I'm a little paranoid with mine, so I make a point of feeling the outside of the pot about fifteen minutes after I think I started it, just to make sure it is doing SOMETHING. If I have to leave sooner than that, it makes me nervous. I've blotted out exactly what didn't cook when to make me like this. It could be the year my mom's holiday dinner was hours late because my dad thought he had left the oven on from breakfast and turned it off after she had started the turkey. Or it could be a failure of my own. All I know is that I check, often more than once.