Having lived with a traditional Aga, adjusting to a newly converted Aga may seem intimidating. We are here to answer any questions you may have. The following however offer some good starting points:

Remember your ovens are still cast iron and will cook better the longer that they are left on. They will reach temperature within an hour and a half from cold. At this stage a pizza, tray bake or ready meal could be cooked.

After 2 hours the cast in the ovens will be more evenly saturated. This will cook most day to day dishes successfully.

Baking for the village fete? Leave the ovens on all day and the cast will be fully saturated throughout and cook beautifully.

For this reason we advise turning the Aga to low when not in use, rather than turning off completely as the cast will retain its saturation and cooking will be more successful.

Remember your Aga is still an Aga, not a conventional cooker. Aga cooking should be intuitive. Do not overly concern yourself with temperatures and ignore the temperatures shown in conventional recipes. Try to think temperatures as zones within which to cook.

Personally I use 3 temperatures for all my Electrickit needs- 130 for slumber when not in use, 200 for day to day cooking, 230 for roast dinners. Do not turn your Aga down to bake, cook as you would have on your traditional Aga by using the different areas of the oven to control temperature. Trust yourself and your Aga to work together as you always have- ignore your timer and ignore the temperature display!

The powerful element is located under the base of your top oven. Use it to your advantage as your instant hob, avoiding heat up times when the ovens are on. Anything that you would cook on the hob can be cooked here. Try the following:

Toast with or without toaster

Boiling eggs

Boiling pasta, rice or vegetables

Heating beans or tinned foods

Frying a steak or other fast cook meat

Cooking fish fillets

Frying bacon

Browning meat or sweating vegetables to start a casserole

Boiling the kettle (check if oven safe)

You can also use it to cook a pizza

At first, the much hotter base can be challenging. For items requiring a coloured base but needing a slightly gentler heat, place the grid shelf on the base of the oven and cook here. This is particularly useful for pastry.

For a roast dinner:

Cook Yorkshire puddings first and on the middle runners.

Place potatoes on the bottom runners. They will colour faster on the bottom so toss halfway through.

Place parsnips or carrots for roasting on the next runners up.

Cook your roasting joint above the potatoes, moving to the bottom oven once coloured if preferred.

Cook cauliflower cheese or items for which you do not want to brown the base, towards the top oven the oven, moving to the bottom oven for final browning.

To colour the top of dishes:

Complete 80% of the cooking time in the top oven.

Move to the bottom oven and place as close to the roof of the oven as possible. Open the top oven door ajar (or turn the ovens up by 10 degrees) and leave for 5-10 minutes to gently ‘grill’. This will work for items such as skewers & kebabs, cauliflower cheese, gratins & crumb or cheese covered bakes.

Baking:

Cook sponge cakes on the top or second runners down, placing the cold shelf underneath to diffuse the heat of the element.

Bake brownies and tray bakes on the top runners (top oven) without a cold shelf.

Remember if you have full size trays lower down in the oven, these will protect your baking from the element so no cold shelf will be necessary.

Simmering:

Your simmering oven will be hotter than pre conversion. To achieve your pre conversion temperature you would need to set the top oven to 170. Sticking with the idea of not being to tied into set temperatures, you may find it more intuitive to simply adjust your timings and cook things for a little less time. Alternatively you could slow cook in the top oven set to between 110 and 130 - a good slumber temperature for daytime use.