Slow Cooker Conversion Chart
Turn a conventional recipe's oven or stovetop time into a slow cooker Low or High setting.
| Original recipe time | Slow cooker Low | Slow cooker High |
|---|---|---|
| 15–30 minutes | 4–6 hours | 1.5–2.5 hours |
| 35–45 minutes | 6–8 hours | 3–4 hours |
| 50 minutes – 3 hours | 8–10 hours | 4–6 hours |
Find the row matching the original recipe's cook time, then use whichever column matches the setting you plan to use.
Why this is a lookup table, not a clean formula
The relationship between conventional cooking time and slow cooker time isn't a simple linear multiplier — a slow cooker's Low setting runs around 190–200°F and High around 250–300°F, both well below a conventional oven or stovetop simmer, so the conversion depends more on which time bracket the original recipe falls into than a single consistent ratio across all cook times.
Low and High reach the same doneness, just on different schedules
Both settings are designed to get food to the same safe, fully-cooked endpoint — Low just takes longer at a gentler temperature, which tends to be more forgiving for tougher cuts of meat that benefit from a long, slow break-down of connective tissue. High is the better choice when you need dinner sooner and the dish doesn't especially benefit from the extra hours.
Don't just multiply everything by 4
Because the extremes of the table (short original times vs. long ones) scale differently, applying one flat multiplier across every recipe over- or under-shoots depending on where the original time falls — use the actual bracket in the table above rather than assuming a single multiplier applies universally.