In response to demand by my readers...... well OK it was one person who asked, I thought today's post would show the range where I struggle to cook.
It's not actually this Victorian range. This was installed by the previous occupants, at great expense (I believe about £1000 !! ), up in the barbecue area where the swimming pool was. We did look into ripping it out and selling it but it would have needed some major demolition and wouldn't have fetched very much anyway. These stoves were not designed to be outside, hence the rust, and it would have been the job of a hardworking housewife or maidservant to keep it clean and polished. I could just give it a coat of rust paint but as it is fully functional with a proper chimney the next owners of this place might want to use it so I may just give it a going over with a wire brush.
This is the Rayburn that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love the way it keeps the kitchen warm, provides unlimited hot water and dries my washing ....... BUT I hate the way it is a nightmare to cook on , the fact that it burns fuel 24/7 and the way that any food or grease splashes get heat sealed on. It is all enamelled so you can't use anything too vigorous such as wire wool and there don't seem to be any products that remove baked on grease from a too hot to touch surface. Any ideas anyone ? I even went into a posh Aga showroom to ask about cleaning but they didn't have any ideas. Perhaps most Aga owners have plenty of time or cleaning ladies. All I can do is scub with a kitchen scrub/sponge and very carefully scrape with a sharp knife but it is too easy to scratch the enamel surface.
Cooking is a bit of a challenge. There is a large hotplate on the top, one side of which is a bit hotter than the other but it never gets hot enough to fry anything. You are supposed to be able to adjust the oil flow and thus the temperature but it takes at least half an hour to react and is unpredictable so I generally adjust my cooking times to the temperature it is running at. The oven is the small door with the gauge on the front and yes it is rather small. The more you put into the oven the lower the temp drops. The temp is also dependant on the direction of the wind. The small oven below is only a warmer, good for drying wet boots and gloves, when it is open the cats often creep in with the boots. The 3rd door opens on the oil burner parts. This is a modern rayburn and uses heating oil (kerosene). It is designed to run a central heating system as well but that didn't work for the previous owners and we were advised to put in a separate boiler and closed system for this size of house. To supplement the rayburn I have a microwave oven and a large electric hot plate set into the work surface. Cooking on the rayburn needs a lot of forward planning and some luck.
Peter hates the rayburn with a vengeance because about every 6 months the wicks get sooted up and he has to dismantle and clean it. The heavy hotplate has to be taken off so that all the soot can be hoovered up and the oil burner has to be taken to pieces, cleaned , new wick put in and then replaced. It often takes several attempts to get the oil flowing evenly as the levels have to be just right and everything is in a confined space. This usually takes a whole day and leaves Peter bad tempered with skinned knuckles.
The cats on the other hand love the rayburn as somewhere warm to snuggle up to. Smudge in particular likes to lie stretched out with his tummy against the rayburn to get the full benefit of the heat. You can always tell when it is getting cold because the kitchen starts to be populated by cats looking for a warm place (only 4 now but we did have 6 and a big dog).
Other details, I did all the tiling in the kitchen using basic white tiles topped with Laura Ashley borders (I made matching curtains from LA fabric, I do like a touch of Laura Ashley around the place.) I also painted the hen, copied from a kitchen magazine, and the sweet peas to match the border and I used wavy dark blue tiles set at an angle to make the splash back. Oh and the floor is cork tiling on concrete. We put down cork tiles in our old house and loved them so much we did the same here. If for any reason we were to lose both the oil and electricity the wood burner in the sitting room has a large flat top which gets more than hot enough to cook on. And those are the cooking facilities in this Devon farmhouse. It will probably take a while to adjust back to a normal oven that comes on at the flick of a switch when we do eventually move.
It's not actually this Victorian range. This was installed by the previous occupants, at great expense (I believe about £1000 !! ), up in the barbecue area where the swimming pool was. We did look into ripping it out and selling it but it would have needed some major demolition and wouldn't have fetched very much anyway. These stoves were not designed to be outside, hence the rust, and it would have been the job of a hardworking housewife or maidservant to keep it clean and polished. I could just give it a coat of rust paint but as it is fully functional with a proper chimney the next owners of this place might want to use it so I may just give it a going over with a wire brush.
This is the Rayburn that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love the way it keeps the kitchen warm, provides unlimited hot water and dries my washing ....... BUT I hate the way it is a nightmare to cook on , the fact that it burns fuel 24/7 and the way that any food or grease splashes get heat sealed on. It is all enamelled so you can't use anything too vigorous such as wire wool and there don't seem to be any products that remove baked on grease from a too hot to touch surface. Any ideas anyone ? I even went into a posh Aga showroom to ask about cleaning but they didn't have any ideas. Perhaps most Aga owners have plenty of time or cleaning ladies. All I can do is scub with a kitchen scrub/sponge and very carefully scrape with a sharp knife but it is too easy to scratch the enamel surface.Cooking is a bit of a challenge. There is a large hotplate on the top, one side of which is a bit hotter than the other but it never gets hot enough to fry anything. You are supposed to be able to adjust the oil flow and thus the temperature but it takes at least half an hour to react and is unpredictable so I generally adjust my cooking times to the temperature it is running at. The oven is the small door with the gauge on the front and yes it is rather small. The more you put into the oven the lower the temp drops. The temp is also dependant on the direction of the wind. The small oven below is only a warmer, good for drying wet boots and gloves, when it is open the cats often creep in with the boots. The 3rd door opens on the oil burner parts. This is a modern rayburn and uses heating oil (kerosene). It is designed to run a central heating system as well but that didn't work for the previous owners and we were advised to put in a separate boiler and closed system for this size of house. To supplement the rayburn I have a microwave oven and a large electric hot plate set into the work surface. Cooking on the rayburn needs a lot of forward planning and some luck.
Peter hates the rayburn with a vengeance because about every 6 months the wicks get sooted up and he has to dismantle and clean it. The heavy hotplate has to be taken off so that all the soot can be hoovered up and the oil burner has to be taken to pieces, cleaned , new wick put in and then replaced. It often takes several attempts to get the oil flowing evenly as the levels have to be just right and everything is in a confined space. This usually takes a whole day and leaves Peter bad tempered with skinned knuckles.
The cats on the other hand love the rayburn as somewhere warm to snuggle up to. Smudge in particular likes to lie stretched out with his tummy against the rayburn to get the full benefit of the heat. You can always tell when it is getting cold because the kitchen starts to be populated by cats looking for a warm place (only 4 now but we did have 6 and a big dog).
Other details, I did all the tiling in the kitchen using basic white tiles topped with Laura Ashley borders (I made matching curtains from LA fabric, I do like a touch of Laura Ashley around the place.) I also painted the hen, copied from a kitchen magazine, and the sweet peas to match the border and I used wavy dark blue tiles set at an angle to make the splash back. Oh and the floor is cork tiling on concrete. We put down cork tiles in our old house and loved them so much we did the same here. If for any reason we were to lose both the oil and electricity the wood burner in the sitting room has a large flat top which gets more than hot enough to cook on. And those are the cooking facilities in this Devon farmhouse. It will probably take a while to adjust back to a normal oven that comes on at the flick of a switch when we do eventually move.
