At home with my Aga! Demonstrating its many uses including cooking a full English breakfast, drying the dishes and even tackling the ironing!

For me, an Aga isn’t just an Aga, it’s a lifestyle!

I get so many questions about it. I thought I’d give you a quick tour of my Aga and its many uses, whilst demonstrating its incredibly versatile cooking ability by cooking a full English breakfast!

Let’s dive in and start with the tour!

Our Aga is 9 years old and is electric, with an AIMS system. This means that the temperature can be controlled to vary at different times of the day. It is hotter throughout the day and cooler at night. This is much more efficient and obviously more comfortable in the home.

We’ve also got an electric module neighbouring the main section of the Aga. This is great to use if I need to turn the Aga right down due to it being too warm in the home.

The Aga has 3 sections - the roasting oven, simmering oven and the baking oven. It also has two hotplates on the top with domed covers. One of the hotplates is medium to high, and the other is lower. The very centre of the hot plates is the hot spot. This is where you would place your kettle if you wish to boil the water as we do. You can fit two saucepans onto one hotplate, but they will simmer more than boil as they are sharing the hot spot.

The racks inside the Aga are designed so you can’t yank them out. You have to lift and pull, almost like an airplane taking off.

The very top of the top (roasting) oven of the Aga is like a grill, the floor of the top oven is like a frying pan. So if you want to grill something, you place it into the very top of the roasting oven, to fry you place on the bottom. You also get heat from the sides.

I would absolutely recommend investing in a plain cold sheet for your Aga. Particularly if you bake regularly. The sheet needs to be kept outside of the Aga all the time that you are not using it, as when inserted cold it stops the heat from the top of the Aga burning the tops of cakes etc. It’s super useful.

The ovens are quite big and you can easily get 4 smaller trays inside each.

The other fantastic feature of an Aga is the fact that smells don’t transfer. So you can cook a piece of salmon for instance at the same time as cooking the pudding!

We don’t have a flue due to that fact our Aga is electric. Ours goes under the kitchen floor and out through a hole in the exterior wall. I believe you still need one with oil and gas.

Now the tour is over, let’s get to the English breakfast!

Start by lining all of your trays with bacoglide. Lakeland calls these ‘Non-Stick Magic Liners’ and I can tell you that they are life-changing! I am utterly in love with mine. They last for years, reduce waste enormously and work like a dream.

Pop your tomatoes and mushrooms into the first tin, with a sprinkle of mixed herbs and salt. These are going to fry, so we want to place them on the floor of the roasting (top) oven.

Put your sausages and streaky bacon onto a grill pan (sitting them on a grill inside the tray makes the bacon crispier!) and place these into the very top of the roasting oven. These are going to grill.

Put a sheet of bacoglide onto the hottest of the hotplates. Crack an egg straight onto the bacoglide, and close the domed lid. You can fit two eggs under here if need be! You’re now frying your egg without any use of a frying pan (less washing up!), oil or fats. It’s spectacular!

Using a toast rack (available here) warmed slightly beforehand on the hotplate to avoid sticking, place the bread onto the cooler hotplate to toast to your preference. These toast racks are fantastic for cheese and ham toasties!

Use the simmering oven to keep anything warm whilst you dish up! The simmering oven is great for slow cooking, it’s where I cook my Christmas cakes for 7-9 hours, and it produces the most beautiful meringues!

And there you have it! A quick and easy, healthy full English breakfast from your Aga.

A few of the other (many) uses of our Aga aside from cooking:

Laundry:

We have a Sheila’s Maid hung above our Aga for drying about 80% of our household’s clothes! It has been a total godsend. You can also use the rail along the front of the Aga to dry pieces.

Ironing Hack:

My Mum adored this little Aga ironing trick. If you place a pile of pillowcases onto the top of your Aga (with the protective covers on or the laundry will gradually brown!) and keep them there for a while, creases will disappear! Give them a little rotation when you can, and you’ll be left with crisp pillowcases/t-shirts/serviettes/other smaller items of laundry.

Drying Dishes:

I don’t do any drying up now! Simply place the items onto an old pair of cushions protecting the top plates and voila! Do make sure you keep the protective layers on the top of the closed hot plates otherwise they may get scratched. I have one beautiful pair that stay on there at all times, and a pair of very old ones that go on top for drying/popping hot trays onto etc.

Ballet Bar:

Okay this one is a bit tongue in cheek, but I do sometimes find myself using the bar to stretch so I just had to include it! The many uses of the Aga!

Warming Up:

Lastly, it is just such a wonderful place to stand with the family during a cold snap or having come in from the cold. You can all huddle around the Aga and bask in its warmth! Truly lovely.

Do you have an Aga? How do you use yours?!

Love,