A review of the new Rival Crock Pot Trio Cook & Serve

My friend Phillip has a job in a department store that sees him trying out a variety of kitchen appliances on a regular basis; slow cookers are definitely included on that list.

Recently Phillip had a chance to play around with the new Crock Pot from the Rival company, the Rival Crock Pot Trio Cook & Serve. If you are like me you might not have heard much about this one yet - in fact I am not yet convinced that it will catch on in the average family home setting, more likely it will be popular with those planning to prepare meals for a larger group of guests. I am told that the crock pot trio is an impressive appliance and can make cooking for a group a more pleasant experience. It would not be overkill to use it to prepare a complete meal for just a few people as well.

The Crock Pot Trio really looks quite impressive with its three black 2.5 qt stoneware pots, with each one having its own individual controls all on the same base. You can choose to cook in either one, two or all three crock pots simultaneously. The unit comes with a set of three plastic serving spoons. It also comes with a small recipe book.

Phil told me that the Trio operated pretty well when he tried a couple of the recipes from the included recipe booklet; the chili recipe and the herbed vegetables recipes, I believe. The set is really intended to be a buffet server and will probably do the job well enough for anyone cooking for a family gathering or similar sized group. For someone cooking for a family, the Trio could be useful as a way to easily prepare a complete meal: for example you could prepare some soup in one pot, some veggies in the second pot and an entre in the third pot. The Trio is not programmable but you can set varying cooking times for each pot that you might have in use. As well you can use one pot as a warmer while cooking with the others. It also could serve as a hot beverage serving station for drinks such as apple cider or hot chocolate.

This crock pot set is pretty easy to clean up: the base unit wipes up easily and the stoneware crock pot liners and brushed steel lids are all dishwasher safe. The unit includes a notched area for you to rest the spoons during meal preparation but the spoon balance is somewhat dubious when used since they have atendaency to tip when the crock pot lid is removed. The base unit might be something that you have to store when not using in your home, since it takes up a fair bit of room, measuring out to a length of 32".