[Leica] AGA Stoves

[douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp)]

Hi Tina,

I grew up with one - the most amazing bit of kitchen "heavy engineering" 
there is.  Ours was coke-fired and heated the water for the house too - 
it could have run central heating as well, but we didn't have any. I 
remember there were options for converting it to coal, wood, oil and gas 
fuelling.

One drawback was gettting it going with coke - about 30 minutes with a 
gas poker before it got up to temperature, but after that it was one hod 
of coke and one clean out of asshes once a day

The massive cast-iron hotplates - one hot and one medium - are brilliant 
for boiling and simmering respectively, and there's room for about three 
pans on each. When the insulating lids are closed, there's hardly any 
heat loss at all. The different ovens - fast and slow - are about the 
best things there are for everything from roasting to baking bread and 
drying fruit - for instance, you put your dough in the slow oven to rise 
and then bake it in the fast one. Or put a casserole in the slow oven 
and it will be lusciously tender for dinner in the evening.

It takes a little getting used to because you don't have as much control 
over temperatures as with a gas or electric stove, it's all done by 
finding the right position (rings) or the right level (ovens) to do the 
job. We also had a washing rack hung from the kitchen ceiling above it, 
so it was great for simultaneously drying and airing washing - just open 
the lids and everything gets dry in no time at all. The thhings are so 
well insulated that heat loss is minimal and you don't have a tropical 
kitchen all year round.

There are alternatives - like Stanleys, which are available in 
absolutely gorgeous dark green enamel and brass - but, as you wrote, the 
AGA is the Leica of stoves (though definitely not as portable!).

I for one can heartily recommend them - I'm already sick to death of our 
convector oven and ceramic top. You can't clean them with a steel wire 
brush either like you can AGAs :-)

Cheers
Douglas







On 14.05.2010 17:47, Tina Manley wrote:
> LUG:
>
> Have any of you guys (or your wives) had any experience with an AGA stove?
>   I have to decide what to put in the kitchen and, from everything I've 
> read,
> the AGA is the stove equivalent of a Leica ;-)  It's quirky to use, built 
> to
> last forever, and very expensive.  I've found a couple of used ones that 
> are
> very reasonable but I'm not sure about a stove that stays on all the time 
> in
> South Carolina.
>
> TIA
>
> Tina
>
>