The Slow Cooker
The slow cooker was developed to match the American lifestyle when getting home for dinner was still a priority, but there wasn’t enough time to prepare dinner once home. Irving Naxon of Chicago developed a slow cooker which failed to sell, and the Rival Company bought the struggling Naxon Company and after some re-design produced the first successful slow cooker – the Crock Pot – in 1971. How successful? Virtually all slow cookers today are referred to as Crock Pots, in the manner of tissues being called Kleenex.
Timing is everything, and the Crock Pot emerged at the same time as many women started to work outside of the home in the 1970s. The Crock Pot was soon supported with a raft of cookbooks and guides for its use, and recipes for stews, soups, goulashes, and more were everywhere.
The Crock Pot allowed for the use of less expensive cuts of beef and pork since the slow cooking method increases the tenderness of the finished dish. Less expensive cuts of meat moved to the forefront of meat cases, and meatpackers changed the ways that they prepared many cuts for use as pot roasts or stews.
In 1971 the Crock Pot sold $2 million worth of appliances. By 1975 it sold $93 million. That doesn’t take into account the sales of slow cookers by Rival’s – ahem – rivals. The slow cooker craze led to an increase in the sale of fresh vegetables, particularly root vegetables, and regional recipe guides to take advantage of local produce.
By 1976 the sales of slow cookers began to ebb, in part seemingly because everybody had at least one. Slow cookers are enjoying a bit of a renaissance today by being combined with pressure cookers. The slow cooker changed the way many Americans bought and prepared their food in the 1970s.