Cook The Perfect Meal Every Time with AGA Ovens

An entertainer’s dream, AGA cookers are renowned for quality craftsmanship. AGA cookers are known for its large cast-iron ovens and can accommodate a 13kg (28lb) bird or up to seven pans – perfect for Sunday lunch for a crowd and it definitely eases the strain over Christmas.

An AGA cooker performs like no other and the two cast-iron advantages of the large ovens are that they offer indirect and radiant heat. These are the secrets to the AGA cooker’s superb cooking reputation. The Roasting Oven: This high-temperature power house is used for starting off many foods. The top of the oven is used to grill food, whilst the centre is used for fast roasting meat and poultry. Breads and rolls are also baked here, in what is the nearest thing to a baker’s brick oven. The floor of this oven is also used for cooking pizzas and it is also a ‘hidden hotplate’, where pans may be placed to oven-fry foods such as steak – any splashes clean themselves as they land on the hot cast-iron oven walls.

The Baking Oven: The baking oven is maintained at a moderate heat, making it perfect for baking all kinds of cakes and biscuits. Most things that are normally cooked in the hotter roasting oven can also be transferred to finish cooking here, but for a longer time. The baking oven is ideal for moderate roasting, cooking fish and tomatoes or for baking deep or layered dishes such as shepherd’s pie, lasagne and fish pie.

The Simmering Oven: Once food has been brought to temperature somewhere else on the cooker, it is simply transferred to this oven where it will finish cooking. It is this gentle radiant heat that is the secret of so many unique AGA cooking methods: belly pork and lamb shanks, ox cheek casseroles and creamy rice puddings, meringues, crème caramels without a single bubble, fluffy rice and steamed carrots. These and many other delights are in store for the new AGA owner.

The Slow Cooking Oven: The slow cooking oven is a second low temperature oven (5-oven models), operated at a slightly lower temperature than the simmering oven. It is used in the same way, but allows ultra-slow cooking over many hours, giving extra slow cooking flexibility. Having a second low temperature oven greatly extends the cooking capacity of your AGA cooker – it doubles the quantity of food that can be slow-cooked at the same time, making this oven extremely useful when catering for larger numbers.

The Warming Oven: The warming oven is used for heating plates, serving dishes and platters with no fear of crazing or cracking (4 & 5-ovens models). It will also allow cooked food to be kept hot for up to two hours until a meal is ready to be served. This also greatly simplifies co-ordinating the conclusion of an ambitious cooking session, as cooked foods keep in good condition with little if any deterioration. It can also be used for drying out meringues and macarons. For more visit Aga Living.