Aga - what's the big deal?

[Covert19]

We're about to move into a house with an electric Aga. I am aware that there are Aga fans who would not be without the massive beasts, but I don't get it. The people selling the house described having an Aga as "a lifestyle" as though this appliance is a time-consuming pet rather than a convenient way to heat chicken nuggets.

I suppose I am wondering why people like them so much, and what I'm supposed to do with the one I'm "inheriting". Is it a different way of cooking? Will it do all the things my current electric split-level Neff fan oven does? Or will I have to resort to making broth and pot roasts to get the most out of it? Guidance please!

It depends on which model you have but generally speaking, yes, it is a different way of cooking as the focus is on using the ovens while keeping the lids down as much as possible.

I think the "lifestyle" thing is to try and divert attention from the running costs.

I really love mine but it’s a massive indulgence - like burning tenners 😬. It’s 80+ years old & runs on oil. It is a different style of cooking, but really not hard to adapt. Not having to pre heat ovens makes loads of difference & it heats the kitchen beautifully. But yeah, really expensive to run.

Load of bollocks isn't it? Everyone I know who has one has an ordinary cooker too. I must admit I love warming my bum on my friend's one, and the way it's positioned means it heats most of their downstairs, but it's totally poncetastic.

I really love mine but it’s a massive indulgence - like burning tenners

It's ironic really as it was originally designed to be the economical alternative to a standard kitchen range.

We don’t run ours ( a 50 year old gas one ) on full power - but it heats most of downstairs and I really love cooking in it . No need to heat up an oven ever . We do have an electric oven which I maybe use 2/3 weeks in the summer when it’s too hot to leave the aga on .

I chose an Everhot over the Aga but have cooked on Agas in three houses. Two of my friends have the very large one and love it. Their ovens are both oil. They are great for reviving new born lambs and drying out horse rugs over the pulley. Other than that great for slow cooked food and big pans of broth and keeping the kettle hot. DH wanted an electric one so we went for the Everhot looks similar but cooks differently. I have had it nearly two years and we wish we had bought one sooner. I don’t have another stove or a microwave. It is a different way of cooking but won’t take you long to learn buy an Aga cook book if there isn’t one.

Hmm we inherited one too, it’s an absolutely beautiful looking thing and is seriously toasty in winter but that is where it’s appeal ends.

Ours is also electric and we easily get through about 13,000 kWh of electricity a year (also have an oil boiler) and our aga is probably on start Nov to End of March depending on the weather (plus we have an aims system so it comes on twice a day), we have another cooker for the rest of the year. I don’t think it cooks brilliantly, it has a tendency to burn/overcook things on one side if you don’t turn them mid way through cooking. It’s very suited to traditional English cooking of meat and two veg, jacket potatoes, stews etc. which I’m not really into.

We’ve had ours 5 years and I still can’t make aga toast it’s either burnt or underdone. I just use a toaster. Yep if it broke it would not be replaced!

I grew up with a solid fuel aga. My god I loved having gas heating and a proper cooker when I got my own place!

Another vote for Everhot. I also have a Neff oven which has been pretty much redundant since the arrival of the Everhot in March. It's a dream, and no I don't work for them.

We inherited a Stanley & I can’t get my head around it. My gran had an Aga & it was just on all the time, I understood that. Our Stanley has a programmer so it’s set to come on morning & evening, which just doesn’t make sense to me - why heat up this massive lump of stove which you might not be using? We also have an induction hob & electric oven, so I’ve been using that, but would like to get my head round the Stanley...

I inherited my gas aga. Had a Neff double oven before which I left at our old house.

Adore my aga. Warming bottoms after being in the garden. Christmas turkey cooked overnight. Chilli con carne put in SO in morning (no browning of meat, no frying onions first), ready for tea after being out at work all day. Oven baked fish, no foil, no smell as it all goes up flue. Jacket potatoes go in for 1.5 hours in RO again no foil. Drying clothes on airer in front of it. Dd taught herself to bake during lockdown and regularly does scotch pancakes for breakfast. Oh and guilt free fried eggs.

Did think that I'd be chained to it waiting for things to cook on hotplate but its easier than my old oven and hob. Bring things to boil, then use the ovens is the key.

I do set a timer when putting something in ovens.

When we renovate the kitchens I will be getting a second oven and hob for the warmer months, found it over powering during the hot weather.

From what I hear from other aga owners electric is the most expensive to run.

So yours is on all the time houseinthemiddle?

I have a 4 oven oil fired AGA. Came with the house. Whole family loves it now. It's not that old, about 25 years. We use it to heat the ground floor and we don't often put the central heating on. It looks old fashioned and comforting and shabby chic in the kitchen. We dry clothes on the AGA and I find it perfect to cook on. It's not great for stir fries but everything else I cook and bake seems to work v well. Lovely hot plate on top for keeping food warm when it's cooked and about to be served and plates and serving bowls can be heated in the warming oven. I went on an AGA course and really enjoyed it.

Yes, I have a little old fashioned electric cooker for the very hot weeks of the summer when the AGA's switched off.

It all sounds madly indulgent and won't suit everybody but you can sell an Everhot and get a good price I'm sure, they're much sought after, and you can sell an electric one too.

We inherited a gas AGA and I have loved it. For many years we had no other cooker but after renovations we got a 2 ring gas hob and a little combi microwave which tide us over with the aid of a BBQ for roasts. We turn the AGA off during a prolonged hot spell in summer for 4-6 weeks or so, but otherwise it is on year round. It has 2 ovens and I am completely used to cooking everything on it. I'll admit I'm not a cake baker and on the occasion that I do make a sponge or something I use the combi oven to reduce the variables but for all normal cooking the AGA is great. One mitigation as far as bills is concerned is that there is no need or justification for a tumble dryer and that the cold edge is always taken off the outside temperature. We have radiators on in the bathrooms and sometimes in the tv room but not in the kitchen diner or in bedrooms, unused sitting room , hall etc. On the coldest days we have a fire with our own logs so our heating costs aren't particularly high .
I probably wouldn't buy one on ecological grounds but if we bought a house with one in again I would be delighted.

I grew up in the country and everyone had one, in many cases it was the only source of heat in the house. I remember my mum hanging my school uniform on it so it would be warm in the morning.
They are fine once you are used to then, and lovely to warn yourself on after a walk. Ours used to have a constant supply of dogs and cats around it.

I think it became a ‘county kitchen’ thing rather than the necessity it was.

Until this month I had a Rayburn (gas powered) which both heated the house and was the only source for cooking. When the DC were ar homw it was great - no need for a tumble drier, meals could be kept warm,kitchen very cosy but it was eye wateringly expensive to run. My gas usage has dropped by more than half this month. No fixed cooker at all at the moment - working with a halogen oven, instant pot and portable induction hob. Hopefully new kitchen in the next 18 months

I'm desperate for an everhot but the cost of them is extortionate.

Well their not complicated or time consuming. A very simple hea source and permanently ready to cook. Ours is programmable, so cheaper to run and can be set to heat at certain times.
Probably a bit silly in a small hermetically sealed, modern box, but In draughty old places and big spaces they multitask and come into their own.
Drying laundry
Reduce need for ironing
Keep the chill off for longer so heating can be put on later.
Dry coats when people arrived soaked by heavy rain.
Warm hands and feet.
Drying shoes
Cooking very large meals
Stopping baking tins rusting
No unpleasant cooking smells
Sterilises chutney jars
Warms plates
Works as slow cooker, bread maker as well.

It is a different way of cooking because most is done inside the oven but I know very few people living rurally who are without one.

Very expensive, I'd remove it and put a standard range cooker in

The food quality of food cooked on an aga is said to be superior. It uses ambient heat so cooks all the way around iyswim. It’s a different way of cooking.

We don’t have one but a house we were going to buy had one. I was more excited than daunted tbh. I wouldn’t buy one myself but would be happy to inherit one.

Enjoy it!

We inherited a 4 oven aga when we bought this house. I had to google what's that lump of metal in my kitchen - I was shocked that the previous owners had spent more on the oven that I'd spent on my car.

I costs a fortune to run, so have had a normal oven installed to use over the summer after the cat started to vomit in the excessively heat of the kitchen the first April we lived here.

However, I ike being able to have the oven space to properly batch cook, so we more likely to eat meals made entirely from scratch when the agas on. I like the way food retains moisture, so I do enjoy using it.

It cooks eggs to perfection in seconds using no fat at all using a circle of bakeoglide on the simmering ring.

I love the veg steamed in the simmering oven and the kids go crazy over an aga steamed pudding. I have changed my mind about Christmas cake - the one I made in the simmering oven is the best I've ever tasted - it definitely wasnt dried out.

In the winter i store my plates in the keep warm oven, so we always eat off off warm plates.

The down side is cooking Christmas dinner has now fallen to me several years in a row, as extended family know I'm the only one with oven space to cook for a large family.

It is an extrangavance to run, but I dont drink or smoke or drive a fancy car so i just think of something to help brighten chilly winter days

My sister has an Aga and is obsessed with owning one - it is definately a lifestyle thing for her, it sort of feeds into her self image and how she presents herself to the world (pretty sad I know, but there you are).

I think they are best if, like my sister, you live in a big draughty farmhouse. If you live in a house with modern standards of insulation the kitchen will become unbearably hot, even if you open windows. Also, they are crap. I have never had a decent meal at my sisters. You wait ages for the food and some of it is always cold/undercooked.

So I think they are really for heating old houses and/or poncy posing. Style over function, in general - they do look lovely.

Oh, if you do use the aga make sure you invest in a good pair of gaunlets. Just after I moved I went to a cookery demonstration at the nearest aga showroom.

Not only was I the only person in the room not wearing a Barbour jacket, i was the only person without a bandaged hand - the demonstrator included. (I dont know if the spate of injuries were all aga related)

Will it do all the things my current electric split-level Neff fan oven does?

Short answer - no! We rented a house for six months that had one and they were all the rage at the time. I made my DH promise that, no matter how much it cost, if we bought a house with one it would be taken out and replaced with a modern electric oven. They are the most ludicrous things in my view; akin to rejecting a modern washing machine in favour of a mangle (it’s a different way of washing clothes etc). If you have something in the oven, you can’t boil a pot of pasta on the top!

I hated it. My ex had a gas aga and it was basically a huge radiator. The kitchen was unbearably hot for eight months of the year.

It was ok for making soup and casseroles and warming plates, but completely useless for anything that required temperature control, like cakes, bread, meringues, most things...

And it cost £££££ to run. In environmental terms, they are a disaster. I would actively avoid buying a house if it had an aga, because they aren't easy to get rid of either.