Best AGA recipes please!

[flibberdy]

We are moving into a new house soon (rented) and arghhhhhh it doesn't have a standard cooker/hob. It has an Aga, just an Aga. I'm nervous. How the hell do i use one of these beasts?!
Any ideas for me?

[Blondie1984]

Are they definitely leaving the Aga? There are some great cookbooks out there especially for Agas - maybe have a look?

[flibberdy]

Yup, definitely leaving the Aga. I feel this will force me into adulting

[Jemimabelle]

You can just cook normally! If it's a 2-oven like mine you use the top left hot plate for boiling or cooking anything at a high temperature, such as starting off onions/minced meat/chicken etc. Use the top right hot plate for more of a medium-low temperature... making sauces, warming up milk/custard, simmering or cooking things a bit more slowly. The top oven is very hot, you can't adjust the temperature of it but basically cook anything in it...little bit more of a 'winging it' style rather than using precise times and temperature. The bottom oven is for simmering and keeping things warm. We no longer have an electric kettle as use a stove top one on the boiling plate. We don't have a toaster, as you cook toast/crumpets etc directly on the top simmering plate. We don't have a microwave, as the aga is always on and ready so makes more sense to use that for reheating etc. I use it for all sorts of other things...leaving pans and other things on it to dry after washing up, heating plates in the bottom oven before tea, hanging washed jeans or other wet clothes on the rail to dry, and we have an old fashioned airer on the ceiling above to dry all the washing on. I could go for even longer about it but don't want to bore you all! I have bought a few books that were really helpful when I first started using the Aga. Might be worth checking if it's gas or electric, and how much their utility bills are, as our gas bill is pretty high because of it. However, it does make the kitchen/dining room warmer so need the heating on less, and also heats up all the water so our boiler doesn't need to.