Use when you want to cook a regular stovetop/oven recipe in a slow cooker or Instant Pot (or vice versa) — converts cooking times across 7 appliance modes with the physics of WHY (collagen→gelatin at 60-70°C, milk curdles at 2h+, rice liquid ratios change in sealed pots), checks capacity fill (half-full min, two-thirds max), detects ingredients that must be added late or omitted entirely (dairy, pasta, fresh herbs, thickening), and produces a step-rewritten recipe with an insert-at-mark timeline.
"Can I just throw this in the Crock-Pot?" Sometimes yes,
sometimes you get curdled milk soup and chalk pasta. This converter
rewrites a normal recipe for the slow cooker or pressure cooker with
real rules: time mappings across 7 modes, capacity checks, and — the
part that actually saves dinner — an ingredient triage that moves
dairy, pasta, herbs and thickeners to late-add windows.
Overview
convert — recipe text in → same recipe rewritten for the
target appliance, with per-step time conversions and an
INSERT-AT timeline for late additions.
time — standalone time table: stovetop braise 2 h → LOW 8 h
/ HIGH 4 h / pressure 25 min; plus the 1h-HIGH ≈ 2h-LOW rule.
capacity — recipe servings × typical volume vs your cooker
size: verdicts half-to-two-thirds fill rule, scaling advice.
ingredients — triage of problem ingredients per direction of
conversion: what to add late, omit, or swap (dairy → evap/cream
at end; pasta → cook separately or last 30 min; wine → reduce
first, never raw in a sealed pot).
Stdlib Python, offline. The knowledge base covers the 7 modes:
stovetop, oven, slow-cook-LOW, slow-cook-HIGH, pressure, rice
program, sauté.
When to Use
Converting a favorite stovetop soup/braise/chili recipe for the
morning-before-work dump-and-go
Oven recipe → Instant Pot on a hot day (or the oven's broken)
Scaling a recipe up for a bigger cooker / party batch
"Why did my slow-cooker Alfredo break?" — the ingredients triage
answers retroactively what went wrong
Don't use for: baking (bread/cakes are a different physics —
no direct mapping; pressure-baking is its own genre), candy-making,
or deep-frying conversions. Those have no safe mapping.
How It Works — Numbered Steps
Convert the whole recipe (paste or reference the text):
text
python3 scripts/slow_converter.py convert --from oven --to slow-low \
--recipe "Beef stew: brown beef 10 min; oven 325F 2.5h; add potatoes carrots; 1 cup red wine, 2 tbsp flour"
Rules of thumb encoded: 1 h HIGH ≈ 2 h LOW; pressure ~1 min ≈
15-20 min simmer for most liquids; always natural-release 10+ min
for braises (fast release toughens muscle fibers).
The Ingredient Triage (the part that saves dinner)
Into slow cooker (either setting):
Dairy (milk, cream, sour cream, yogurt): curdles 2 h+ at simmer →
add LAST 30-60 min; swap to evaporated milk or coconut cream for
longer windows.
Pasta: blooms to mush → cook separately, or add last 20-30 min LOW
equivalent; never the full cook.
Fresh herbs (basil, parsley, cilantro, dill): stir in at serve;
woody herbs (rosemary, thyme, bay) go in early.
Flour/cornstarch thickeners: dump-and-go dust sinks and lumps →
mix with cold water first, or thicken at the end on sauté, or use
a roux base.
Wine/liquor: never raw into a sealed/slow pot (stays sharp) →
reduce by half in a pan (or sauté mode) first.
Rice: long-cycle grains turn to paste; if the dish needs rice,
convert to pressure rice program or cook apart.
Quick-cook veg (zucchini, peas, spinach, bell pepper): last 30
min, or they vanish.
Frozen veg: last 1 h — earlier turns them army-green and soft.
Into pressure cooker:
Anything milk-based: pressure curdles guaranteed → finish on
sauté after release, never under pressure.
Alcohol > 2 tbsp in a sealed pot: flavor trap + foaming → reduce
first, and reduce the amount by ~1/3.
Thickeners: flour grits under pressure → thicken AFTER release.
Delicate fish/shellfish: 0 min HP (add at release, sauté 2-3 min).
From slow cooker BACK to stovetop/oven: divide LOW hours by ~4
for stovetop simmer, keep liquid as-is (slow cookers lose almost
no liquid — cut added stock by ~25% going the other way).
Common Pitfalls
Lifting the lid "to check." Each peek = 20-30 min added on
LOW (thermal recovery). The recipe timeline assumes a closed pot.
No reduction possible in a slow cooker. Water doesn't
evaporate — sauces stay thin. Plan a sauté-mode or stovetop
reduce/thicken at the end, or start with less liquid (see
pitfall 4's inverse).
Same liquid volume across appliances. Oven/stovetop lose
20-40% to evaporation; slow cookers lose ~none; pressure cookers
lose zero. The converter adjusts: → slow: −25% stock; →
pressure: −50%.
Dairy dumped at 8 AM for a 6 PM dinner. 10 h at simmer
temperature = grainy broken sauce. Late-add window, always.
Overfilling the pressure pot. Max 2/3 fill (1/2 for
foaming foods — beans, pasta, oatmeal). Capacity check exists
for this.
Underfilling the slow cooker. Below half full, a slow cooker
cycles hot and scorches. Scale the recipe or use a smaller pot.
Quick-releasing a braise. The fibers seize. Natural release
10-15 min for anything with big muscle chunks.
Example
text
$ slow_converter.py convert --from oven --to slow-low --recipe "chicken thighs 325F 90min, 1 cup rice, 2 cups broth, 1 cup milk, mushrooms"
CONVERTED (oven -> slow LOW):
1. Sear chicken (skillet, 3-4 min/side) — flavor base, don't skip.
2. Combine chicken, mushrooms, broth (CUT to 1.5 cups — slow pot
loses ~nothing), seasoning. Cook LOW 5-6 h.
INSERT-AT TIMELINE:
T-60 min (5 h mark): rice IN only if converted to par-cooked or
using converted-rice trick — otherwise cook rice separately.
T-30 min: milk STIRRED IN now (never at start).
SERVE: adjust thickness (sauté reduce or cornstarch slurry).
WARN: milk at hour 0 = broken sauce by dinner.
Verification Checklist
Target appliance + mode chosen; time mapped via table
Liquid adjusted for evaporation class of the target
Problem ingredients triaged: dairy/pasta/herbs/thickeners
moved to late-add or swapped
Fill level between half and two-thirds (capacity check)
Pressure: NR 10+ min for braises; ≤2/3 fill; no milk under
pressure
