Aga owners please help

[Inch]

Just that, really. Moving into a house with a two oven Aga, and absolutely no previous experience of using one.

I do know it’s oil fired and not a switch on/ off sort.

Any advice most gratefully received, from types of pan to cooking hints.

Thanks in advance.

Also ( unrelated ) - how do you post smileys.? I wanted to give you all a piece of cake !!

They're great when you get the hang of them – you have to know the temperatures of the various ovens and move food around accordingly. Can be a bit daunting at first – I didn't have a clue when I got a house that came with one – so a book like this would be very useful: amzn.to/2smf8Mc

With mine, I found that cooking things on the hob for a long time lowered the heat of the main oven, which was confusing

We had a cooking lesson from the aga shop when we had ours. It was really useful and we got to eat lots of nice food!! There is a nack to it. I love the warming oven to heat up plates. We’ve got a tennis racket thing that means you can make toast. Pizza on the floor of the hot oven is fab! That’s about my cooking ability! Everything seems to cook quicker

Just get stuck in. I swerved mine for about six months when we first moved in, it terrified me that much. Honestly, it is the easiest way to cook. There is a lovely aga fb group who are very helpful.

I've switched mine off for the summer now and I miss it already.

Mary Berry's Aga cookbook is brilliant. I used it to cater for 25 people in a large holiday home we rented for a weekend event a few years ago. Without that book I wouldn't have known what I was doing.

Best thing to remember is virtually all the cooking is done in the ovens, as previously said the longer you have the lids up the temp in the ovens drop. Boiling kettles and toast on the plates. When cooking vegetable, bring to boil on the boiling plate, drain off most of the water (leaving about 2cm in the saucepan) then put in the bottom oven, they will steam cook.

Also 2 oven oil fired so please ask any questions.

Oh wow thanks to all for the fast replies!!
Did you have to change your pans? - mine are induction hob friendly, plus some cast iron ones.

What about baking cakes etc.? Is anything special needed?

Thank you all, replies are really very helpful.

Also, the oven is really properly sealed so you don't smell anything cooking. Always a fun game to try to ID the blackened thing that a child forgot to take out the evening before

As far as pans go, I am not too sure about induction hob ones, but cast iron good. Just make sure they do not have wooden handles as they cannot be used in the ovens.

Cake baking is meant to be difficult in a 2 over, and there is an aga cake baker you can buy, but I have never had problems with cakes. The cold shelf is used to stop the top of the cake cooking too quick.

Oven wise, the higher up the grid shelves and the further back in the oven the hotter it is. So the top of the roasting oven is virtually a grill, so the bottom of the simmering oven is purely for warming plates, or keeping food warm without it cooking further.

Yes to the black remains of food in the ovens! A timer is a good thing to use due to the no smells, including burnt food!

An oven thermometer for each oven is useful – my hot oven is around 220C all the time, the lower oven about 150C. But if you cook on the hob these temps will drop (as mentioned already), which can affect cooking time. There is a definite knack to it but once you get it you can cook for loads of people with confidence

I have a 4 oven oil aga and love it but there is a learning curve. Firstly, accept that this is a whole new way of cooking, go with the aga flow - you find the temperature rather than setting it.
Definitely find your local aga dealer and they will almost certainly do demonstration days which are really helpful and you can ask all the questions you need - no matter how daft. My local one is really helpful even if you just ring them up with a "how to" question.
If the previous owner doesn't leave them, it's worth investing in some proper aga roasting tins and trays - both 1/2 and full size. They fit directly onto the runners and I use them almost daily. You can often get them cheaper online or the web aga cookshop often has 25 or 30% offers on. The saute pans with detachable handles are also brilliant, but expensive.
You don't need new pans, provided your exisiting ones have heat resistant, preferably metal handles as they will need to go in the ovens. Most handles will be OK in the simmering oven, but not in the roasting oven.
You will love the way it makes pizza and the best ever yorkies and toad in the hole. Simmering oven brilliant for slow cooks, meringues, cheescakes etc.
Enjoy learning to love your aga!

This is a brilliant little book - alongside the standard Mary Berry Aga book. Really useful for new owners. I still use it.#

www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Book-Know-how-Range-Cookbooks/dp/1904573231?tag=mumsnetforum-21

They are brilliant. I am a crap cook, and even I manage not to burn stuff on my Aga. I didn't read any books - I just got used to the feel of it and it was fine...

Great advice here! Thanks a lot to all of you for helping to alleviate my nervousness!!

Your induction hob pans will be fine. Overtime as you get used to your Aga you might want to invest in Aga pans (they stack so you can get several into the ovens at the same time which is handy if you are cooking a big meal).

As others have said, find your local Aga shop and book yourself on a "Do It All" course. They are only a few hours and it's brilliant (you also get to eat the lovely food they make!!). I got so much out of my session and met some lovely people too.

Get yourself a copy of Mary Berry's Aga Cookbook and also check out Sarah Whittaker's (aka The Aga Lady) YouTube channel / website. Her books are good too.

Basically, use it, find your way of cooking and you won't look back. Good Luck!!

Hey you aren’t buying the same house as me are you lol?!?! We are moving to a house with a 2 oven Aga, I went to a local Aga showroom and the lady was v helpful at telling me what was/wasn’t useful. She said you may want Aga pans at some point as they can stack on each other, but mybstainless steel ones will be fine - the important thing is that the base is flat.

Opening the lids on the top plates lowers the oven temp so do as little as possible on there - get stuff to temperature then bing in oven. The two ovens are roasting and simmering, so neither is ideal cake temp. For a cake that has a long cooking time I think she said to put in the simmering oven. For a sponge, you need the “cold shelf”. I think you put it in at the same time as the cake (otherwise it does no good as it will be same temp as oven!) on the shelf above the cake to effectively reduce the oven temp for a short while.

Aga oven gloves (gauntlets) are a must to reach stuff at the back. I’ve ordered some from emma Bridgewater as they were half the price of Aga ones but will have to see how good they are.

I found this useful site with hints:
www.agacottages.co.uk/2-oven-aga/