The AGA is Installed

After the dust has settled and the drama is done, our kitchen is fully functional.

All that is left to do is the cosmetic stuff, like putting on the outlet and switchplate covers–which came today and look fantastic and match the cabinet hardware perfectly.

The still unnamed AGA is in place, hooked up and working. As you can see, Morganna has already brought the wok down to live in its new home. She is frothing at the mouth for me to finish this post so we can cook!

The refrigerator is in place and working, though they will have to move the water line behind it because while it is counter-depth, it doesn’t sit at that level because the water line is in the way.

The dishwasher is running its first, dish-free load so it can sanitize itself.

And–we have a heavy snowstorm heading our way, which could dump up to seven inches of snow on us.

Morganna is hopeful that there will be no school, to say the least.

To be honest, she is bouncing around like the EverReady bunny on crystal meth, chirping about the kitchen.

Look for new posts later tonight or tomorrow–shots of the wok and AGA in action!

22 Comments

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1. Dang! An Aga! where and how did you get it?

   Not that I’m anyone to talk – I’ve got a six burner plus grill plus two oven viking

   Comment by Owen — December 8, 2005 #

2. Your Aga is so beautiful, and I am consumed with envy. Good thing those guys are heavy, or people might be sneaking in your house stealing it.

   I will be looking forward to hearing about it.

   My English grandmother had an Aga she got in the 30’s -coal, then converted to gas, that lasted her whole life.

   Comment by lindy — December 8, 2005 #

3. This Aga is a little different than your Grandmother’s, Lindy–it is more of a typical American dual-fuel range. It is a six-four, and they just started making them specifically for the American market.

   If I lived in England, or Scotland, or Nova Scotia, where it tends to be chilly a lot, I would jump on a traditional AGA (which for the uninitiated, is on all the time–it is a very different way of cooking), but being as it gets way hot here in Ohio, I jumped at this new model.

   Owen–AGA sells ranges here in the US–both the traditional ones, the six-four, like mine, the AGA companions, which is tiny version of a six four that is meant to go with a traditional AGA, and the Legacy series, which instead of being made of cast iron, is made of enamelled rolled steel.

   The way I got it is I ordered it from a local shop in Columbus–about 1 1/2 hours drive from here, and waited about eight weeks, very impatiently for it.

   The pictures do not do it justice, in large part because the white balance on my camera appears to be off. In these photographs, it looks jade green, when it is a true British racing green–and it looks perfect with the other, more muted or lighter greens in the room, and it contrasts nicely with the reddish gold oak and the terra cotta tiles. It has a black enammelled top which goes with the black hood and the other appliances which are black.

   And–even though we got few pictures because the batteries in the camera died last night–it cooks like a dream. I stir fried scallops and pea tips with fermented black beans, garlic and ginger last night–and even without the most powerful burner on full blast, it cooked so fast, I was hard pressed to keep up.

   It has been a long time since I have used such truly high heat. Then, I seared a tuna steak in a cast iron skillet on it–it was beautiful. Amazing. And the vent hood–it really did a great job of dragging all the excessive smoke out of the house.

   It is a great piece of equipment, and damned fine-looking, too.

   Comment by Barbara — December 9, 2005 #

4. Looks like a perfect fit, Barbara. What a great thing to have in cold snowy winter.

   Comment by Indira — December 9, 2005 #

5. I was kind of wondering about the heat factor- that explains it. I think my Grandmother’s Aga was in lieu of central heating, as well as her cooker!

   Great color choice too- I picked that British racing green for my Kitchenaid.

   Comment by lindy — December 9, 2005 #

6. If your AGA were in cobalt blue….I would be feeding my little Irish gremlins lots of chocolate to go in and whisk it to my kitchen. How wonderful for you and am looking forward to great tales of cooking wonders from this treasure.

   Comment by Maureen — December 9, 2005 #

7. That would be a lot of chocolate, Maureen!

   AGAs weigh a whole lot–I was amazed that it only took two guys to bring it up the stairs…but they were really big guys.

   But still–upstairs. Wow.

   It does fit perfectly now, Indira–and the kitchen, with the exception of a few tiny things is done. I will have to post new pictures tomorrow.

   And you are right–it is a perfect thing to be cooking on it (I made a nice bubbling stew in the Le Creuset French Oven that Zak’s Grandma passed down to me–it filled the house with the most wonderful smell and the entire kitchen was warm with it.)

