Talk to me like an idiot about Aga's!

[Cindy1802]

Just moved into a house which has an aga. We think it's very old, the kitchen was last remodelled in 1990. It's very well kept though.

I have NO idea what I'm doing. And based on that I don't know whether I want to keep it or not, but don't want to make a rash, ignorant decision.

I'm very much a foodie and cook all meals from scratch. I have 2 young boys and a husband to feed while working full time, and therefor batch cook large volumes so don't have to cook every night. Will I be able to do this in a 2 oven aga? I don't know what temperatures the ovens run at or how to find out. It's run on gas.

Can I use normal pots and pans on the hob? Normal oven trays in the oven? I don't even know where to start!

Tell me what I need to know!

Do you turn yours down overnight or if you are out all day?

No. Once we turn it on in Autumn, it stays on until Spring.

IF I know I'm doing say a large Sunday roast, I might turn it up slightly in the morning to ensure its hot enough for everything, but otherwise I don't turn it up and down at all.

go on facebook and join I LOVE MY AGA and you will meet lots of people who cook on agas. Ive been using one for 25 years.

look up sarah whittaker on facebook and youtube as she has some great videos. The one she does showing how to cook a christmas dinner is great.

sounds like you have a traditional 2 oven gas aga. You DO NOT TURN OFF or down traditional agas - they stay on all the time. So you never have to wait for ovens to warm up. You cook as little as possible on the hobs as that way you let a lot of heat out of it. All root veg bring up to the boil on the hotplate, drain, put lid on and steam gently in the simmering oven.

if you have an aga shop near you see if they are doing any cooking demonstrations - but make sure its for a traditional aga, not the new fangled electric ones which can be switched on and off and are therefore not real agas.

they are not cheap to run but gas is cheaper than electric at the moment i think.

they are marmite - you either love them or dont get them at all!

as you can tell i love mine! Good luck!

I learnt to cook on an Aga and find it much simpler than a regular oven. I second Mary Berry’s Aga book.

We had one for 10 years in a draughty old house and I do miss it. Family cooking is very easy and it makes your kitchen a lovely place.

You don't turn them down overnight because that's not how they work. It's all or nothing for the older models.

We looked at getting a new one recently but the costs of running them are just too high in a normal (insulated!) house.

I think unless you can afford to run it without constantly thinking about how much gas you are burning you should consider getting rid of it because it will be like a huge cast iron worry in your kitchen.

For those saying you don't turn down traditional agas - why not? What's the downside of doing so?

I asked the same when I inherited one. I was told that it can take a few hours to heat up and turning it down and up every day or even every few days would end up costing FAR more in gas than just leaving it on. You'd be churning through gas just to get it back up to temperature every day.

Its a completely different beast to a regular oven where yes, you only turn it on when needed. The aga works via radiant heat- no elements to heat. It is costly, but you also need to consider what it replaces:
-Toaster, kettle, clothes dryer, some people iron on it and far more.

I recommend the basic Aga books.
the premise of an Aga is to cook 80% in the oven and 20% on the plates. (conventional cooking is the reverse)
so bring rice, potatoes etc to the boil and then pop in the top oven to finish.

I find it’s a clean way of cooking: so little is visible. Bolognese, stock, roasts, stews annd soups are all done in the oven.

They don't warm up in time. It takes hours for them to come back to temperature and they are so blooming fragile (in a male ego kind of way 😉) that it can take days of tweaking the dial to get it back to the right place. Also, much like a male ego!

Don’t mess with the temperature controls. You can’t turn it down to save money. You can accept that and lean in to the positives which are radiant warmth, amazing roasts and Christmases, tea towels that look like they’ve been ironed and the best toast ever. No waiting for the oven to get to temp either.

or you can get shot of it and cook normally, the way the cookery books advise generally and whack the heating on when it suits.

I’ve done both and you either go whole hog aga and do it properly and it’s on 8 months of the year or you just don’t. Both have their advantages!

We have one, if you turn it down it takes a while to cool, and then of course, a while to heat back up. It’s a false economy and meanwhile you can’t cook anything as it isn’t warm enough.

If we were going away for the weekend we might turn it down slightly, say from 5 and a smidge to 4 and a smidge (based on our dial) and then back up when we got home.

If I was cooking a big meal I’d go to 5.5 as I knew I’d lose some heat in the process.

They are also, or perhaps just ours, notoriously difficult to relight. So really do think before you turn it off.

Ours is off for summer, usually May to September. It is a 5 door beast, love it. I do more hob cooking than is advised here, I’m ok with that. It’s £££ anyway and perhaps as it’s so big I don’t notice a temp drop.

In case anyone needs any aga bits, they have a sale on!!! www.agacookshop.co.uk/