Using an Aga or Rayburn

zenmaster

I've just moved into a house share whilst I'm working away during the week. They've got an AGA :j. It's very impressive but also a little daunting. I've searched the net for information but every site I've found want to sell me a book or a 3 day course! I just need some tips

I've bought ready meals for this week, but I did heat my beef in yorkshire pud in the main oven tonight. It was OK but could possibly have done with a bit longer.

Anyway, how do I do easy things like cheese on toast, bacon and egg or stir fry?

Then more advanced things like cheese and potato pie, cornish pasties etc? I can do these in a conventional oven, so I'm not looking for recipes - just tecnique.

Thanks in advance :beer:.

PS It's a 3 door version. I gather this is significant.

Alison_Funnell

Is it gas/oil/electric or solid fuel?

Normally (I grew up cooking on a rayburn as both my mum and uncle had them) you check the oven temp and go with the one that is the best temperature or if the oven is too cold turn it up a bit or shove more fuel on the fire and wait till it's hotter. Never used a modern (gas/oil/'leccy) powered one. But I better others here will know.

Skintmama

There are usually Aga cookery books in the library. Pick one by Mary Berry if you have a choice.

3 ovens=Roasting oven (hottest) Baking and Simmering ovens.

Top of the oven is the highest temperature.

Roasting oven: Do your heating of ready meals in here with the gridshelf on the bottom of the oven. Anything you want browned quickly place shelf higher. The top rung can be used for melting cheese onto toast or better still a toasted cheese sandwich (make a sandwich without butter in, then lightly butter the outside of the sandwich. Place on a baking tray and bake for about ten minutes depending on how brown you like it.) Timings should be about those stated on the ready meal packet. Bake potatoes in the middle of the oven.

Baking oven: Use for cakes and for the pasties/quiches etc. To get a good crisp base on pastry you can sit the baking sheet on the floor of the oven. You can do this in the Roasting oven too.

Simmering oven: I doubt you will use this but it is for stews and long cooked casseroles, meringues etc. Also keeps food nice and hot without spoiling.

The fast boiling hotplate use for frying and boiling then move things to the slower plate to finish cooking. A wok would need a wide flat bottom to work well so I find a frying pan works best for stirfries.

Make your cheese and potato pie as normal and either bake it through in the baking oven or brown it quickly in the roasting oven.

I make toast using a grid on the boiling plate but you can also use the top of the Roasting oven.

Do get a kitchen timer.....you cannot smell things cooking or indeed burning in an Aga!

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions.

ETA All the above applies only if the Aga is kept at the correct temperature. If the indicator falls much below the midline...as it will if it has been used a lot........then you will need to do everything in the Roasting oven. Raising the hotplate lids will reduce the overall temperature, so as much as possible is cooked in the ovens. It sounds like you are cooking just for yourself but if you get the oven after someone has cooked a big roast dinner for six people then everything will take much longer. If this happens it would only be fair if they put a plateful of food in the simmering oven or warming oven for you!

Skintmama

I have just thought:( Is it 2 ovens and a door for the burner, or 3 ovens and a plate warming oven? If it is the former, then cook everything in the top oven and use a cold baking sheet above items which you don't want to brown too quickly.

There are methods of cooking veg involving using the ovens but it sounds like you are keeping cooking to a minimum during the week.

Sunshine12

Have no clue but I WANT ONE!!!

Penelope_Penguin

Sunshine12 wrote: »

Have no clue but I WANT ONE!!!

If you do get one, have a Rayburn - they heat your water, too :j That's what I have, and love it

Penny. x

Penelope_Penguin

zenmaster wrote: »

I've just moved into a house share whilst I'm working away during the week. They've got an AGA :j. It's very impressive but also a little daunting.

Anyway, how do I do easy things like cheese on toast, bacon and egg or stir fry?

Then more advanced things like cheese and potato pie, cornish pasties etc? I can do these in a conventional oven, so I'm not looking for recipes - just tecnique.

I cook on a Rayburn, but many of the principles are the same.

• You can cook toast on the hotplates (the one on the left will be hotter, so experiment to see where;s best). Then put the cheese on and into the oven. It'll take longer than under the grill, though.
• If your plates are hot enough you can fry and stir-fry on top.
• Pies and pasties can go into the oven, but timings may vary - you need to experiment.
• I use mine to make stock, pasta sauce, soup, casseroles. they take longer than a conventional oven, but have a beautiful depth of flavour that's impossible to match in a slow cooker

Penny. x

Skintmama

I agree with you Penny that the flavour is much better than when I use the slow cooker. This does come out though when the Aga is off :-(

Having had a Rayburn in a previous house, which I also loved with a passion, I would say one of the main differences is that it is harder to adjust an Aga (but then mine is not modern)and that the Roasting oven is rather fiercer than the top oven of the Rayburn. I believe they are also less economical than the Rayburn....as you say, you get hot water too.

jomilne

I have only recently moved out of a house where I had a Rayburn and I loved it. Mine had three doors like your AGA, although only two were for cooking - the top one has hotter and the lower one cooler, with a long hotplate on the top which was hotter at one end.
It took a bit of getting used to, but I found that although things may take a bit longer than in a "normal" oven they came out fine in the end.
My Rayburn was ancient, so it was a bit of guesswork as to what the temperature was, but a wee check once in a while made sure I didn't burn things.
As far as grilling stuff goes, I'm afraid I took the cheats way out and bought a George Foreman grill rather than attempt cooking things straight on the hotplate...

frankie1star

I had an AGA for years, it does take a little getting use to but its great! Although as a housemate I would imagine it to be a pain.

To make toast use the toaster rack (its a wire grid with handles). If you have thick bread you can put the lid down, although obviously dont leave it. Makes it crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle.

To make cheese on toast there will be a big flat rack (Large baking sheet) (its a shelf as well), although you could use anything ovenproof. Place the sliced bread on the rack, with the bread on the top of the rack and then the cheese on the bread, put it in the top of the top oven, (this is the hottest part) and grill. Your bread will crisp from underneath and your cheese will melt. This flat rack is also a heat deflector, so if you have something you would like to cook quickly in the top oven, place the sheet directly above the item you wish to cook, so you could cook your pie in this manner.

Never think about temperatures, only that the top oven is the hottest, starting at the top and the lower down you go the less hot it is.

For things like pies I generally would put in the bottom oven on the top shelf, but thats cos my AGA ran very hot, and the pastry would burn.