   And I need to post some action shots of the wok–I was so distraught I couldn’t really present the off the cuff Cantonese style scallop recipe–it was lovely. Oh, well–I will make it again, I am sure, as both Zak and I loved it.

   Yep, Lindy–I definately have to post more pictures of the kitchen–because I have the same Kitchenaid as you do.

   His name is “Sweet Fred.” Morganna named him when she was about four–he was my and Zak’s wedding present from his parents. I think he is happy to have found a compatriot in the AGA.

   Comment by Barbara — December 9, 2005 #

8. Hey Barbara: My wife and I recently built a house and installed a blue version of your stove. We love the cooktop but my wife has been disappointed in the ovens. We thought we would be able to place pans directly on the bottoms of the roasting oven but the manual expressly forbids it. We are also getting uneven browning with the convection oven and are having trouble finding non-standard bakeware. How have you fared?

   Thanks!

   John

   Comment by John St. John — October 2, 2007 #

9. Hey, John!

   You can get half sheet pans at a restaurant supply company for cookie sheets to fit the ovens–Chicago Metallic makes them in regular and nonstick. I have plain ones and I use silpats in them, and they work fine.

   As for the convection oven–it is really efficient–it is a small oven, so the convection fan really heats it evenly–so, you need to adjust your baking times accordingly. This is true with convection ovens in general, mind you, but the AGA oven is so small that it you really need to watch your baking times.

   I generally knock ten to twenty percent of my cooking time off. I also have adjusted my baking temperatures down a bit on some things to make up for the oven working almost too well.

   The ovens took getting used to, but I am now very enamored of them. I still have a big oven that I use for roasting turkeys and such, but I do most of my regular baking and roasting in the AGA and have gotten along well–after quite a few failures.

   Don’t give up hope yet, John!

   Comment by Barbara — October 3, 2007 #

10. Barbara, i am jealous of your oven! We are starting work on a kitchen remodel for next January and we were settled on a Wolf but today we found a place with 2 aga six-four ranges for a really good deal. Megan has always wanted an aga so she is pretty pumped for the possibility. Question is…this will be our only oven/range and we wonder if the ovens are big enough. We love to cook, although it is just two of us we do some dinner parties but not a ton. I personally can’t remember any one item weve prepared that wouldn’t fit in a 1.2 cu ft oven that wasn’t done in the smoker or grill anyway. Any thoughts or comments would be great,
    thanks
    jeff

    Comment by Jeff — January 14, 2008 #

11. HI Barbara

    I too am renovating and looking into getting a 6-4 aga. I am in Australia and I would prefer the legacy range however they do not stock it here.

    I often cook whole salmons which I am assuming will not fit into the smaller ovens?

    We also entertain a lot and I was wondering if it would fit multiple chickens/meat roasting for 8 people in one oven and maybe 8 souffle dishes in another? or are the ovens too small?

    I like your choice of British Racing Green!

    Comment by Sarah — February 22, 2008 #

12. Hello!
    What a wondeful kitchen! I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of my AGA 6-4 in black.I have always loved AGAs & wanted a traditional cooker, but my husband just didn’t “get” a cooker that stayed on all the time! The 6-4 was the perfect compromise. I’ve decided to name my new range “AGAtha” after Agatha Christie! I love mysteries! 😉
    Kind regards,
    Diane

    Comment by Diane Shehata — March 6, 2008 #

13. hi have a cream six four and love it, i have cooked a twenty pound turkey and all the trimmings i also like to bake and cook and we are a family of five two adults 2 teens and a ten year old and i feel that the oven space is not a problem. but i did get two racks for the conventional and simmering ovens which are stepped and are a little lower than the ones supplied, got these in the aga shop, also the aga pots are great in the ovens and i have used larger tins than the ones supplied in the two right hand ovens. and remember when you look in one oven it seems small but remember you have three og them and a grill. happy aga 6-4 cooking to you. Also your grren aga is a beauty

    Comment by jess — April 17, 2008 #

14. Can you describe the green? I am having a tough time picking the red or green..but a green would look better in a modern kitchen.
    Thanks

    Comment by Susan — June 12, 2009 #

15. Susan, they describe it as British Racing Green, but I find it to be more blue than a traditional BRG to be. It is a bluish deep forest green–sort of a pine tree color. It is gorgeous, but greens in kitchens are traditionally hard to match, colorwise. It is weird, though–I have a bunch of different shades of green in my kitchen–three major ones, and a few other minor bits and pieces, but they all work together.

    Red is very classic, too–I think they would both be beautiful.

