Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

(Ken Sternberg) wrote:

>Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
>like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

Maybe if you have to feed 70 three times a day...you might be interested in a
serious cooking apparatus.

BTW.....where the hell is the "off" button on that damn stove?

Ken Sternberg wrote:
>
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

I haven't used an AGA, but I have a 'sister' range, a Rayburn. It provides
central heating to the entire house, hot water for the bathroom, kitchen,
and utility room, has two ovens and a cooktop. All baking/roasting smells
go right up the chimney, and the ovens, both the baking oven and the
warming oven, are always ready to use. The hot part of the cooking plate
gives me a rapid boil, the cooler part gives a nice steady simmer, with no
scorching, and I can keep food warm on the top, next to the cooking plate.
I love it, but my house is on the north coast of Scotland, and even there,
it can get too hot in the kitchen during the summer, so for a few weeks it
gets turned off, and I cook on a small electric cooker (a Baby Belling).
Unless you live in a fairly-cool-all-year place, I wouldn't recommend it.

Sheila

I would think that baking/roasting smells going up the chimney would be a
disadvantage. Half the fun of baking bread.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Louis Cohen
Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8' 42.8"


"S Viemeister" > wrote in message
...
> Ken Sternberg wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> > like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.
>
> I haven't used an AGA, but I have a 'sister' range, a Rayburn. It
provides
> central heating to the entire house, hot water for the bathroom, kitchen,
> and utility room, has two ovens and a cooktop. All baking/roasting smells
> go right up the chimney, and the ovens, both the baking oven and the
> warming oven, are always ready to use. The hot part of the cooking plate
> gives me a rapid boil, the cooler part gives a nice steady simmer, with no
> scorching, and I can keep food warm on the top, next to the cooking plate.
> I love it, but my house is on the north coast of Scotland, and even there,
> it can get too hot in the kitchen during the summer, so for a few weeks it
> gets turned off, and I cook on a small electric cooker (a Baby Belling).
> Unless you live in a fairly-cool-all-year place, I wouldn't recommend it.
>
> Sheila
>

"Louis Cohen" > wrote in message
...
> I would think that baking/roasting smells going up the chimney would be a
> disadvantage. Half the fun of baking bread.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----
> Louis Cohen
> Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8' 42.8"
>
>
> "S Viemeister" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Ken Sternberg wrote:
> > >
> > > Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> > > like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.
> >
> > I haven't used an AGA, but I have a 'sister' range, a Rayburn. It
> provides
> > central heating to the entire house, hot water for the bathroom,
kitchen,
> > and utility room, has two ovens and a cooktop. All baking/roasting
smells
> > go right up the chimney, and the ovens, both the baking oven and the
> > warming oven, are always ready to use. The hot part of the cooking
plate
> > gives me a rapid boil, the cooler part gives a nice steady simmer, with
no
> > scorching, and I can keep food warm on the top, next to the cooking
plate.
> > I love it, but my house is on the north coast of Scotland, and even
there,
> > it can get too hot in the kitchen during the summer, so for a few weeks
it
> > gets turned off, and I cook on a small electric cooker (a Baby Belling).
> > Unless you live in a fairly-cool-all-year place, I wouldn't recommend
it.
> >
> > Sheila
> >
>
>

I like cooking smells in my house!

Dawn

Andrew Hardy wrote:
>
> (Ken Sternberg) wrote:
>
> >Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> >like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.
>
> Maybe if you have to feed 70 three times a day...you might be interested in a
> serious cooking apparatus.
>
> BTW.....where the hell is the "off" button on that damn stove?

There isn't one. You need a BIIIIIIG kitchen, in a large, cold draughty
Yorkshire farmhouse, a mediaeval Kent Farmhouse, or a pele tower in the
borders for them to be worth it. In the right house, they are
wonderful. You can run the central heating and hot water off them too,
and they come in gas fired, oil fired, or solid fuel models. A friend
of mine (in a big draughty house in Yorkshire!) has one, and feeds a
family of 4 and gets all her hot water out of it (the house is TOO big
to run the central heating off the one they have). We sat down to a
perfectly baked ham, 4 different vegetables, parsley sauce, and boiled
potatoes, for New Year' Day lunch, all cooked on or in the Aga. There
were 26 of us.

For the best 'how to' on cooking almost anything in or on an Aga, look
out for Mary Berry's Aga cook books.

