Hi there!
I’m thinking of buying a slow cooker for easier meal preparation and probably freezing them for later - from what I’ve read, it should be quite convenient.
Is anyone using a slow cooker? Do you have recommendations for a specific brand or model here in Switzerland?
Is there a specific recipe book that you can recommend?
Are you looking for something like a Thermomix? In general I try to go for high quality products when it comes to kitchen appliances. E.g Philips or Kenwood products.
I heard about Thermomix but could not make an oppinion about it. I agree, usually I go about high quality items, but I wonder if Thermomix is overhyped. Is it really that much better then the other products? Has anyobdy experience with it?
We have a Thermomix, expensive but it is great. High quality, easy to use, no issues so far. It comes with a function to walk you step-by-step through cooking instructions as well, which is handy. No experience with any other model/brand, so I don’t know if they are much different.
Thanks! It’s good to know at least one person who is happy with the product
Our neighbour also have a Thermomix and they really enjoy it as it is simple to use and don’t take a lot of space in the kitchen. Their step by step recipe on the screen is clearly an advantage and the product had a lot of different recipe. Later in my life I would consider to buy one 
If it is too expensive, you can look at the “Monsieur Cuisine from Lidl”, way cheaper, but maybe lack of quality ?
We have a Thermomix as well. Since having it, we cook a lot more “healthy real food”, as it is so easy and you can not make any mistakes (unless you skip a step or make mistakes in reading …)
Furthermore it is a huge help, if you have to cook and take care of kinds at the same time → The Thermomix stops after each step and keeps the meal “on hold” until you continue
Finally, we got a lot more creative as the browsing for new menus is so simple and a good result is guaranteed. i.e. we started to bake our own bread
I got an instantpot/instapot (whatever it’s called here, can’t ever remember) but I don’t know if that’s what you want. It’s an electronic pressure cooker but it might also have programs that slow cook and stay at ambient pressure.
We have a Crock-pot and I like it so far. It has fairly limited features compared to something like a Thermomix or Kenwood Cooking Chef but it’s also much cheaper.
Basically a pan with a lid, a timer and way to set it to low, medium or high.
bought this one for two family members (1 person and 2 person household). both love it. I have a cheaper one without a timer Russell Hobbs 22740-56 (Slow Cooker) - Galaxus and it works well. Can’t complain. Once it breaks I’ll buy the one on top.
Thank you for all the recommendations! In the meantime, I’ve bought a Thermomix and am quite happy with it.
We’ve stopped (so far) buying convenience food and I made my first “Zopf” this morning …
Creating our own Yoghurt is next on the list
What botheres me about the Thermomix is that after selling you a 2k+ product, they still require a yearly subscription to the recipe page to get the automated step-by-step guides. Seems like a typical recurring cost one would want to avoid?
Google “Silvercrest Monsieur Cuisine”. There are several videos online, like:
This is the Lidl cooker. I think I’ve seen a french video that said that it was an OK tool but maybe noisy. I don’t remember since I decided not to buy anything.
Well to be honest, I am alread kind of amazed to spend so much in a thermomix.
I mean 2k is a f*cking huge sum for such a small device. And it is not like replacing anything because you will still have the normal appliances.
Seriously cooking is not that difficult.
Totally agree, I have also never owned one, but I sort of see the appeal (but not for that price). But there seem to be quite a few people who like it a lot. But the subscription I just find unacceptable and it seems it’s sort of the core functionality it provides…
My wife’s parents just bought her (I should say us) as a present a Kenwood KCook multi, which as far as I understand costs much less than the other suggested options here. I’m sure it’s missing some functionalities as well since it’s nowhere close 2k, but maybe have a look at it, it seems to be doing most of what you want (food processing, cutting, mixing, cooking, etc…) and might be a good compromise.
Ya basically the thermomix without the whole heating, cooling and robot function.
If you have the kitchentop space to permanently put it, looks cool (since in this case it will really replace some appliances). But it takes up a lot of countertop space (and my wife loves to spread out while cooking. So space is always some issue.
But of course it does have heating and “robot” function. No cooling though.
You get a big recipe book with the Thermomix and those are pre-loaded on the data fob. We also got a six month (I think) trial subscription to the online recipe portal where you can download more, but I don’t think that we have used that yet. Betty Bossi does a quarterly magazine that also has lots of recipe instructions, the machine won’t walk you through each step but it’s really no harder to look at a page than the little screen to see what to do next.
When I do something like a Osso-buco or Oxtail I usually do it via sous-vide. But just recently I bought a nice gadget - electric Pressure-Cooker - which has not all the functions as the Termomix. But it made me a Goulash within 30 minutes instead of 3 h cooking, which I was totally impressed.
Here the cook book of this product. Price on Amazon around €85.-
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/03/AmazonBasics/UserManuals/DE_Recipe_book.
Product Link: