Return to 1997 SPRING Index

by David and Rosemary Lucas

As both the boiling and simmering hot-plates are machined to a very precise flat surface. it is very desirable that the bottoms of all cooking utensils be as flat and thick as possible so that they make really good contact and thus transfer the heat efficiently. Of whatever metal the pans are made, cast iron, stainless steel, or aluminium, an accurately ground base at least 5mm thick is the minimum for good long term performance.

Thin pans with thin bases will soon distort, they will take longer to heat their contents, and food will stick and burn all too readily. Utensils marketed by AGA have always been first class: we have for example an aluminium Agaluxe (Pyramid) 4 pint kettle which has been in use for over thirty years and still boils water at about one pint per minute on the boiling plate.

Today for ease of cleaning and particularly for removal of hard water scale, we tend to use stainless steel pots and pans and can report favourably on those by...

• Kuhn Rikon (Swiss)
• Olofstrom (we believe no longer made)
• Bourgeat Serie Atlas (French, very substantial base and thus of outstanding performance).

For hot-plate use and for casserole cooking in both roasting and simmering ovens the heavy cast iron pots by "Copco" of Denmark are superb. Those by "Le Creuset" are equally good for oven use but sadly they do not all have really good ground bases and so take rather longer to heat on the hot-plates.

Using a suitable utensil the high speed performance of the boiling plate is excellent. Rapid boiling, deep fat frying, grilling meat, and even making toast, are all done easily quickly and cleanly. thanks to the immense heat stored in the massive castings. An omelette made with home produced eggs cooked with a little fresh home made butter (goat') in a cast iron frying pan on the boiling plate is truly a gastronomic delight.

Items brought to the boil on the boiling plate will continue to simmer nicely on the simmering plate with very little risk of boiling over. Milk will not in fact boil over on the simmering plate if in an un-lidded saucepan. This gentle but steady heat is of course ideal for slow frying, for "sweating" vegetables such as leaks or courgettes in a little olive oil or butter, and for making sauces. All types of egg cooking, scrambled poached and fried are easily and efficiently done on the simmering plate.

From time to time non AGA users will query how one controls the cooking temperature for these varying dishes: the answer is that with the hot-plate temperature remaining constant, cooking temperatures are controlled by the area of the pan which is actually on the hot-plate.

In much the same way is selected the correct temperature for cooking in the roasting oven: foods such as pastries, pies and Yorkshire puddings, requiring very high temperatures go fairly near to the top, joints poultry and game near the middle, and bread rolls and roast potatoes near the bottom. It is surprising how quickly one adapts to this method of cooking and after a very short time all the knobs switches and timers of "modern" conventional cookers seem to be rather unnecessary nuisances. Unlike conventional ovens however, because heat is transmitted to the oven through both its sides as well as the top and bottom and back, and because there are no heating elements or flames from which the food has to be protected, every bit of space can be used for cooking. NB. For very best results, as with most ovens, a certain amount of turning may be necessary.

Another reason for the fine performance of the roasting oven is that it is vented to the flue and so "soggy" food is avoided and this combined with the constant intense heat stored in the castings results in quite exceptional quality baking. AGA baked home made bread is a totally different and very real food compared with the steam baked factory sliced pulp which, sadly today, masquerades under the title of bread.

The only other oven we have encountered to rival the AGA roasting oven is of course the simmering oven and it really compliments rather than rivals. It has the same enormous capacity, every scrap of which can be used, and it is also vented, but it operates at a much lower temperature. This means that everything cooked in it has first to be brought up to the boil on say a hot-plate or in the roasting oven. Once in the simmering oven, food can be left absolutely unattended and untouched for as long as it needs. Even the toughest cuts of meat can be made tender and delicious by slow gentle cooking in this "wonder oven". Overnight, tough old boiling fowls become marvellously tender with a far better flavour than insipid, immature broiler chickens. Bones and meat trimmings in a saucepan of water, or better still in vegetable water, are converted to nutritious and flavoursome stock; and real oatmeal becomes a porridge which puts most factory made breakfast cereals to shame.

Daytime cooking is equally satisfactory (day or night the AGA is always ready) and the simmering oven's overall usefulness in a busy household must be experienced to be believed. Not merely does it perform any slow cooking function to perfection but it will keep most foods hot for very long periods without degradation of flavour or texture, and it will keep plates and dishes warm without risk of damage to fine china.

Yet another use for the simmering oven is fruit bottling: every year we bottle about a hundred jars of home grown fruit. Apples, pears, plums, raspberries, black currants, blackberries, and tomatoes are all suitably prepared and packed into Kilner or Le Parfait jars and bottled in the simmering oven. We certainly would not preserve nearly so much were it not for the ease and simplicity of the AGA method.

One further and very unusual use for the simmering oven which we have not yet tried and indeed would hope to avoid, but which we were assured by some friends did actually work, is to use it as an incubator for fertile goose eggs. We understand this meant leaving the oven door open for most of the time and of course this would temporarily render the oven useless for its normal functions.

Of the more mundane "non-cooking" uses for our AGA we should mention the use of the simmering plate lid for pressing handkerchiefs, table napkins, etc. NB Do not use the boiling plate lid for this purpose: it is really far too hot and scorching or burning could occur. The towel rail is quite remarkable for drying, airing, and "de-wrinkling" larger textiles. If the ceiling is high enough and room ventilation is adequate, installation of the old style pulley operated airing rack will enable one to make even more use of the AGA's steady 24 hour, background heat, not just for the laundry but for things such as herb drying.

Both hot plates of our AGA have been used to heat sundry large metal objects for soldering purposes when the heat output from soldering irons alone has been inadequate. Repairs to various objects using epoxy resins such as "Araldite" are set very quickly in the gentle heat of the simmering oven.

Thoughts of setting things remind us just how well two litres of our fresh full cream goat's milk left on the back of the top of the AGA for about 24 hours turns sour naturally and can be turned into rather fine soft cheese.

Yes, the AGA is altogether a truly remarkable appliance: we would be most interested to learn of other uses discovered by our readers...

Return to 1997 SPRING Index