Some of my very first cooking, as a smallish 5YO, was done on my
grandmother's Raeburn, which is very similar. Granny lived in a large
draughty house in Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Forth: another
excellent location for this type of appliance. I don't have one in my
little draughty cottage in Kent, because you need more space to get away
from it in the kitchen than I have in my house! There are all sorts of
very good reasons for having an Aga in the right sort of house. One of
it's neatest things is that you never EVER have to clean the oven!
--
Kate XXXXXX (It's windy here today: you can tell, can't you!)
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

(Ken Sternberg) wrote in message om>...
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

Actually, Ken, it's not quite that bad. Almost but not quite ;^) The
standard two oven model is a little over $9K, you can see it he
http://www.universal-akb.com/387agatwoovg.html; four oven models are
more and they also have some cheaper ones. As it happens, I have some
experience in cooking on one of these beasts - I lived in the UK for
three years and rented a house with one. It was, as they say, an
"experience." In general, an Aga is an absymal cooking device; as
others have said, it requires big changes in cooking style. One thing
it does well: you can boil a small quantity of water (like a cup)
very quickly - on the other hand, keeping a big pot of water boiling
for pasta is difficult/impossible. The ovens are very small and the
temperature inside is radically uneven, requiring much rotating when
baking. Since you never really know what temperature you have, you
can completely forget baking based on time - you test a lot and cook
until it's done. You can, in fact, approximate a 350 degree oven
through use of something called a hot plate - but only for perhaps a
half hour or 45 minutes or so. I could go on.

As I'm sure you know, the classic Aga is on full-time (they have
introduced new models that behave more like normal ranges). It burns
obscene amount of fuel and renders kitchens unhabitable in some
seasons, even in the UK. As others have also said, when plumbed to
handle the hot water and in a drafty stone building in the north of
the UK or Scandinavia, there is at least some compensation for the
fact that an Aga is a very expensive (to buy and feed) but lousy
range. I have to believe that people in the US who would even
consider purchase are more attracted to the bright enameled colors and
retro look than to cooking performance - and have extra money to burn.

All of that said, I have to say I understand the attraction. I
learned to coax decent results from "my" Aga and the always-on aspect
meant at least one warm, cozy room in the house during those dark UK
winters. And I wasn't paying the gas bill ;^)

- Mark W.

In > Ken Sternberg wrote:
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.
>

I considered an AGA range but did not pursue it as there are much better (
but also expensive) options. I liked the four ovens and hot plates, but
the hot plates are small and there is not separate burners on which you
can quickly change heat. In my opinion a better option is to have a
stove consisting of:

- One or two large flat tops (cast iron plate over a gas burner).
Similar to the aga hot plate. I do most of my fancy cooking on them
including sensitive butter/egg based sauces.

- Two large burners for sauteing, heating water and being able to change
heat quickly

- Two ovens

My personal favorite is the delaubrac provencal (when I get a larger
kitchen) www.delaubrac.com

Others a
Lacornue http://www.lacornue.com/
Lacanche http://www.lacanche.com/
Godin

"Ken Sternberg" > wrote in message
m...
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

The Aga distributor in Charlotte (how about them Panthers??) is one of the
top sellers in the USA. We have a few friends who have them but never turn
them on because the heat up the house too much. They get installed because
they look sooooo good (and they are beautiful, especially in red) and then
someone tells them it doesn't have an on/off switch like every other stove
they have owned.

I have to say that these designer kitchens with gazillion dollar Agas where
all the cooking is done in toaster ovens are funny. They hide their toaster
ovens in the cabinets, show off their Agas and cater the party. I was at a
Super Bowl party at one of these homes and had a conversation with the hubby
outside. He wasn't too involved in the kitchen renovation but have to laugh
about how it worked out. "A stove that you don't turn off, who knew?" was
his take on it.

I'm not saying I'm any smarter...I've got a piece of crap DCS range that
cost me $5500 and I wish I had the $800 GE range from my last house.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 00:43:40 GMT, "Michael"
> wrote:

>I've got a piece of crap DCS range

Howdy,

I'm curious... What are you not happy with?

Thanks,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

"Kenneth" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 00:43:40 GMT, "Michael"
> > wrote:
>
> >I've got a piece of crap DCS range
>
> Howdy,
>
> I'm curious... What are you not happy with?

DCS 48" gas range w/ six burners and the grill. The hinges on the ovens had
to be replaced in the first week (warranty), the igniter grill had to be
replaced about six months after we got it (also warranty) and the small oven
wouldn't seal properly at about nine months (again warranty). Granted these
were all handled by warranty but it took up to a month to get them fixed.

