DEAR SUN SPOTS: I recently enjoyed some Marjorie Standish potato salad. It was fabulous. Do you know where I can get the recipe? — No Name via email

ANSWER: Marjorie wrote several cookbooks, including “Cooking Down East: Favorite Maine Recipes,” “Chowders, Soups and Stews: Downeast Recipes,” “Cookery Downeast,” “Keep Cookery the Maine Way,” “The Best of Marjorie Standish: Seafood” and others.

You could take one or more of her books out of the library, several of which are in the statewide library system. If you’re online, go to http://minerva.maine.edu and search for her name. Then, if your library is part of the system, you can enter your library card number and have the book sent to your home library. If you live in a smaller town, you may have to ask the librarian to order it for you.

You may have to take out more than one to find the recipe you seek. Perhaps a Sun Spots reader will be kind enough to let the column know in which cookbook it appears. Sun Spots will have to seek permission from Marjorie’s publisher to run the recipe in the column if someone sends it in.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Does anyone know what the approximate temperature degree a Crock-Pot is on high and low? — No Name via email

ANSWER: The first thing Sun Spots noticed in her research is while the name Crock-Pot has moved into common usage for a slow cooker, it is actually a brand name. The company makes that quite clear at crock-pot.com, which is filled with registered trademark symbols.

At that site it says: “Crock-Pot slow cookers reach the simmer point and stabilize on both high and low at about 209 degrees Fahrenheit.”

That made Sun Spots wonder what the point of high and low is, so she went to Wikipedia, which offered this:

“Many slow cookers have two or more heat settings (e.g., low, medium, high, and sometimes a keep warm setting); some have continuously variable temperature. A typical slow cooker is designed to heat food to 170 degrees Fahrenheit on low, to perhaps 190-200 degrees on high. Many recipes that include sauce or liquid will reach the boiling point around the edges, while food in the center remains gently cooked. This may be because slow cooker settings are based on wattage, not temperature.

“Some cookers automatically switch from cooking to warming (maintaining the temperature at 160–165 degrees) after a fixed time or after the internal temperature of the food, as determined by a probe, reaches a specified value. The heating element heats the contents to a steady temperature in the 175–200 degree range.”

From this, Sun Spots gathers that the temperature in the Crock-Pot isn’t guided by some pre-set temperature of the device like your oven, but rather the temperature of the food in the pot.

You see a similar process with a rice cooker. Once the rice has absorbed all the water in the cooker, the temperature begins to rise. The device senses that rising temperature and shuts off.

With a slow cooker, the heavy crock and glass lid help the cooker attain an essentially constant temperature.”

At answers.yahoo.com, it notes that it is important to follow the recommended cooking times (the U.S. Department of Agriculture says bacteria are killed at 165 degrees Farhrenheit) and to keep the cover on your slow cooker during the cooking process. Every time that you remove the cover, add an additional 20 minutes to the cooking time.

“If your food isn’t done after eight hours when the recipe calls for eight to 10 hours, this could be due to voltage variations which are commonplace everywhere; due to altitude or even extreme humidity. The slight fluctuations in power do not have a noticeable effect on most appliances; however, it can slightly alter the cooking times.”

Several sites recommend that you use an instant read thermometer if you suspect your Crock-Pot isn’t up to temperature.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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