When To Add Cheese To Your Slow Cooker For The Best Taste And Texture

True to their name, slow cookers are a fantastic option for almost any recipe that is better when cooked on low heat over a long period of time. Slow cookers can cook soups, sides, or entire meals over the course of several hours, sometimes with almost no involvement from you beyond chopping and seasoning.

Slow cookers often only have two heat settings, low and high, but some ingredients require a more delicate touch. For recipes that call for cheese, you should not add it at the start of the cook (this advice also applies to milk and cream). The cheese will overcook before everything else is done, breaking your sauces and ruining your textures. Your unfortunate queso could become a meme. So, although slow cookers can handle cheese well, it requires a more precise, thoughtful touch to keep that velvety smooth consistency and avoid a clumpy, grainy mess — like Chipotle's first attempt at a queso sauce.

A slow cooker can take care of most meat and vegetable combinations with eight hours on low heat, or four hours on high heat. Obviously, that is way too much time to heat cheese if you want the texture to still resemble that of food. Cheese should generally be added to the slow cooker one hour before serving, to get it appropriately melty without overcooking it.

To aid in keeping a good texture, use full-fat cheese and dairy products in your slow cooker recipes. The higher fat content helps your cheese and other dairy ingredients maintain their consistency under heat, whereas low- or no-fat cheeses are more prone to breaking.

When you remove the lid on your slow cooker to add the cheese, act fast. A slow cooker can take 20 minutes to return to the correct heat after the lid is removed, so put it back quickly. Lingering with the lid off will only drop your temperature further and throw off your cook.