I don’t know about the whole Crock Pot thing. I’ve been doing it now and again for years. I’ve had mixed results and I’m getting a little frustrated. Some stuff comes out really well, but other stuff, especially meat dishes come out, somehow, dry. I recently had a hard time with an otherwise tasty beef stew in which the beef itself had the texture of sawdust. I don’t know if the sauce and gravy pulls the liquid out of the machine, or what.

I was wondering if meat cooked on the bone would come out better, so I experimented yesterday with a McCormick mix for Italian Herb Chicken. It called for chicken pieces, so I got a fryer that had been cut up into legs, breasts and thighs.

The meat was a little better. The real problem was the bones and other refuse from the fryer carcass junked up the sauce and you had to be careful what was in the bite you were taking. I’m pretty sure that boneless, skinless chicken breast would be reduced to dust.

I’m going to try using a steak on the bone for the stew again and see if that comes out any better.

The reason I’m so obsessed with the bone is that one of my real successes was a BBQ’d bone-in pork shoulder worked like magic this past summer, and I’m trying to figure out what made the difference.

If you have suggestions for cooking meat in a Crock Pot, I’m all ears.