all day and who has to go out again that evening, while in between that they have to also find the time to get the evening supper on the table for the whole family, or how about the story of the person who has to have everything ready for the dinner party that they are hosting?
In both examples, the story is one of pressure, stress and tight schedules all of which we can relate to. In both scenarios the introduction of the Crock Pot into the mix is shown to be a solution that can really make the difference: a few minutes of prep time in the morning followed by slow cooking your recipe during the day, and presto you have the dinner ready for that night! Whether the time saved by doing this means more quality time to spend with your family, more time to socialize with your guests, or simply just more R&R time for you to relax on the sofa with a nice drink - whatever, it means you have more time to do with as you please!
CROCK POT HISTORY
If you want to hear about an interesting history, the Rival Crock Pot definitely has that. In fact the Crock Pot is something of a byproduct of some professional cooks experimenting in the company kitchen. Rival actually has something of a history when it comes to introducing new kitchen appliance concepts into the home as well as experimenting with and introducing a new twist to existing kitchen appliances. As far back as the early nineteen-thirties, the Rival corporation has been introducing innovative products. One of their earliest forays into consumer items was the introduction of the Rival Can-O-Mat in 1932. Like I said, Rival has also added a twist to a number of more traditional items already in the home kitchen: More recently, Rival has released versions of its Fryers, Skillets, and Griddles, all with removable parts.
So what about the Crock Pot?
In late 1970, the Rival corporation acquired the assets of a smaller appliance company called Naxon Utilities Corp. One of theses assets was a device known at the time as the kitchen beanery. This item was a basic bean slow cooker, and was composed of awhite steel shell, a glazed brown crock liner and an aluminum lid. The Rival company had their own in-house development cooks play around with this little appliance and it wasn't long before they realized that the beanery actually cooked meat even more effectively than it cooked beans! The company realized that they had a potential winner on their hands and soon after, the Crock Pot was born. The first Crock Pot was released in 1971, and was a hit with consumers. It featured a round red steel outer shell and glass lid. You have probably seen apicture of one of these somewhere along the line, and of course with the advent and growth of the internet, pictures of this early Crock Pot are easily available.
In 1974, Rival introduced the removable stoneware liner to their Crock Pot appliance. This improvement in the design made a big difference in the ease of clean up of the slow cooker after use. It's a lot easier to have to just remove a stoneware liner and clean it than to have to clean it while still in the actual Crock Pot base unit! As well, the shape had undergone some modification, with a more oval design beginning to emerge.
By 1981, only ten years after its introduction to the consumer market, the Rival Crock Pot had reached $30 million in sales. That's a lot of slow cookers and a lot of people happy to have found an easier way to prepare their family meals.
By 1997, the basic shaping of the Rival Crock Pot had been modified to the more familiar full oval design that we see today.
In 2001, the Rival company advanced slow cooking even further with the development and introduction to market of the Smart Pot, the first ever programmable slow cooker.
Below is a visual that should give you some idea about the progression of the Crock Pot from its inception upto today.
It hasn't stopped there however and it seems like every few years brings us something new in the Crock Pot's design. All of these innovations have played their part in shaping consumers perceptions of the Rival Crock Pot brand of slow cooker; these innovations in its design have all contributed in making a brand name (Crock Pot) synonymous with the category of appliance (slow cookers). To put it another way, when you think of cleaning your ears you probably think of Q-Tips and not cotton tipped swabs; when you think of covering up a cut you probably think of Band Aid brand bandages and not adhesive elastic bandages. When it is time to clean your windows or mirrors, you probably think of Windex instead of spray window cleaner, right? Well I am pretty sure that for most people it is the same way if and when they think about slow cookers: they are thinking about slow cookers but the name that comes into their minds is probably Crock Pot.
That alone really says a lot about the success of the Crock Pot brand.
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