What's "Aga Cookery"?

[PoppySeedBagel]

The holiday cottage we use has an Aga (pale turquoise...) I think if I had an Aga I'd have to have another cooker too - I couldn't cope with the limitataions - friends who have an Aga produce very nice but quite iold-fashioned food in it - because of those limitations. But they are very good for drying beach towels on overnight in the middle of summer

[Jason Perlow]

Some history:

http://www.aga.com/web/web2000/com/WPPcom....er?opendocument

UK AGA site:

http://www.aga-rayburn.co.uk/

North American AGA site:

http://www.aga-ranges.com/

Apparently you can get the best of both worlds with the AGA 6-4

http://www.aga-ranges.com/models/six_four.cfm

[Jason Perlow]

AGA fan and owners site:

http://www.agacentral.com

This site has everything you ever wanted to know about AGA ranges. Lots of good stuff here.

[Jonathan Day]

Not much to add to what Jack and Moby already said. It took me awhile to get to like the Aga, but once you learn how it works, it's a pleasure to cook on. It's perfect for the damp climate here in the UK; our kitchen is partly below ground, and "should" be extremely damp, but the Aga keeps it warm and dry. It gets shut off roughly 6 weeks a year, during the summer; this gives an opportunity to give it a thorough cleaning and servicing.

Since I've become a convert to very low temperature cooking, thanks in part to Heston Blumenthal and in part to Jack's advice, the only regret is that even the slowest oven of the 4-oven Aga, the plate warmer, is too hot -- mine, at least, is more like 95C, not 95F, where what I want is more like 65C or 75C. I've finally managed to adapt the electric oven in the "summer kitchen", a Smeg, to maintain a more or less steady 75C, but this took some doing. The Aga can't do this.

I can't imagine an Aga in Texas. Yes, I can: a few years ago, we received an Aga owners' magazine (Agazine, of course) describing US Aga owners. One of them was Mrs Horatio Higginbotham III of Houston Texas. She had not only installed an Aga in her new, 2500 square foot kitchen, but also industrial air conditioning to deal with the heat that the Aga gave off. (The only parts of this story I am making up are her name and the size of the kitchen).

Much as I love the Aga, if we were building a new house or redoing a kitchen entirely, I would not install a new one -- I'd spend the money on something like this. But otherwise, the Aga is likely to outlive both our house and its current owners.

The ovens, by the way, are not really that small. They are narrower than some American ovens, but they make up for this in depth. You can put two or even three chickens in, easily; a goose; a turkey of any size; many pans of bread. The Aga's ovens are far more generous than the tiny ones found on most European domestic models (Neff, AEG, etc.).

[Jason Perlow]

Jonathan -- regarding the Diva de Provence, I have heard very mixed things about it from pro chefs. Chef Marco formerly of CRAFT in NYC told me that they did not stand up to constant abuse like regular commercial ranges and that they needed constant repair. In fact he semi jokingly told me that the repair company owner named his fishing boat "CRAFT" because he was such a great and frequent customer. CRAFT has since removed their Diva de Provence ranges and now have more commericial restaurant ranges installed.

[Paul de Gruchy]

I've got a four oven aga and love it. It was in the house when we moved in and I'd never cooked on one before. It's taken me about a year to fully work it out but now I could never cook on anything else. Having constant heat in the ovens adds an extra dimension to food: it's easier to roast than it is to fry, preferable to casserole rather than boil etc. You can always freshen bread, roast veggies etc. The ovens also never need cleaning. For these reasons its probably better in a cooler climate. It's been great reading the threads on the Fat Duck on egullet because an Aga is perfect for slow roasting: I'll put a leg of lamb in the slow oven before I go to work and 12 hours later it is perfect. Also, its great for searing pieces of meat and then finishing them in the oven, as a restaurant would.

Last Christmas, I cooked a turkey for 12 in 3 hours, but I could have had a different, though just as good effect by using a different oven for 16 hours.

Oh god, they are fantastic. Unbelievably so.

[jackal10]

Since I've become a convert to very low temperature cooking, thanks in part to Heston Blumenthal and in part to Jack's advice, the only regret is that even the slowest oven of the 4-oven Aga, the plate warmer, is too hot -- mine, at least, is more like 95C, not 95F, where what I want is more like 65C or 75C. I've finally managed to adapt the electric oven in the "summer kitchen", a Smeg, to maintain a more or less steady 75C, but this took some doing. The Aga can't do this.

The bottom left oven on a 4 oven AGa - mine is about 65C.

Two oven aga the simmering oven, and the top right oven in a 4 oven AGA ias about 95C.

You can get them cooler by

a) Leave the door ajar. That's how I dry herbs etc.

b) Put in a solid shelf (cold shelf) available from AGA.

Latest AGA must-have:

A

A wonderful stainless steel bread peel.

[Jonathan Day]

Jason, thanks for the tip. When we first moved to London the washing machine broke down so often that my wife knew exactly how the repairman liked his tea. We've no wish to get to know a stove repairman that well. So we'll stick with our Aga.

