Description
How many pans does your slow cooked meal currently use?
Most slow cooker recipes that taste of anything start on the stove. Meat gets browned, onions get softened, and then everything is transferred into the cooker. That transfer is the moment when a lot of people decide not to bother, because it means a frying pan to wash on top of the cooker insert. The Cuisinart Cook Central is built to remove that step. Its 6 quart nonstick aluminum pot browns and sautés at temperatures up to 400 degrees, steams, and then slow cooks, all in the same vessel with one touch switching between modes.
That is the whole argument for a multicooker over a plain slow cooker, and it is a good one. Whether it is worth it to you depends on whether you actually brown things. If your slow cooking is dumping raw ingredients in and leaving them, a simple crock does the same job for less money and takes up less counter.
The second question is size and shape. Six quarts is a family capacity, enough for a whole chicken or a large braise. The pot is oval rather than round, which matters more than people expect: an oval pot takes a joint of meat or a whole bird lying down, where a round one of the same volume will not. The footprint is 19 inches wide, 9.5 deep and 12 high, at 16 pounds. Nineteen inches is a long stretch of counter, and 12 inches of height means checking the wall cabinet clearance if it will live under one.
The specifications that decide it: three functions and 1350 watts
The three programmable functions are brown and sauté, steam, and slow cook. Cuisinart states browning goes up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and steaming runs for up to 90 minutes. Four hundred degrees is a genuine searing temperature rather than a warm setting, which is what makes the browning function real rather than nominal. A steaming rack is included, and there is a warming setting as well.
The element is 1350 watts, which is enough to heat a 6 quart aluminum pot to searing temperature in a reasonable time and is comfortably within a standard 15 amp kitchen circuit, unlike several countertop appliances that sit at 1800 watts. The display is a large blue backlit screen showing time and temperature, with touch controls.
The pot itself is the part that decides how long you keep it
The cooking pot is removable, nonstick coated aluminum, and stated as dishwasher safe. Removable is essential, because a fixed pot means carrying the whole 16 pound appliance to the sink. Aluminum conducts heat far better than the ceramic crock in a traditional slow cooker, which is what allows the browning function to work at all.
The tradeoff is the coating. Nonstick on a surface that will be seared at 400 degrees works hard, and metal utensils, abrasive pads and repeated high heat searing all shorten its life. Wooden or silicone tools and letting the pot cool before washing are what keep it intact. When a nonstick multicooker pot fails, the appliance is effectively finished unless a replacement pot is available, so it is worth asking about spare pot availability for a model that has been on sale since 2013.
Living with it: the glass lid, and several fields that do not fit
The glass lid with a cool touch handle is a small thing that matters daily. Slow cooking benefits from not lifting the lid, since each lift costs heat that takes a long time to recover, and a clear lid means you can check without opening. The lid is also the part most likely to break, so handle it as glass rather than as an appliance part.
Several fields in the published data are worth naming rather than passing over. The voltage is listed as 220 volts. This is a North American appliance with a North American plug, and 220 is not the supply it runs on. That error appears on several listings across this fleet and should be treated as a data fault, confirmed against the rating label rather than acted on. The department field reads unisex-adult, which is a clothing category value that has no meaning on a kitchen appliance. The description includes a rice capacity of 24 cups, which is not one of the three stated functions and is not explained anywhere. And one of the feature bullets ends with a stray backtick character, which is a sign the listing text has been pasted rather than checked.
The listing shows 25 ratings at an average of 3.9. That is both a small sample and a modest average, and for an appliance that has been available since October 2013 it suggests low current sales rather than a recent product. It is stated as not discontinued.
When a different cooker is the better answer
If you want pressure cooking as well as slow cooking, a modern multicooker adds that and reduces a long braise to under an hour when you want it to. The Ninja MC1010 Foodi is the current generation of that idea and covers more functions in a similar footprint.
If you want slow cooking without any electricity at all, a vacuum insulated retained heat cooker does the job with no element to fail, which is what the Thermos thermal cooker is, though it needs a stove to start. The rest of the powered options sit under slow cookers.
If the real staple is grains rather than braises, a rice cooker holds and keeps warm on its own schedule, and the Aroma ARC1430E and the Zojirushi NP-HCC10XH approach that from opposite ends of the market, with more in the rice cooker category.
Who should buy it and who should not
Buy it if you brown meat before slow cooking and are tired of washing a separate pan, you cook for a family, and the counter can take a 19 inch wide appliance. Browning to 400 degrees, steaming, slow cooking and warming in one removable dishwasher safe pot, on a 1350 watt element that will not trouble a normal circuit, is a sensible combination.
Skip it if your slow cooking never involves a first step on the stove, in which case a plain crock costs less, or if you want pressure cooking as well. Before ordering, check spare pot availability given the age of the model, and disregard the 220 volt figure, which is wrong for the market this appliance is sold into.
