Going off on a tangent . . .

This morning I've gone on a tangent looking for less common uses of a crock pot. It started when I saw a diagram of a crockpot distiller on someone's facebook page. It can be used to make moonshine, although you could probably use it to make your own distilled water. Using this method can apparently yield a quart of liquor...hmm....

More along my speed is using a crockpot to make duck confit...although my longstanding food fantasy for 2010 was to make confit using turkey dark meat.

I also found that you can use your crockpot as an indoor smoker. My only question there is why so much liquid is used, but comments I've seen online say that there isn't enough water to braise it.

I like the idea of using your crockpot to make olive oil soap, or even rebatching old soap with your own scents and colors. I even like the idea of using Ivory soap for this purpose.