I've got a 6.5qt slow cooker going, with about 7lbs of corned beef in it. I had put it on HIGH around 4:30pm, figuring that it would take six to eight hours to cook. Well, it's half-past midnight, and it's not done: the meat is chewy in exactly the way corned beef shouldn't be, due to an abundance of insufficiently cooked connective tissue.
What do I do now?
If I put it on LOW and go to sleep, it will be eight more hours of cooking, which seems like rather a lot.
I'd been planning on cooking the cabbage in the broth, after the meat was done, overnight. I could fish the meat out, put it in the fridge, and go ahead and cook the cabbage, then tomorrow morning, swap out the cabbage and continue cooking the meat. Since I have a commitment tomorrow, that means I'm still going to be stuck leaving the meat in the cooking for an additional 5hrs minimum.
Should I leave the meat in there on WARM overnight? Will that (1) be safe, and (2) be sufficient to cook it?
No, I don't have a slow cooker with a timer; no, I am not waking up in the middle of the night; no, I can't take the ceramic liner out and park it in the fridge (it's bigger than my fridge.)