[foodie52]

( I simply had to add a reply so that my poodle immediately followed Jason's...I've been waiting ages to be able to do this!)

I probably shall never own an Aga, and consequently will always think of it as a wonderfully romantic appliance...the center of the home, the convergence of all that is good about family and food...

sigh...

[Trashers mum]

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

Hm,hm you are supposed to use the ovens for everything i.e. keep the lids down to retain the heat. (Aga demonstrator talking) Rice cooked by the absorption method etc etc. I was besotted by my Aga until recently (10 years old) it is slowly dying and parts are very very expensive (goes with the lifestyle but not mine) - the mercury gauge is the latest thing to go wrong; a new one is over £200. I am becoming an expert on temperature testing by the arcane, put your hand in and guess method!

[Mabelline]

I've watched consumed with jealousy Jennifer & Clarissa tossing so nonchalantly"Open the Aga, please, Clarissa," "But of course Jennifer," till you detailed them. They are a very rich folks version of a wood or coal stove but without the labor or skill involved, seems like. But God, how I miss Jennifer Patterson. What a character! Can any of you all update what is up with Clarissa?

[Flossie]

Heard Clarissa on 'The Food Programme' (Radio 4) on Sunday and it was so good I listened to the repeat on Monday. She's as wonderfully plummy as ever and superbly scathing of somebody-or-other's complicated vegetarian recipes.

[retirement_beckons]

Clarissa Dickson Wright went bankrupt for the third time a few weeks ago.

[Mabelline]

I am so sad to hear that! I kind of figured her to sort of dwindle and wither without her companion like an old married couple sometimes do. Man, I just reread my post and that labor and skill line needs clearing up. From the sound of it Agas are very much similar to woodstove cooking, and the labor and skill I referred to meant that inate-sp?-ability people developed to woodstove cooking for how much wood you needed to build up the oven for a half hour from now, etc. The Agas need just as much skill, and if I were to have the opportunity, I would certainly try it. They are simply a symbol to most of us as something to want which is inappropriate, but "So what?".Now I have another pointless U.S. question-I understand SMEG is a brand- but I used to watch "Red Dwarf" and they used smeg as a cussword. Please illuminate.

[curlywurlyfi]

Now I have another pointless U.S. question-I understand SMEG is a brand- but I used to watch "Red Dwarf" and they used smeg as a cussword. Please illuminate.

er - I don't think you're going to like the smeg answer very much. don't look if you're squeamish.

smeg

Fi

[Mabelline]

Well, see, like I knew that, but what I wanted to be enlightened on was why the name for appliances, too? Is it an acronym?

[curlywurlyfi]

oh god, now you think I'm some sort of pervert. Sorry, have no idea about SMEG (as opposed to smeg)...

[Mabelline]

I didn't think it at all-actually I only knew about it because in high school all the guys went through a faze of calling each other that once they learned it! But who would be so dense as to name a fridge that?.To show how dense I can be, I'm watching Jamie Oliver,okay? In the wide shot there's an aqua fridge behind him, and I see Smeg on the upper door. So what does Sherlock's new replacement think? "Gee, that's a pretty weird word to make with fridge magnets!"

[mags]

That's ok. A friend of mine who grew up in Ohio swears that when he was a kid, a local chemical company ran a citywide contest to come up with a name for this new product they'd developed, that de-iced the locks on car doors. The winning entry: "Drek."

That is, until somebody pointed out that in German and Yiddish, "drek" means "shit."

[Mabelline]

[Rachel Perlow]

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. .... 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. ...

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

I think both their perception as an English item and their growing popularity in the US has a lot to do with the Two Fat Ladies. Their show was quite a phenomena a few years ago and they were often seen cooking on and praising an Aga.

I am so sad to hear that! I kind of figured her to sort of dwindle and wither without her companion like an old married couple sometimes do.

When they were cast for Two Fat Ladies, they hadn't ever worked together before.

[Mabelline]

The one thing that absolutely cracked me up was the outtakes where Jennifer nailed the cameraman when the bike brakes were different from her scooter.

[PoppySeedBagel]

I have a wonderful little book of tributes to Jennifer after her death - she was, er, quite a character.

What I liked about them was that they could both cook elegantly - Delia is always a bit ham fisted, so it doesn't feel like she knows what she's doing but they always handled the ingerdients so well!

[Mabelline]

I truly loved to watch them. Although they may have only been together a while, they just complimented each other "swimmingly". I really was astonished at the pictures of Jennifer in her youth in the Mediterrean. She was gorgeous! I hope when she was exiting the mortal coil they gave her a drink and a smoke, if she could handle it.

[Charlene's Husband]

In answer to the question about the name Smeg... it's a Swedish company, which brings us full circle to the English love of Swedish appliances. The Aga, Smeg, Ikea, Volvos - all of these things go towards some weird English ideal of stylish middle-class living. It must be our Viking heritage or something.

I have no idea what Smeg (as in the fridge company) means though. Is it the Swedish for 'very large fridge'?

Ah, that's better. After lurking around and going to egullet events purely as an appendage of my wife, here I am on the site as my own man, out of the Charlene's shadow. Sort of.