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What's "Aga Cookery"?


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As I understand it, the Aga has replaced the restuarant-style stove as the "must have" kitchen item.

Edited by bloviatrix (log)

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Does anybody have an Aga cooker or has anybody ever worked with one?

I designed a kitchen around one - the 4 oven model. The clients (in rural CT) love it, but Agas aren't for everyone. The house was new construction and luckily they had a very competent and patient builder. Among other things: the floor needed to be reinforced, a platform built, the base cabinets beside it were made extra-deep (it was all custom cabinetry), and the client needed to learn a completely different style of cooking. The headaches involved and checking and rechecking with the maunfacturer paid off as the clients say the kitchen is their favorite room in the house and the Aga is always the center of attention when they entertain.

Sometimes When You Are Right, You Can Still Be Wrong. ~De La Vega

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So, what about the constant heat? Like foodie52, I can't imagine having one in Texas.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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The problem is that it is ALWAYS putting out heat, right?

As someone who gets cold when the weather drops below 70, I don't find it a problem. Sounds wonderful. (There's a reason I cook so much when it's cold, it keeps me nice and toasty)

Blondie -- do the people you designed the kitchen for actually use their Aga, or is it more of a design element?

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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The problem is that it is ALWAYS putting out heat, right?

As someone who gets cold when the weather drops below 70, I don't find it a problem. Sounds wonderful. (There's a reason I cook so much when it's cold, it keeps me nice and toasty)

Blondie -- do the people you designed the kitchen for actually use their Aga, or is it more of a design element?

They use it every day, love it, and have no intention of ever going back to a conventional range.

To answer Fifi's question, the constant heat hasn't been a problem thusfar, but they live in CT not the Sunbelt. It was installed last winter and we had a wet, cool summer. A hot, dry summer might be uncomfortable but the client said she'd crank up the AC in that case :smile:

Sometimes When You Are Right, You Can Still Be Wrong. ~De La Vega

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To answer Fifi's question, the constant heat hasn't been a problem thusfar, but they live in CT not the Sunbelt. It was installed last winter and we had a wet, cool summer. A hot, dry summer might be uncomfortable but the client said she'd crank up the AC in that case :smile:

Guess they're not real into the whole conserve-fuel, help-the-environment, reduce-dependence-on-foreign-oil thing, hunh?

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A couple of ideas popped into my head while reading the Aga web site about trying to simulate some of the advantages of these Agas with a convention stovetop and oven:

1. To create the radiant heat of an Aga oven, get the largest dutch oven you can find, put a rack inside, preheat with the dutch oven so that the heat is even all around, open it up, put your roasting pan or whatever inside, and put the lid on. You could even use a large "camp" dutch oven with legs and place it directly on the floor of your oven.

2. To create a a stovetop hotplate, get a large two-burner cast-iron griddle, place it over your burners, bring it up to temp, and then move your pans around on that to change the temperature.

I haven't found uneven heating to be a problem in my typical cheap oven but I don't bake bread and that sort of thing. I use my oven for roasting, braising, and broiling. Perhaps my use is less critical.

I know that some commercial stovetops have hotplate setups as well. How good are these to use compared to individual burners where you turn a knob to alter the temp?

Hmm, I've got a Poor Man's Aga Project in my head. :biggrin:

Edited by esvoboda (log)
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So, what about the constant heat?

Jonathan Day has one which came with the house in London (I'm sure he'll be here soon to tell you himself). As you can see, once they're in, they're in. You'd have to break down walls and hire a crane to get rid of it, I imagine. But his crafty idea is to switch it off in summer, and he has a 2 burner hob in his 'Summer Kitchen' (his pantry off to the side). They're impressive objects, I admit, but I wouldn't want my daughter to marry one.

What I can't figure out is how on earth did these things ever get seen to be English (or British, as you State-siders keep calling it). Aga, for those of you not in the know, like Saab, is a Swedish company. Presumably they were always a serious investment - several levels and price multiplications up from a regular cooker. Now they're what? in the 8-12,000 pound range? Also, for you yankees, the image here is having one in your farm-house, or country pile - cold winters, rainy autumns - and curling up in the kitchen with a nice steaming mug of tea, and the rosy heat off the aga. The notion of having one in the city is just - well - odd. When you see one in action, you're dealing with a 2 ton block of clothes-singeingly-hot throbbing iron. It's less a kitchen appliance than a public-works contruction project.

How on earth did that ever become the must-have item?

"Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer..." Bessie Smith

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"111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321" Bruce Frigard 'Winesonoma' - RIP

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I have and love my AGA. It is my primary stove.

It is a reconditioned antique 4 oven model, converted from coal to oil fuel. It cost around $1500 including installation.