    I will say that I have no stainless steel in my kitchen–everything is wood, bronze, black or green or bronze enamel with stone and tile, all in mossy greens–and the green is perfect. It might make the kitchen look too cold if you used it with lots of stainless, you know? Red might be better in that case–it will offset the coolness of the stainless beautifully.

    Comment by Barbara — June 12, 2009 #

16. Hi, Barbara. Thanks for sharing your experience with your Aga 6-4. My hubby and I are renovating our kitchen and are considering this range. I need more than one oven (we have 3 children and I cook a lot) but our 1930’s home has a small kitchen (by 2009 standards, in the 30’s I’m sure it was thought of as huge) and this is one of the few options here in the US.

    Since you’ve been cooking with it for a few years now do you have any other comments- positive or negative? I’m in love with the way this Aga looks but want to make sure we’ll love the way it functions too.

    Thanks for any help. 🙂

    Sarah

    Comment by Sarah — November 9, 2009 #

17. Yeah, kitchens could be tiny in the 1930’s, though some were quite large…not very many, though.

    The ovens are small by US standards, I will say that. So, if you cook big 20 pound turkeys for the holidays, or gigantic steamer roasts, don’t go with the Aga. Now, I am lucky in that I, until today, had another range in the upstairs kitchen, with a huge oven, so my big turkeys were cooked up there.

    But remember, the ovens are narrow, too, so you can only use small cookie sheets that hold between six and eight cookies each, and I think only use three of them at a time. So, if you do a lot of cookies for Christmas, you need to take that into account.

    That said, it cooks like a dream. The high BTU burners are wonderful, and having six burners is great.

    Cleaning it up is not so great–the iron grates over the burners love to have food stuck to them, which with the high-heat burners, then becomes baked on. Oven cleaner sprayed on them and then hosed off outside takes care of that, so I do that once a month or so and am not so crazy about scraping them clean every time. There are lots of nooks and crannies on the surface of the top, too, but cleanup is not so bad with them as the iron grates themselves.

    And, finally, the burner control knobs are made from very brittle plastic–almost like antique bakelite. I have chipped half of them.

    But even with all of these issues, I still love my Calcifer–that is the Aga’s name! And if we should ever sell this house to move into the country, unless there is a comparable stove there, I am buying another 6-4 and having the kitchen redone!

    Comment by Barbara — November 9, 2009 #

18. Barbara, thanks for your quick reply regarding your dear “Calcifer”. I really appreciate it.

    Did you have trouble finding smaller cookie sheets? A big turkey isn’t a big concern as we’d probably roast a 15 pounder at the most but I think my big Calphalon roasting pan will be given to a friend. It’s 17 by 15.

    Cleaning gas burner grates is generally no picnic so I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference. But thanks for the warning.

    Sarah

    Comment by Sarah — November 9, 2009 #

19. Hi Barbara,

    I’m considering buying a six-four for my new kitchen, and I enjoyed reading your comments. Just wondering how you are faring now with this Aga. Has it lasted well?

    Thanks!

    Maria

    Comment by Maria — January 31, 2012 #

20. After seven years, Maria, I don’t think I would buy a 6-4 again, unless I knew that there had been some improvements in the design.

    I had the oven heating element burn out after seven years, which isn’t so bad once I thought about it, and it was fixed quite simply by the one repair guy who will travel to us to work on it. (That’s a big problem–very few techs are trained to work on AGAs, so if you buy one make sure you have a repair guy who can service it within an easy drive.)

    The super high heat burner after seven years, is no longer as hot as it once was, so I shall probably have to call said repair guy again, and see if he can fix it, and one burner will not light.

    And cleaning the burner covers and grates is still a pain in the hind end.

    But, I am still very fond of Calcifer. He’s still my friend, most of the time.

    Comment by Barbara — January 31, 2012 #

21. I just read this and your most recent comment, I am considering buying a 6-4 for a discounted price, which means no standard warranty. I wonder how much it cost to repair? And, if not the 6-4, would you have bought a traditional aga?

    I am less concerned about the oven space, I think the smaller ones will work fine for us, but the burners are important. My husband is pretty handy though.

    Comment by Suz — June 9, 2012 #

22. If I lived in a colder climate, I’d have totally gotten a traditional AGA.

    The 6-4? No, I don’t think I’d get one again. I’ve had it repaired 3 times already and it’s been reasonably expensive to fix two of the times. The first time was cheap. It was an internal fuse.

    Comment by Barbara — June 9, 2012 #

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