We also rate the porridge setting highly – throw in all the ingredients, put the lid on and it cooks superb porridge without bubbling over and making a mess.

Morphy Richards Slow Cooker Sear and Stew 460013 3.5L Cream Morphy Richards Slow Cooker Sear and Stew 460013 3.5L Cream

Alternatively, a larger cooker is great for those who like to eat what’s leftover for lunch the next day.There are two shapes, the round and tall, which has less of a footprint, and the oval, which takes up more room but can be more versatile. Not only will it look gorgeous out on a worktop, it has plenty of features that could make it your cold weather one-pot go-to. Finally, any good slow cooker should be easy to clean, so we made sure to see which slow cookers could have their removable pots placed through the dishwasher, and where they didn't we tested to see if cleaning by hand was a faff. But for versatility and quality of the results, this Russell Hobbs model is a great option in our eyes.

best slow cookers 2023 | BBC Good Food 12 of the best slow cookers 2023 | BBC Good Food

We enjoyed beautifully tender meat, soft carrots that retained a little bite, as well as a richly flavoured sauce.It’s a modest option owing to the three simple settings: low, high and keep warm, but it gets the basics right. The advantage of this is not leaving all that lovely seared flavour behind in a pan, and it reduces washing-up. We made a beef stew in this cooker for four hours on high, and found the meat was tender with some light chewiness. Armed with a variety of capabilities, you can make sure that your meat is cooked just right before you cut it open, or fill up a water bath for succulent sous vide fish or veggies. The downside is that, unlike a ceramic crock, the thin metal also cools quickly so it’s less good at keeping food hot at the table.