AGA's work by stored heat. There is a small burner, on constantly, and awful lot of cast iron and insulation. As a result you cook by choosing the oven or hot plate that is at the temperature you want - rather like cooking on a flat top. The ovens are at about 500F (roasting, great for bread); 300F; 200F (simmering) and 95F (ideal for long slow cooking, and plate warming). There is a hot plate for frying and a cooler one for simmering, both under insulated lids. The beauty is that they are ready hot, no waiting for the oven to warm up. Being hot all the time they are self-cleaning. Being cast iron they are indestructable. The top acts as a hot table, so no more cold food.

Yes they do put out some heat, but about the same as a radiator or body heat - you can touch it or sit on them. They are like a friend.They are a warm friendly presence to cuddle up to.

In winter they are the centre of the house. In summer we open the patio doors in the kitchen and no problem. They put out a lot less heat than a conventional oven, since they are so much better insulated. They just put it out constantly.

The flattops are a joy for accurate temperature control, and for large pans.

The ovens are large and deep. They are always ready to cook.

They have minor disadvantages

After lots of cooking they cool down, especially if you leave insulated doors or lids open. You develop a style where you tend to cook in the oven, rather on the flattop.

The ovens are vented to the flue, so you don't get cooking smalls, but it is easy to forget something in there as you don't get the burning smells. You come back next day to a perfect carbon replica of the laof or whatever it was you were trying o cook.

They need servicing (basically cleaning the flues) every six months.

They take a day to cool down or come up to temperature if you need to turn them off or on.

Its handy to have additional cooking ability, such as a wok burner, and a microwave/radiant grill to complement what the AGA doesn't do well.

Like Marmite, you either love or hate AGAs.

I think they are the best range cooker for home use for a serious cook and the nearest domestic equivalent to a restaurant flat top stove, unless you want to put in serious extraction to get rid of the heat a professional range puts out.

Edited by jackal10 (log)
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I am the proud owner of an AGA and at this time of the year all friends and family agree how fantastic it is to have a centre of the house for all to gather around,lean up against and generally get cozy alongside.I have mine in the kitchen /dining area and do turn it off during the summer and use an electric oven.For roasting it has few competitors and for baking and slow cooking of oven top dishes the constant heat is great.

Would I put one in a new kitchen,damn right :cool: but I realize it is an extravagance.

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To answer Fifi's question, the constant heat hasn't been a problem thusfar, but they live in CT not the Sunbelt. It was installed last winter and we had a wet, cool summer. A hot, dry summer might be uncomfortable but the client said she'd crank up the AC in that case  :smile:

Guess they're not real into the whole conserve-fuel, help-the-environment, reduce-dependence-on-foreign-oil thing, hunh?

Normally she is, but not when it concerns her Aga :wink: Believe me, everyone tried to talk her out of it: her husband, the builder, even I was a bit wary since I had never dealt with one before. She insisted and now she not only has a room that reflects her vision, but she cooks far more often now than she used to (so the kids eat home-cooked food every night and far less fast food). Everyone's happy, and now all of her friends want one too :smile:

Sometimes When You Are Right, You Can Still Be Wrong. ~De La Vega

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You see? Yet another definition of what it means to be British. Spending your youth, sitting on a Swedish hot plate.

How will anyone ever understand us? :biggrin:

"Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer..." Bessie Smith

Flickr Food

"111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321" Bruce Frigard 'Winesonoma' - RIP

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Aren't the ovens impossibly small? A friend used to have an AGA (she has since gone through the ordeal of removing it and replacing with an 8-burner Garland or something) and I cooked in her kitchen a couple of times. I recall trying to shoehorn a roasting pan into one of the ovens and having to hunt around and switch to a smaller pan at the last minute.

I also recall that having more than two pots on the top at one time was a frustration. Just my 2¢.

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The ovens are larger than a conventional domestic oven, much deeper, but not as large as a catering oven. 20lb turkey and all the trimmings no problem.

Why they don't make them standard half sheet sizes I will never know.

You can easily get six, maybe eight pans on the top.

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*gasp*

now i'm going to have to color coordinate the aga and the hot pink kitchenaid.

i wonder how close the claret is to match? if not, i shall have to decide on another color.

*goes off to fantasyland to think about this for a while*

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You can easily get six, maybe eight pans on the top.

Yes, you can get 6-8 pans on the top - but with both lids open, don't expect the heat to stay high enough to do anything USEFUL WITH! That for me is the massive downside of Aga cooking - stuffing it full of delicious and nutritious dishes, only to have the heat level drop so far you have to use the microwave to cook everything anyway. Look! I'm a child of the 21st century and I want INSTANT gratification, none of this having to wait a year and a half for the heat to come back up again, raw duck anyone?

Sorry to all those who love them, but I've had too many bad experiences with temperamental Agas. And as for those which are linked up to the house's hot water system?? Don't even get me started.

Right, that's it, I'm off to declare war on the Swedes. This is all their fault anyway.

Fi

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

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