Warranty over....
Igniter for the grill dies again. Service call is $150 and the part is
$185.
Broiler may or may not ignite.
One row or burners may or may not ignite.
Small oven won't hold temperature adjustment. Set it with an oven
thermometer and a week later it's off thirty degrees.
DCS has NEVER returned a single phone call. Emails normally take two to
four weeks to be returned and this is only if you send and resend the
request.

I just wonder how long this large piece of junk is going to hold together.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 11:51:14 GMT, "Michael"
> wrote:

>
>"Kenneth" > wrote in message
.. .
>> On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 00:43:40 GMT, "Michael"
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >I've got a piece of crap DCS range
>>
>> Howdy,
>>
>> I'm curious... What are you not happy with?
>
>DCS 48" gas range w/ six burners and the grill. The hinges on the ovens had
>to be replaced in the first week (warranty), the igniter grill had to be
>replaced about six months after we got it (also warranty) and the small oven
>wouldn't seal properly at about nine months (again warranty). Granted these
>were all handled by warranty but it took up to a month to get them fixed.
>
>Warranty over....
>Igniter for the grill dies again. Service call is $150 and the part is
>$185.
>Broiler may or may not ignite.
>One row or burners may or may not ignite.
>Small oven won't hold temperature adjustment. Set it with an oven
>thermometer and a week later it's off thirty degrees.
>DCS has NEVER returned a single phone call. Emails normally take two to
>four weeks to be returned and this is only if you send and resend the
>request.
>
>I just wonder how long this large piece of junk is going to hold together.
>

Howdy,

Of course, I am sorry that you have had all those hassles...

We have had a 6 burner for about three years. It has been trouble
free.

All the best,

--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

You mean Aga's are used for cooking? I thought they were decorative objects.
At least in the US that's the way they are used. No one in their right mind
who lives in a well heated McMansion would dare turn it on (certainly not
between May and October) because it would turn your kitchen into a sauna.
If you do turn it on, you have to learn a completely different way to cook
because it operates so differently than any normal stove. Looks great
though. If you live in a drafty English farmhouse, they come close to being
useful, but they make about as much sense for the US climate and lifestyle
as a one of those funny English cars with 3 wheels.

As some of the others pointed out, if expensive colorful enamel stoves are
your thing, their are French stoves that come closer to being functional
modern cooking appliances.



"Ken Sternberg" > wrote in message
m...
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 11:01:23 -0500, "Jack Denver"
> wrote:

>You mean Aga's are used for cooking? I thought they were decorative objects.
>At least in the US that's the way they are used. No one in their right mind
>who lives in a well heated McMansion would dare turn it on (certainly not
>between May and October) because it would turn your kitchen into a sauna.
>If you do turn it on, you have to learn a completely different way to cook
>because it operates so differently than any normal stove. Looks great
>though. If you live in a drafty English farmhouse, they come close to being
>useful, but they make about as much sense for the US climate and lifestyle
>as a one of those funny English cars with 3 wheels.
>
>As some of the others pointed out, if expensive colorful enamel stoves are
>your thing, their are French stoves that come closer to being functional
>modern cooking appliances.
>

La Cornue, for elegance, though not for thrift.

http://www.homeportfolio.com/catalog...tId=6&manId=94

boron

Boron Elgar wrote:

> On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 11:01:23 -0500, "Jack Denver"
> > wrote:
>
>
>>You mean Aga's are used for cooking? I thought they were decorative objects.
>>At least in the US that's the way they are used. No one in their right mind
>>who lives in a well heated McMansion would dare turn it on (certainly not
>>between May and October) because it would turn your kitchen into a sauna.
>>If you do turn it on, you have to learn a completely different way to cook
>>because it operates so differently than any normal stove. Looks great
>>though. If you live in a drafty English farmhouse, they come close to being
>>useful, but they make about as much sense for the US climate and lifestyle
>>as a one of those funny English cars with 3 wheels.
>>
>>As some of the others pointed out, if expensive colorful enamel stoves are
>>your thing, their are French stoves that come closer to being functional
>>modern cooking appliances.
>>
>
>
> La Cornue, for elegance, though not for thrift.
>
> http://www.homeportfolio.com/catalog...tId=6&manId=94
>
> boron

Those prices are jokes, right?? ;-)

"Jack Denver" > wrote in message >...
> You mean Aga's are used for cooking? I thought they were decorative objects.
> At least in the US that's the way they are used. No one in their right mind
> who lives in a well heated McMansion would dare turn it on (certainly not
> between May and October) because it would turn your kitchen into a sauna.
> If you do turn it on, you have to learn a completely different way to cook
> because it operates so differently than any normal stove. Looks great
> though. If you live in a drafty English farmhouse, they come close to being
> useful, but they make about as much sense for the US climate and lifestyle
> as a one of those funny English cars with 3 wheels.
>
> As some of the others pointed out, if expensive colorful enamel stoves are
> your thing, their are French stoves that come closer to being functional
> modern cooking appliances.
>
>
Those funny three-wheeled cars aren't much use in England either -
they exist because, at least at one point, they were taxed at lower
rates than cars with four wheels!

