It sounds odd, but meat can become dry even when it's cooked in moisture. The most likely cause of this is overcooking. As meat cooks, its muscle fibers shorten in both length and width and eventually squeeze out the juices they normally hold. As you can imagine, this leaves meat dry, and often stringy in texture.
Adding broth or water prevents dryness in slow cookers. Marinading with acidic ingredients like lemon or vinegar helps break down tougher tissues, making the meat more tender and flavorful.
To make sure these roasts remain moist, we cook them on low and use 1-hour time ranges. start monitoring their temperature at the lower end of the time range and take them out of the slow cooker as soon as they reach the desired temperature.
The best answer I can give you is that it is likely the High temp setting doing it. Even though it's a slow cooker, it can get extremely hot on High and what happens is the meat, which is muscle fiber tends to shrink from too much heat and pushes out much of their moisture and become dry.
While slow cooker recipes are designed to cook for extended periods of time, they can still become overcooked if left on the wrong setting for too long. In general, it's best to stick to the indicated cook time on the recipe you're following.
Your meat will be juicier and more tender
The longer cooking time and the low heat complement each other perfectly. As a result, even though the meat is cooked for far longer, it doesn't dry out because the temperature is low. As a result, this is the best way to retain all the natural juices of the meat.
Cook Low and Slow
Each slow cooker meal's cooking time differs depending on the meat and its weight. The low setting is important so you don't overcook it, potentially leaving you with a dry or tough meal.
The quickest way to reintroduce moisture back into your meat is to add a liquid. You can easily do this with water but it's best if you use a liquid that's flavorful. This is because with the evaporation of the moisture that originally was in the meat went some of the flavors, too.
The trick is to add liquid (stock) into the tray and keep the lamb covered with foil throughout the majority of the cooking.
A slow cooker does not need any liquid added at the beginning of the cooking process, because it will generate steam, which will become liquid in the bowl. For recipes that use liquid, and have not been written specifically for a slow cooker it make sense to reduce the amount of liquid by half.
There is no need to cover the meat in liquid when cooking with a slow cooker, you only need enough liquid to cover the base of the slow cooker as the meat and vegetables will release liquid as they cook.
Not cooking the stew long enough.
The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.
Because your slow cooker will have a tightly sealed lid, the liquid won't evaporate so if you're adapting a standard recipe, it's best to reduce the liquid by roughly a third. It should just cover the meat and vegetables.
However, if you leave lamb in the slow cooker for too long it will become stringy and dry.
Water or liquid is necessary to create steam. When cooking meat or poultry, the water or liquid level should cover the ingredients to ensure effective heat transfer throughout the crock. Some manufacturers of slow cookers recommend adding liquid to fill the stoneware 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Some slow cookers have automatic fuses that blow if the pot runs dry, but most seem to keep going with no ill effect. There is no reason for a slow cooker to run dry unless you leave the lid off for over a day!
The meat was overcooked: Slow cookers are known for their ability to tenderize meat, but if the meat is cooked for too long, it can become overcooked and tough. It's important to follow the recommended cooking time for your recipe to ensure that the meat is cooked to the correct doneness.
So imagine if your dinner is cooking away on high all day while you're at work. That meat will have been simmering four hours longer than it needed to — probably not the best way to ensure tenderness. Provided you have the time, low is the way to go.
Slow cooker recipes are often designed for an eight-hour cook so that the food is ready when you return home after a long day. Is it safe to leave a slow cooker on for 12 hours? Yes, you can use your slow cooker for longer than eight hours, as long as you keep an eye on it.
That varies by what's inside the slow cooker and also by the appliance's setting and model, the experts say. Most recipes for all-day cooking call for 6 to 8 hours on low. Quality- (and safety-) wise, another 1 to 2 hours in 'keep warm' mode won't mess things up.
The most likely cause of this is overcooking. As meat cooks, its muscle fibers shorten in both length and width and eventually squeeze out the juices they normally hold. As you can imagine, this leaves meat dry, and often stringy in texture. To avoid this problem, choose less-tender cuts of meat.
Cook It Slowly
This is certainly true when it comes to notoriously tough cuts of meat like beef brisket and pork shoulder. Cooking these cuts of meat slowly, either by braising, stewing or grill roasting, is the best way to get these tasty cuts of meat meltingly tender.
Slow cookers rely on a specific balance of liquid and food to cook properly, so if you overfill it with either, it can affect the cooking time and the final texture and flavor of your food. Excess liquid, in particular, can cause the food to become mushy or overcooked.
Due to the nature of a slow cooker, there is no need to stir the food unless it specifically says to in your recipe. In fact, taking the lid off to stir food causes the slow cooker to lose a significant amount of heat, extending the cooking time required. Therefore, it is best not to remove the lid for stirring.