Why Cooking with an AGA is Different

For us, cast iron is much more than just an external design detail.  The real difference is on the inside. 

The AGA cooker’s substantial ovens are made from cast iron, absorbing and storing heat before gently radiating it from every inner surface. Food is surrounded by steady, even warmth rather than blasts of hot air, creating the distinctive cooking environment that’s at the very heart of the AGA experience.

Radiant heat cooks differently. It helps food retain its natural moisture and goodness, while developing depth of flavour. Bread rises in the even heat, developing a crisp, deeply coloured crust while remaining soft and yielding inside. Roasts become beautifully browned while remaining succulent, vegetables retain their colour, cakes bake evenly and slow-cooked dishes are given the gentle heat and time they need to become meltingly tender.

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Each oven has a different job to do

Rather than repeatedly adjusting temperatures, you move food between dedicated heat environments for roasting, baking and simmering. Once you become familiar with where things cook best, it quickly becomes intuitive. A dish that needs fierce heat goes into the roasting oven; something requiring gentle heat can be moved to the simmering oven.

With most of today’s AGA cookers, you can choose which of those cooking environments you want to use. The ovens and hotplates are independently controlled, so the cooker no longer needs to be fully on 24 hours a day.

And because the ovens are generous, several dishes can be cooked at the same time. Pans can be stacked, different dishes can cook alongside one another and a whole meal can be underway without constantly changing temperatures or settings. It is particularly useful when the table is full, whether that means Sunday lunch, supper with friends or Christmas cooking.

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There is a reassuring simplicity to it.

Put food into the oven best suited to the way you want it to cook and let the cast iron do the work. Steady, generous and forgiving, it is a trusted way of cooking that soon becomes second nature. Food can also be held until you are ready for it, taking some of the juggling and last-minute stress out of cooking.

That’s the AGA difference: cast iron where it matters, dedicated cooking environments and radiant heat working together to bring out the best in your ingredients, while asking less of you.

See AGA cooking brought to life and discover the difference on the inside. Book an AGA Experience.