Ideas for how best to use a solid fuel Rayburn

[Castlelough]

Just wondering whether anybody has any tips on good dishes to cook or bake on or in a Rayburn?

We are getting a reconditioned one, primarily as an extra heat source and to burn our own wood....... but I would love to use it as much as I can for cooking/baking too.

I've read about making toast on the hotplate, but what I really want to know about is how to use the second lower oven - the 'warming' oven? Can I actually cook anything in there?

Would it be possible to use it in the same way as a slow cooker? Or is it just for keeping things warm?

Anybody out there with experience of this?

I'm very far from being an expert, but we also have a solid fuel Rayburn. Tbh I've never known anyone use the warming oven for anything other than warming plates, keeping food warm, and of course re-warming newborn lambs with hypothermia (it is very handy for that!)

I think the warming oven temp is something like 30-50% of the temperature of the main oven. So probably about 50 degrees c most of the time?

(Also be aware that the oven thermodials are, um, somewhat optimistic in the temperature they show!)

I suppose it'd be perfectly possible to use it as a slow cooker/ haybox type thing- if you got the contents of a lidded pot up to a good boil and then shoved it in the warming oven to cook very very slowly, say overnight. Never tried it though- I'd just put something like that on the top, in the space in front of the flue (that's where I keep the kettle actually, it stays hot but not boiling and only takes a couple of mins to get to a boil when moved over onto the hot plate)

I do love the Rayburn, it definitely makes the kitchen lovely and cosy and is so useful. It is also so much more fuel efficient than the uninsulated cast iron range I grew up with!

Thanks so much kernowmissbyghen!

Really appreciate a bit of feedback!

Do you use your Rayburn for any cooking at all? Any advice or tips would be appreciated! As I said, it won't be our primary cooking source, but I'd love to know what I could expect to be able to do with it!
So I take it the main oven temp is around 100-150c then....sure I suppose I could do slow cooking in that instead of in the warming oven?!

We've no lambs sadly....can't see us getting a calf into it!!! Might have trouble keeping the cats out of it mind you!!!

Really looking forward to having it, and it sounds like I will have to invest in a suitable kettle!

Our oven temperature is usually around 180-190 c according to the thermostat, which I think is more like 150-160 ( but I haven't actually measured it, that's just going by cooking times.) We tend to keep the fire just ticking over, it would get a lot hotter if we could be bothered to feed it more wood! We mostly burn wood because we have tons of the stuff for free- however, if we supplement it with coalite the oven gets a lot hotter.

We mainly use the oven for stews, braising, slow roasts, etc. also proper traditional puddings like rice pud, bread and butter pudding, etc. Also baked potatoes, baked apples, etc. and traybake type cakes that can be done at about 180.

The hot plate gets properly hot and is used for everything you'd use electric/ gas rings for. I love the fact that you have q subtle control over the precise heat of a pan by being able to move it to hotter or cooler parts of the hot plate, I never could quite get my head around the lack of that control on an electric cooker.

We have an electric fan oven for things that need a particular temperature or that we want to be brown on top. And for when the wind is just in the wrong direction or we didn't think ahead to get it up to temperature in time.

I think it's a totally different approach to cooking really, much more suited to "traditional" dishes that suit longer cooking times. And because its just there, hot, it makes sense to cook something for hours, or make jam, or whatever, things that really don't suit electric cookers and cost the earth if you do use them!

I have read that if you get the oven really hot, you can take out the lower shelf and use the "floor" of the oven like a bread oven or pizza oven- I keep meaning to try it but haven't done yet! Would love to make my own authentic artisan pizza in the rayburn- one day I will get around to it!

Oh and yes, definitely get a kettle for it! I swear my electric bill was about half made up of boiling the elec kettle!

I use the bottom warming oven for overnight porridge, its perfectly cooked by morning

I've tried cooking pizza on the floor of the roasting oven in an Aga - and spent ages chipping the results off. Still think it should've worked, though.

Anything that needs slow cooking will work brilliantly - but warming oven temperatures vary. We've got a 4 oven Aga, and the warming oven is almost as hot as the simmering oven was on the 2-oven one we had. In fact, our simmering oven is too hot really for overnight cooking, and the Christmas cake was done in 4 hours, rather than the 10-11 I expected.

There's probably a cookery book for it - might be worth looking at the Aga-Rayburn site to see. Think from memory that they have a shop.

Thank you so so much everyone!

Loads of tips and ideas there!

Love the idea of jam (and pizza!!!!) and porridge in the warming oven!

I was also thinking that it would be really economical for simmering homemade stocks, rather than running the hob for 3-4 hrs...

Really looking forward to having one!

Anyone else with good ideas - keep them coming!

Sorry -bit late to this one. We have a solid fuel Rayburn running on anthracite . Needs to be around 200 . It is good for roasting - chickens stay moist. You can grill by putting the top shelf as high as it will go and placing a plate or shallow dish just underneath the roof. Cheese on toast is simple this way.Sausages do well there too. It was designed in the days when someone spent most of their time at home as ît does need attention from time to time to keep the fire going . There is a knack to it depending on the draw from the chimney and the fuel used. We had experience of lighting open fires and multi fuel stoves but the technique needed for the Rayburn turned out to be entirely different. Best of luck!