Saturday 25 May 2013

Aga saga

We inherited an Aga with our house. At first I was terrified of it. You are told to use special pans, a special kettle, and learn How to Cook on an Aga. When we went to the Aga shop (to buy the special kettle), there was a daunting bunch of tweed-clad women watching another TCW demonstrating. I thought I was going to have to learn to cook all over again (and wear tweeds. And a headscarf. And green wellies. And drive a Range Rover with labradors in the back). But in fact, all that was b******s. You can use any old pan, and cook just the way you always did. The mystique surrounding Agas is all invented by the Aga people to encourage you to spend more money on  your treasure.
 
But there is a downside. Several, in fact. And one is that if you put something in the oven, you cannot smell if it's burning. You have to remember. And this evening, not only did I not remember; I put my lovely lemon meringue pie (actually, I hate lemon meringue pie, but it is loved by a visiting son) in the hot oven to finish off rather than the cool one. And it burnt. It came out looking like the kind of cowpat that might be produced by a cow fed on coal and spinach.
 
 
Phew. Now I've got that off my chest. And I still love  my Aga. I think. (But it's not clean and shiny like the one in the picture. It's not cream, either.)

16 comments:

  1. After 27 years, I find it hard to cook with another oven. But the little sickle-shaped burns up my right arm take ages to fade.

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    1. The burns up my arm are short and straight.how do you do yours?

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  2. Now this Canadian knows more than I've ever known about the Aga. (And I love your Aga Saga title, Frances.)
    I'm sure your son thought you were all excited by his visit, and made a mistake because of it, and, as everyone knows, it's the thought that counts, so he knows you made him a lemon meringue pie.
    K

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    1. Son hasn't arrived yet! Delayed because of a missing teddy...

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  3. The arm burns have made me feel like a lesser-striped member of some sort of strange species that recognise each other from the scars, but I love my Aga because I don't have to remember to turn it on to warm up or think about temperatures or time. It's just about hot and less hot. Because of the lack of cooking smells, I did leave once some sausages in the hot oven for twenty four hours. But they were useful carbon briquettes for the fire.

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    1. Odd thing, those arm burns. Battle scars. I suppose...

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  4. I'd be terrified if I had to use an Aga to cook. All my life, I've been used to electric kitchen stoves, and for the past 15 years or so, I've been cooking on the flat-surfaced type of stove that is called Ceram in Germany. I am spooked by gas fire and find it a challenge to use the little two-flame cooker on my parents' allotment when we want to have coffee there, and if possible, I always have someone else do that.

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  5. Aga's always look so gorgeous in a kitchen, but I'd hate to cook on one. Actually, I hate to cook on any stove. Ok. Let's be honest. I hate to cook.

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    1. I'm not that wild about cooking, either, but if I have to, the Aga really is the best!

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  6. I used to have an aga - it was bottle green and looked lovel in my Edwardian kitchen. I am now in a modern house with a modern gas range cooker and I have to say I find it much easier.

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    1. Now I've had one, I can't imagine managing without. I'm a kind of Aga lout.

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  7. Owning an Aga is something that says a lot about a person....whether some of that 'lot' is true or not. You wouldn't usually find an Aga in a council house or a mid range suburban semi so it automatically indicated that you lived in a desirable property and had pots of money. Again the pots of money thing isn't necessarily true but the desirable property thing is. I don't own an Aga but as I am always always cold I think I would like to own one as I believe I could sit next to it and feel warm!

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    1. All our Aga says about us is that it came with the house and dont like cleaning Agas

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  8. Of course I have to be different. We had a Rayburn.

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  9. In fact in the Outer Hebrides everyone had a Rayburn.

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