Guest spot: In praise of the Aga by Chris Nelms
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Kitchen equipment | 31 comments
Chris and Louise live in Wiltshire and are proud possessors of an Aga. We don’t have one, sadly, and are extremely envious. An Aga tends to be the hub of most happy houses that we visit. Our long term plans are to install one. When Chris wrote to me and described making friends with his Aga, I knew that it would be of interest.
Danny, a romantic, has dubbed it a love story.
Guest spot: In praise of the Aga by Chris Nelms
Louise and I were fortunate to inherit a nearly new four-oven oil-burning Aga when we bought this house. We had no experience of Agas and no friends with Agas. I trawled the Aga website for information; it was strong on sales blurb but weak on what it’s actually like to live with one.
In an act of cowardice, we splashed out on a matching Aga Companion electric cooker, expecting to cook with this rather than the scary Aga. After all, Agas have no knobs to control the heat so how could any serious chef cook on such a primitive appliance?
How wrong we were. Within weeks we were converts. The electric cooker has been used only once in seven years. The faithful Aga has won a place in our hearts and we cannot imagine life without it.
Unlike some Aga owners, we leave ours burning throughout the year. In winter, its cosy warmth makes the kitchen the natural centre of our home. The heat spreads surprisingly well through the house and we suspect it earns its keep by saving on heating bills. Just as well because it burns about 8 litres of heating oil a day or ?900 a year. Quite an expense for what is essentially just a cooking appliance.
I found an ex-Aga engineer on the internet selling detailed servicing instructions and do my own annual servicing in 20 minutes, saving ?100.
So what’s it like? Well cooking with an Aga is simplicity itself. The absence of knobs makes life easier, not harder. Louise has progressed from being a fairly good cook into a veritable kitchen goddess. Delicious meals emerge from the Aga every evening without fail. The weekend shift is mine.
It’s just so forgiving. Synchronizing different components of a meal used to be challenging but now, with a warming oven and a simmering oven as well as the main baking and roasting ovens, any food that’s ready too soon can be parked without spoiling until required. Rare steaks can be rested, plates warmed, etc.
A full English breakfast or traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings is easy and fun. Cooking for guests is no longer stressful. Aga toast is better than from any toaster, dough proves perfectly on the warming plate, beer and wine ferment nearby, damp clothes dry on the front rail, children’s pyjamas warm before bedtime.
Arriving home after a day out, the Aga is instantly ready for action with no waiting for an oven to heat.
Disadvantages? Very few. In the height of summer we get a few more flies coming into the kitchen, and a prolonged cooking stint leaves one rather hot. The cooking smells go up the chimney rather than into the kitchen so a forgetful cook can easily be unaware that something in the oven is burning.
Otherwise it’s just a matter of environmental conscience: an Aga is an extravagance, burning fossil fuel around the clock. We offset the guilt in this household by heating the remainder of the house with three wood burning stoves.
At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, owning an Aga is a life-changing experience. Anyone who loves food and cooking will never look back. If in doubt buy a few books by Aga cookery experts such as Louise Walker and Mary Berry and read what they say. Get one if you possibly can and, ideally, invest in a four-oven model. You will not regret it.
Rather as a lover of wood fires wouldn’t contemplate life in a house without a chimney, an Aga convert couldn’t imagine a kitchen without an Aga.
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Just discovered this post following the comment from Zim. My grandmother had an Aga in Seychelles which had its own room. I imagine it was a solid fuel one. I can’t remember it being hotter than the air temperature and we certainly didn’t spend much time round it as my gran had a cook. I do remember heating very large kettles of water for baths when we got back from the beach each afternoon and very crunchy toast for breakfast. I was only 10 at the time of that visit. When I went back 17 years later my gran was living in an old folks home. My little sister runs her Aga on LPG as she has no gas. I live in hope one day of living somewhere with an Aga.
Hello from Zimbabwe!
We are looking for a second hand big AGA stove (wood/coal) in good working order.
Is there anyone in ZIM selling one?
Kind regards
Sonja Lung
Hi Paul
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.
My parents had an Aga that was fuelled with anthracite. It nearly killed them. Perhaps they need to service it more often!
designed to run on antracite.normal coal is even not good for it
it wont work well with wood.1 bag of antricite 40kgs will run it for a week.or convert to gravity flow burner no electrics.with wood and coal it will burn out too often.annoy you
Hi Dennis,
I know some people who coverted a solid fuel Aga to oil recently. The conversion was carried out by an Aga engineer. I am sure there must be sites on the internet that could help you.
Chris, in the article, mentions he found out how to service his Aga on the internet.
Thanks for dropping by.
I have just bought a second hand AGA cooker in Sweden, I found it in an old house and got it for a very good price approx 250£, this AGA was made in Sweden, probably from the 1930 decade, condition is very good, I dismantled it myself, and I will place the AGA in our house from 1925, this is a dream me and my wife have kept long, I have also noticed that the litterature is rather limited on AGA, I am looking for information how you convert the AGA to “wood pellets” which I use for heating the house today, I am told it should be possible.
Hi Joanna – good tip about the reconditioned ones. I know an Aga engineer and he says that they tend to deteriorate more on the left side than the right. As far as a could gather, water is stored in a compartment on the left hand side.I’ve seen corrosion on the left hand side of Agas in various houses locally.
Some friends have just installed an electric Aga. Must find out the running costs
Ash – this is fascinating. Agas in Africa. But why not? In Europe they are a cooker and heater and friend all in one.
Put one in an outhouse, somewhere hot. It still is a cooker and friend and probably attracts humans too when the temperature drops a bit after dark.
Ros – You are so lucky, finding a house with an Aga. Albeit for only a year. We have the (despised) electric hob as there is no gas in the village.
Our cooker was the fourth one in just a year. Top of the range, the first blew up on arrival. The second after 2 weeks. The knobs cracked on the third so it was intuitive cooking until the fourth one arrived. The knobs have started to crack on this one too. After just 2 years it is disappointing.
Last year, even though I was (and am still a student) I was lucky enough to be staying in a house with an AGA. It so happened that we were living in our landlord’s old family home so we inherited it for the duration of our stay.
Imagine my horror when my friends graduated and I was left with one more year in a flat with…. AN ELECTRIC HOB!!
It was like being plunged into hell after a year in heaven. I’m coping with the blasted thing now, but, what I wouldn’t do to have the AGA back… or even just a gas cooker. 🙁
I would love an Aga. Not in a flat though!
Quite often wood-burning or oil-burning stoves were installed in African farmhouses, having been shipped to Cape Town or Durban and then carted up to Zimbabwe by wagon.
I remember one farmhouse that had one – it was outside in a lean-to because inside it made everything too hot, but it produced truly awesome food.
Yes … only, if you’re going to install one, it’s better by far to install a secondhand one, as they are more robust, I think because they have more metal in them. You can go to a couple of specialist firms who sell and install reconditioned Agas, or you can find one privately and get an independent Aga engineer to install it for you. I have done this twice, with great success. I’ve used a brand new one, and it was the least good of the three I have used long-term. I also sold one (recently restored old 2-oven) to a family who removed it whole, on rollers to the lorry, and put it straight into their kitchen … you’re not supposed to do this, but I saw her a few years later and she said it hadn’t given a moment’s trouble.
Read Chris’s love letter, and then go for it!
Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com