Crock Pot on Trial: Mashed Potatoes

You may recall that my crock pot is on trial; the first witness called are mashed potatoes. I chose these two recipes--

Peeling and cubing 2.5 pounds of potatoes
takes about 12 minutes.

 Crock Pot:  Budget-Savvy Diva vs. Stove-top:  Saveur

Jury: Me, the boyfriend, neighbors A and J

Flavor:  2 and 2

Texture:  3 and 1

Easiness award:  Saveur

Verdict:  Narrow victory STOVE

Now, to be fair, I must say that at a glance I already know which of these two recipes I prefer.  I love cabbage--it's crunchy, sweet, and creamy without being fatty or expensive, and it seems a brilliant way to flavor a dish that otherwise is loaded up with fat, fat, and more fat--true of both recipes in this case, really, since using fat-free or low-fat ingredients is against my religion. Also, for my money (pun!!!!) the Saveur recipe is actually more budget savvy.  Most of these ingredients I always have on hand (milk, butter, garlic), but check out how the prices of the extra ingredients of these two recipes stack up:

When recipes call for garlic, they tend to
specify a number of cloves.
I think this is crazy! Cloves vary so much
in size!

Budget-Savvy
Cream Cheese -- 1.25
Sour Cream -- 1.50
Chicken Broth -- ??
I'll round up .50 cents to 4.25 for the broth.

Saveur
Heavy Cream -- 1.25
cabbage -- .49
green onions -- .50
2.24

I have some chicken stock which I will substitute for the broth, and I don't know exactly how much it would cost to buy.  It's a bit of a wrench to sacrifice some of my home-made chicken stock on something other than soup.  Also, to be fair, I will use ALL of the ingredients from the Saveur recipe and only .15 cents worth of the cream cheese from the Budget-Savvy recipe. I got lucky with the cabbage and found a little bitty cabbage and I'll use all of it.  HOWEVER, I rarely use cream cheese so I'll just have to invent another dish to use it up with before it goes bad (I'm often not successful).  And anyway, it doesn't make a difference at the register.

I should also note that I got some major steals at Martin's today--the cream cheese was 1.44 less than normal and the cream was .74 off. So at normal price it's actually 2.98 vs 5.69. Just sayin'.

Colcannon

Itty Bitty Cabbage

The gentlemen preferred the crock-pot version, "I like my mashed potatoes thick." BF liked the garlic flavor (I could add garlic to the other recipe).  The Colcannon lost out on texture because although it was very creamy, but the cabbage didn't cook entirely through (my fault!?).  The crunch was weird.  Even if I did make the first recipe again, I don't think I would do it in the crock pot.  The stove-top method is really quite quick--done in about 30 or 45 minutes, with 20ish minutes of boil time, which is enough to season and cook your pork chops (I sauteed pork chops for the other part of our meal).  Also, I burned my hand on the crock pot, which is ungainly and unpleasant to clean.  All in all, in my opinion, crock pot FAIL.

My 2007 edition of Joy of Cooking has a Calcannon recipe in it, which directs that one boil the cabbage with the potatoes and the white part of the scallions instead of the green. I'm leery of this method because boiling vegetables tends to rob them of their nutrients. Also, all the pleasant green color would likely be gone from the recipe. Next time I would like to try processing the cabbage more finely and cooking it slightly longer. If that doesn't work, I'll try boiling. 

Next up: Pot roast!

Other Crock Pot on Trial Posts:

1. Mashed Potatoes

2. Pumpkin Spiced Lattes

3. Spiced Balsamic Pot Roast

P.S.
I was spending quality time with my cockatiel while writing this post.  Aussie, as it happens, hates baths and has never had a bath in his life (he's eight).  I've tried coaxing him with various methods, spray bottles, nice warmish running water, even offering to let him join MY shower, which was quite generous, I thought.  But this morning I had him on my shoulder with wet hair and he went berserk, exhibiting behavior very much like a bird taking a bath, except running his face and wings through my wet hair.  I tried to take a picture, and captured this shot of his posterior.  Not exactly what I was after.  What's not to love, right?