Crock-Pot

A slow cooker or Crock-Pot is a countertop electrical cooking appliance that maintains a relatively low temperature (compared to other cooking methods like baking, boiling, and frying) for many hours, allowing unattended cooking of pot roast, stew, and other suitable dishes.
The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago developed the Naxon Beanery All-PurposeCooker. The Rival Company bought Naxon in 1970, and reintroduced it under the Crock-Pot name in 1971. In 1974, Rival introduced removable stoneware inserts. The brand now belongs to Sunbeam Products, a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation. While Crock-Pot still dominates the market in the USA, Hamilton Beach, West Bend Housewares and other companies have also introduced similar slow cookers.

A slow cooker consists of a lidded round or oval cooking pot made of glazed ceramic or porcelain, surrounded by a housing, usually metal, containing a thermostatically controlled electric heating element. The lid is often transparent glass and is seated in a groove in the pot edge; condensed vapour collects in that groove and provides a low-pressure seal to the atmosphere. Pressure inside a working crock pot is therefore effectively at atmospheric pressure, despite the water vapor generated inside the pot. A crock pot therefore is substantially different from a pressure cooker and presents no danger of an abrupt (perhaps explosive) pressure release.

The ceramic pot, or a 'crock', acts as both a cooking container and a heat reservoir. Many slow cookers have two or more temperature settings (e.g., low, medium, high, and sometimes a "keep warm" setting). A typical slow cooker is designed to heat food to 170°F (77°C) on low, to perhaps 190-200°F (88-93°C) on high.
Click here for some Crock-Pots.