U.S. consumers steer away from expensive cuts of meat

In another sign of tough economic times, U.S. consumers have given up luxe loins and fancy filets (a beef tenderloin is shown) in favor of budget-friendlier cuts, reports Bloomberg.com. "We're seeing more shifts in the meat category to cheaper meats—ground beef and chicken—than we saw earlier in the year," said Steven Burd, chairman of the Safeway supermarket chain.

No matter the meat you buy, you can keep it fresher by removing the store packaging and rewrapping the food in new plastic wrap. Poultry and ground beef will last one to two days in the refrigerator. Use freezer bags for longer storage, although if you freeze a lot of food you might want to invest in a vacuum sealer, which our testers have found effective at preserving flavor and preventing ice crystals. And as you'll read in this recent post, slow cookers can save you time and money.

Follow this advice to keep all types of food fresh. And when you're in the market for a new refrigerator, check out our refrigerator hub, where you'll find a complete buyer's guide and ratings and recommendations.—Daniel DiClerico

Essential information: How are you saving money in the kitchen? Share your tips by posting a comment below.

Forum Friday: Amish heater, NuWave oven, and slow cookers

We've been following the claims of the heavily advertised Heat Surge Roll-N-Glow Electric Fireplace (commonly called the Amish heater), and tomorrow we'll publish a review on this blog. You can flame or acclaim this "miracle" heater and other models of space heaters in a "fireside chat" discussion on electric fireplaces and space heaters, including the EdenPure space heater.

Owners of the NuWave Infrared Cooking System are posting some positive reviews on this recent blog post. Share your experiences with this appliance and check back for the results of our test of the NuWave in the May 2009 issue of Consumer Reports, online in April.

Slow cookers also have their fans. Read our recent report on slow cookers and join the simmering debate on the best models in our small-appliances forum.

Slow cookers can save you time and money

Slow cookers have emerged as an appliance that can save you time and stretch your food budget in this tough economic climate. That might explain why sales of slow cookers rose to 9.4 million units in 2008 from 8.9 million in 2007. In the video, right, you’ll see how we tested this popular kitchen appliance and learn about electronic controls, oven-safe containers, and locking lids.

Our recent review of electronic and mechanically controlled slow cookers detailed other must-have features, like multiple cooking areas and compartments that can brown meat. But performance did not rise with price, as you’ll find in our ratings (available to subscribers).—Gian Trotta

Essential information: See how the slow-cook function on the GE Profile PB975SM electric smoothtop range worked compared with slow cookers. Use these tips to save money when buying food and visit our appliances forums to get the skinny on slow cookers and other kitchen essentials.

Q&A: Can an oven's slow-cook mode do as good a job as a slow cooker?

A new oven I'm considering has a slow-cook mode. Is this feature better than my trusty Crock-Pot?

To see how well the slow-cook mode on an oven or range compares to slow cookers, as part of our latest report on slow cookers we pitted the GE Profile PB975SM electric smoothtop range with dual ovens (one of which has a slow-cook mode), $1,950, against 15 electronic and mechanically controlled electric slow cookers.

For this test, we slow-cooked chicken wings, pulled pork, spare ribs, orange chicken, and apple brown Betty in the lower oven of the 30-inch PB975SM (shown) and in each slow cooker. Here's what we found:

• Instructions for the oven recommend using the beef setting whenever you don’t know the cooking time for a given dish. But with the beef setting for an apple brown Betty, the dessert was overdone after 2¾ hours, much longer than the 4 hours it needs in a typical countertop slow cooker. So you’d have to adjust cooking times and recipes to prevent overcooking and burning.

• Overall, the oven cooked much more quickly than any slow cooker, though that’s not necessarily an advantage when slowness is the goal. In fact, some chicken wings got burned when we cooked them for the time indicated in the recipe. Still, the pulled pork from the oven was tender and flavorful and the spare ribs were falling-off-the-bone tender.

• Like the slow cookers in our ratings, the GE Profile’s slow-cook feature goes into warm mode automatically once the cooking time has elapsed. The oven has programs for slow-cooking beef, poultry, pork, and stew, settings not found on most of the slow cookers.

Regarding energy usage, the slow cooker comes out ahead. (Energy use was calculated based on running an average slower cooker and the oven for 1 hour.) A typical slow cooker will use less energy than the slow-cook mode on the GE range. Note that for a dish that’s done in less than four hours using the oven’s slow-cook mode, the energy use might be identical to that of a slow cooker.—Ed Perratore

Essential information: See our ratings of slow cookers (available to subscribers) to find the best model for your home.