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 12:37:20 -0500, Steve Calvin
> wrote:

>Boron Elgar wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 11:01:23 -0500, "Jack Denver"
>> > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>You mean Aga's are used for cooking? I thought they were decorative objects.
>>>At least in the US that's the way they are used. No one in their right mind
>>>who lives in a well heated McMansion would dare turn it on (certainly not
>>>between May and October) because it would turn your kitchen into a sauna.
>>>If you do turn it on, you have to learn a completely different way to cook
>>>because it operates so differently than any normal stove. Looks great
>>>though. If you live in a drafty English farmhouse, they come close to being
>>>useful, but they make about as much sense for the US climate and lifestyle
>>>as a one of those funny English cars with 3 wheels.
>>>
>>>As some of the others pointed out, if expensive colorful enamel stoves are
>>>your thing, their are French stoves that come closer to being functional
>>>modern cooking appliances.
>>>
>>
>>
>> La Cornue, for elegance, though not for thrift.
>>
>> http://www.homeportfolio.com/catalog...tId=6&manId=94
>>
>> boron
>
>Those prices are jokes, right?? ;-)

Don't worry...if you have to ask, you can't afford one! (I asked, I
asked...)

Boron

Ken Sternberg wrote:
> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.


I will try to sum up the AGA discussion.

Aga's were designed by a blind guy, in some cold country (not sure which
one) on the premise that it's easier to move things from oven to oven to
control the temperature that way than via a knob for a blind person.
They are also 'safer', as there are no exposed burners or flames.

They are really beautiful.

Those are the good points.


The bad points a

Incredible energy wastage (most ranges are used less than an hour a day,
yet an AGA is running 24x7).

The ovens are dinky.

The two top plates are too small, and the hot one is probably not hot
enough.

And most importantly, you have to modify your cooking to the appliance,
not having a tool what you want it to do.

And even AGA (the company) realizes that they are trying to push a rope,
in that their newest range has conventional burners on top. Yet even
here, they are producing a very expensive range with four small,
different ovens in one unit: A convection oven, a conventional oven,. a
broiler, and a simmer oven.

In short, if you are a blind person, living alone in Scotland or Norway,
in a drafty house, and don't know how to cook, they may be acceptable.
Otherwise, get a Blue Star or DCS or Wolf or... and be happy.

Colin

Colin wrote:
> Ken Sternberg wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have experience cooking on an Aga gas range? What's it
>> like? For $13,000 (the price of the basic model) I could buy a car.
>
>
>
> I will try to sum up the AGA discussion.
>
> Aga's were designed by a blind guy, in some cold country (not sure which
> one) on the premise that it's easier to move things from oven to oven to
> control the temperature that way than via a knob for a blind person.
> They are also 'safer', as there are no exposed burners or flames.
>
> They are really beautiful.
>
> Those are the good points.
>
>
> The bad points a
>
> Incredible energy wastage (most ranges are used less than an hour a day,
> yet an AGA is running 24x7).
>
> The ovens are dinky.
>
> The two top plates are too small, and the hot one is probably not hot
> enough.
>
> And most importantly, you have to modify your cooking to the appliance,
> not having a tool what you want it to do.
>
> And even AGA (the company) realizes that they are trying to push a rope,
> in that their newest range has conventional burners on top. Yet even
> here, they are producing a very expensive range with four small,
> different ovens in one unit: A convection oven, a conventional oven,. a
> broiler, and a simmer oven.
>
> In short, if you are a blind person, living alone in Scotland or Norway,
> in a drafty house, and don't know how to cook, they may be acceptable.
> Otherwise, get a Blue Star or DCS or Wolf or... and be happy.
>
> Colin
>
OTOH, you can buy an AGA that has the normal buttons, knobs and dials.
Saw several of their new models at the Seattle Home Show this weekend.


--
Alan

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and
avoid the people, you might better stay home."
--James Michener