Crock Pot Origins

The origins of the slow cooker can be traced to 1936, when Irving Naxon applied for a patent for a slow cooker. This slow cooker would have the crock integrated into the heating element. The crock was not yet removable, but the design made it so that food could be cooked on a low temperature for a long period of time. Naxon received the patent in 1940 and brought the product to market in the 1950s as the Naxon Beanery, meant to be able to cook beans for a long period of time. In the 1970s, Naxon’s patents were purchased by Rival Manufacturing, which modified the name of the device, now calling it a Crock Pot. The popularity of the device exploded in this time period – 3.7 million Crock Pots were sold in 1975. The sudden demand of the Crock Pot was fueled by two main factors. The first was the increasing number of women in the workforce. A Crock Pot allowed women to both bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan; women could both work …show more content…
First, several different companies now make slow cookers; Rival does not have a monopoly on the market anymore. The heating element now surrounds the crock, whereas the heating element was located underneath the crock in some earlier models. Also, the crock is removable in present-day models, where it did not have a removable crock before. Slow cookers presently come with many different possible features, such as locking lids and custom patterns, that were not available before. Programmable slow cookers that allow one to pick a variety of settings and set cooking times are on the market as well. Regarding the future of slow cookers, I predict that they will separate into two different “lines”: the traditional slow cooker with a dial on the front and high-tech slow cookers. High-tech slow cookers will likely become part of the smart home. Settings will be adjustable from one’s cell phone, including both cooking settings and more physical settings, such as stirring the