Consider the Aga

The Aga is a much-desired British kitchen appliance for the affluent.  It's a heavy cast iron gas cooker (i.e., “stove” in American) with ovens and cook-plates; it stays on constantly during the colder months of the English fall/winter, keeping the kitchen warm and toasty.  We have one here at Spencer House, and I am considering it a lot recently since our conventional oven conked out on us Sunday night (and now it appears we’ll need an entire replacement). So, I’ll be cooking more on the Aga.

Spencer House Aga

The boiling plate open; simmering plate closed

Hotter oven open; bottom oven closed

So far I’ve fried sausage and bacon (the English kind – not real crispy) on top of the Aga.  I learned quickly that the left top burner gets a lot hotter than the right one.  Turns out the left burner is the boiling plate and the right one is the simmering plate.  The other day I also decided to try my hand at boiling spaghetti on the Aga.  To speed things up, I heated up my water in another British kitchen staple: the electric kettle.  Boy, these things really do the trick.  I might have to get one when I get back home…

  

  

Typical English Electric Kettle

Anyway, getting back to the prestige of the Aga – they are quite pricey.  For our version, a 2-oven/2-top plate cooker, folks in England will need to shell out about 4995GBP (that’s about $8215 USD).  $8000 for a stove, you say!  Well, it’s even more if you try to buy one in the US – you’re probably looking at $12,000 and up!  I see on the Aga website that Harvey Lumber Co. in Columbus used to be a non-servicing Aga dealer (are they still? are they still there?).  There’s also a dealer – Inscape Design Studio – in Americus!  Maybe Jimmy (in Plains) has one in his kitchen.

For an entertaining Aga video go to: http://www.aga-ranges.com/products/traditional-aga-cookers/2-oven-(gas).aspx