Tips on using a Rayburn

[FairyPenguin]

I have just bought a house with a Rayburn and am trying to read up on it before we move in.

It is one which does the hot water and heating as well. The kitchen also has a gas hob fitted.

Firstly, can anyone recommend a good book for me to read, to get to know my way around the Rayburn and what all the bits are for? I also want to know how to convert conventional recipes, if I need to do that.

Secondly, any tips / common mistakes to avoid?

We mostly use our oven to do slow roasts, normal roasts, roasting vegetables, cooking pizzas and garlic bread, pasta bakes, reheating things like cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, cooking ready meals, fish fingers.

We usually use the hob to cook things like chilli, curry, stir fries, boiling potatoes, steaming/boiling veg, pan frying steaks, pan frying fish, reheating meals like chilli.

Any advice much appreciated. Thanks!

A Rayburn is an oven/aga hybrid. You can set the oven temperature but it takes experimentation to get things to come out right. You will need the cold plain shelf for baking.

I not have a gas hob & I covet a normal cooker. I don't keep it on all the time due to colossal gas bills, & it takes ages to heat up just to put a pan on.

Thanks exit. We already have a good timer. Very pleased that there are no cooking smells as kitchen doesn't appear to have an extractor fan, just a filter hood above the gas hob.

Thanks for the tip on the book and pans, chubfuddler. I was just looking at the Rayburn pans and wondering if I could get anything cheaper.

There must be some sort of vent from the Rayburn, no? I can smell the chicken cooking when I walk up the garden as ours vents up the chimney, but not when in the kitchen iyswim.

I think it will take quite a bit of experimentation to get used to it, Parrish. Shame you don't have a separate hob if you don't keep your Rayburn on all the time. Silly question, but does that mean you can turn the oven off but keep the heating and hot water on? Are all 3 bits independent of each other?

Ah yes, it must go up the flue. I remember it being mentioned in the survey.

If I'm cooking on the gas hob, the cooking smells won't get drawn up/out though unfortunately. Ah well!

Fairy, for rare roast beef: 15 minutes per pound plus 15 minutes extra in the top oven. Our roast tonight weighed precisely 3 lbs and Zombie cooked it for exactly 60 minutes. It was perfect.

Experiment, my very very old oil Rayburn wouldn't get very hot.
A proper Agra is only ever too hot.
My new Stanley has a separate oven burner and, approximately, does as it's asked.

Have fun, they really do have minds of their own.

Thanks Zombie, will be cooking that the first weekend we move in.

I can't afford to keep it on all the time :(
I have got three separate programmers for oven, hot water and heating though so can work independently. Am planning to get new cooker in new kitchen though and consign this to history (or just Christmas)

Agas, you just set the thermostat at the right temperature, and then all the ovens are, hopefully, at the right temperature.

Rayburns you set the thermostat according to what you want to cook.

That's my understanding, anyway. Currently on third aga - have had solid fuel to gas 2 oven, gas 2 oven, and elec 4 oven with gas burners instead of warming plate. And a lovely burn on one wrist where the oven mit slipped when taking a cake out and I touched the not so cold plain shelf by accident.