Using an Aga or Rayburn

Debt_Free_Chick

The top oven is a hot oven, the lower one is like a slow cooker.

You only need to use a cold shelf to lower the temperature of the top oven, especially for pastry, bread etc. For most stuff e.g. roasting meat, grilling, boiling/simmering veg you don't need the cold shelf. Forget temperatures - simply adjust the cooking time. The oven is so hot, things will cook through. You can always finish them off in the slow oven or leave them there to "tick over".

Remember that the bottom of the top oven is a slightly lower temp than the top of the oven, so move things down if you need a less aggressive heat.
You do 80% of your cooking in the ovens. Even simmering veg .... put them in the top oven.

A timer is essential as there are no cooking smells ..... so you won't smell the food burning when you've forgotten about it! Check progress regularly at first as it's difficult to know how to adjust cooking times without experimenting.

If the lids to the plates are stainless steel, DO NOT rest pans on there - you'll scratch the lids.

Sadly, you need to get to know each individual AGA and you may find you are just getting used to this one, on the last day of your visit!

HTH

shykins

oh i miss my aga i loved it

best way to roast yr meat is to bung it in the bottom oven first thing in morning and just leave it.. meat will fall off the bone, same for casseroles etc

bring yr veg to the boil on top plates, tip majority of water out and bung in bottom oven they steam, u can leave them for ages

for frying put everything in the roasting tin and sit on bottom of top oven, u can fry eggs same way

toast put between a rack and do on hottest plate and flip over to do other side

scotch pancakes jus drop straight onto hotplate

i could go on and on lol...oh and make sure u have the right tins cos they have to be robust.... i want my aga back <sniff>

code-a-holic

Hello, looks like we may be moving to a new, bigger home. Our rent will be £200 more than we ae used to, so i need to strip everything we do back to basics to help spread our money further. We are moving to a big georgian house with 4 bedrooms. And is my dream! but i am cautious this ill cost us more in electric (in theory but dont use that much anyway as kids in school). But oil (aargh) is probably going to dissapear fast as i will only have an aga to cook with and oil central heating. (god i cant wait to show you the kitchen, shabby chic lovers will be impressed!) In the kitchen/dining room, there is a great big huge inglenook fireplace, has anyone used a tradional fire like this for cooking. we get free firewood so would make sense. Its has a 2 tire oven and 2 big warming cupbards in it. We went to view at 9am and the aga was on and the whole house was warm. Cant have been on long. (House is empty). We went back at 1 and aga was off but house still warm, and when i opened consrvatory doors the heat was amazing. So im hoping with this 2 forms of heating we can avoid central heating.
This is getting long - and i have more things to ask advice on....... but one thing at a time. Using an inglenook fireplace for cookign? Any ideas! How to rely solely on an aga too- hoping to gt my gran to help there!

moanymoany

As a child my gran and aunty lived in houses with open fire ovens - if you see what I mean! In the winter all the cooking was done on these and there was usually a kettle 'singing' on the hearth.

There should be a space from the fire grate to under the oven. Hot coals are pushed under there to make the oven hotter and pulled out to cool it down. Slow cooked things are easy in the side oven, but my aunty and gran could make massively risen yorkshires in them!

My aunty's had rings that swung out and could be pushed over the flames. Grans had a ledge where the pans sat. I do think that to have an open fire and not be able to use it to cook and heat water is such a shame. My great aunty had one that had a large tank - would have contained about a gallon of water. It filled from the top and had a little tap at the front.

The solid metal oven shelves can be taken out, wrapped in towels or blankets and put in beds to warm them up!

code-a-holic

moanymoany - you have made me quite excited. sounds like fun!! cant wait to have a better look at it. Just hope that nothing major happens that stops us moving there!
Im pregnant with our 4th child and in need of more space and more opportunity to do things without it costing a fortune - the conservatoy = drying room and no more tumble dryer. these things as well as many more factors should outweight the extra cost in rent i hope. its 2 miles closer to the village i do up to 8 trips to and from each day due to children. and straight road so much less fuel - woohoo!

Mellika

Oh wow, when are you due?
Can't wait to see photos of the new house :j
Sorry I have no advice for the rest...

code-a-holic

Mellika wrote: »

Oh wow, when are you due?
Can't wait to see photos of the new house :j
Sorry I have no advice for the rest...

Ages yet! may. Feeling a bit annoyed now that estate agents dont rush more. Might not know for certain for 10 days. Thats just cruel!

Triggles

Code - wow! it sounds lovely - I am sooo jealous! We've just moved and I was blissful over finally having a working fireplace! But you've taken it one step further! We also were stressed over bigger house, higher rent and council tax, and possibly higher heating bill. We freecycled our dryer - didn't even hook it up here - figured if we didn't have it from day one here we wouldn't miss it! We are buying one of those heated dryer racks from Lakeland (for £75) but mainly for wet days in the winter when we need to wash towels and sheets and such (we have a toddler). It's supposed to be very cheap to run, and well worth it IMO as I hate having clothing hanging all over the house as I worry about damp.

We moved in June, but due to a recent bout of illness (July/August) I was unable to do a lot of stuff around the house to get it all sorted for us. So now we're starting to do a lot of the necessary things - stripping wallpaper, painting, replacing and repairing. It's so hard to do on a budget, but we're trying to cut costs where we can so that we can put the money into the important things that can't be avoided.

Best of luck with your move. Hope you will post pics when you move!

whatatwit

Have a look at getting one of those pulley rack for drying clothes on, the sort that get raised to the ceiling.
Are you currently using oil where you are now...N9eav has posted about oil on the utilities board, I think he checks prices on Boilerjuice and others have posted about oil.

I think the aga will take a bit of getting used to, but I would love one.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there :beer: I can't find any threads on cooking on open fires (but am happy to be proved wrong ) so I'll add this to the existing Aga thread to keep suggestions together

I have a Rayburn, which I love cooking on, though it's a diffeernt experience from a conventional cooker.

Penny. x