The convenience of slow cooking used to come in one shape: round.

And the size? One size fits all, whether it actually did or not.

(ENLARGE)

Pesto Lasagna With Spinach and Mushrooms (Click crockpot recipes)

More on crockpot cooking Ah, the ease of crockpot cooking  Crockpot recipes

No longer. The latest generation of slow cookers shows just how much the '70s appliance has grown up, with cookers just right for one-person households, as well as large enough to feed a family and leave a couple of meals for the freezer. Some have inserts that go from stove or oven to cooker for one-pot convenience, or come with travel packs for potlucks.

You can still find a few funky designs — football themes and flowers among them — but stylish neutrals in stainless steel or white are the standard now. Rival, maker of the original Crock Pot, still dominates the market. But other houseware specialists have woken up to the potential. Gourmet kitchenware manufacturers have begun offering upscale appliances. The latest from All-Clad Metalcrafters, a 7-quart trophy cooker with a stainless steel liner and lid, nonstick cast aluminum insert and delayed-start programming, goes for $250.

Some 10 percent of households use slow cookers to prepare meals regularly, according to market researcher NPD Group. With just one pot to clean and, often, simple recipes that rely on pantry staples and inexpensive cuts of meat, time-starved cooks turn to them for an easy, economical dinner solution.

Could things get any simpler? A slew of slow cooker recipe collections promise to make it so, from the top-selling, spiral-bound "Fix It and Forget It" series, with its emphasis on convenience foods, to recent entries with a gourmet slant like "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker: Recipes for Two for Your Small Slow Cooker" by Beth Hensperger (Harvard Common Press, $12.95 paperback).

Other products introduced in the past few years also streamline slow cooking. Disposable plastic liners make cleanup as easy as opening a trash can. Frozen meals go straight from the bag to the slow cooker. Inserts that work on stovetops as well as in the countertop appliance make one-pot cooking possible even when the recipe calls for browning meat before adding to the cooker.

One thing hasn't changed, though: Dinner will still be waiting, warm and fragrant, when you come home.

Get the most from your crockpot

These tips from "Pillsbury Slow Cooker Recipes" can help novices or pros get more from their slow cooker.

• Get to know your machine. Learn the heat cycles and the size of your cooker. The low setting cooks food at about 200 degrees, high about 300 degrees. Some cookers have automatic settings that can switch from high to low.
• Check the capacity of your cooker to see if it matches the size recommended for the recipe. Slow cookers usually work most efficiently when they are between 2/3 and 3/4 full.
• Removing the lid during cooking can add 15 to 20 minutes to cooking time, but sometimes it is necessary to rotate ingredients halfway through to ensure even cooking. Food in the bottom of the slow cooker covered by the cooking liquid will often be moister. In addition, the heat is stronger at the bottom of the cooker, so food will cook faster.
• To cut down on fat, cook and drain ground meats before adding to recipes. Also, remove skin from poultry and trim excess fat from meats before cooking.
• Time it right. Learn to sequentially add vegetables and more delicate foods by how quickly they cook. Tender vegetables, like fresh tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini, and frozen vegetables should be added during the last 30 minutes of cooking so they don't become overcooked. Longer-cooking vegetables, like potatoes and carrots, can go in earlier. Fresh herbs, such as oregano and basil, change flavor with extended cooking. Stir these in during the final hour of cooking. Fish can fall apart during long hours of cooking, while shrimp become tough with long cooking. So when cooking with seafood, add later in the recipe, usually in the last hour.
• To thicken up sauces, remove the lid and turn to high for the last 20 to 30 minutes. This evaporates the water allowing the flavors to become more concentrated.