Tuesday, 9 January 2018

AGAhst

Yes, I know.

I’ve just about got the hang of the stove top – you slide things around sideways rather than turning a knob – but I clearly haven’t quite cracked the ovens yet.  I know that the top one is very hot and the lower one quite cool, and that within either of these the shelf position is crucial in determining the actual cooking temperature, but fine tuning is obviously still beyond me.

I know this to be so because after my best efforts it proved hard if not impossible to distinguish the carrots from the turnips from the onions.  In gas cooker terms I roasted them at gas 6 for about 25 minutes then turned it down to 3 for another half an hour or so.  Clearly I need to practise more, because they all ended up black.
The oxtail stew was still superb though.

3 comments:

  1. Perhaps you need a tip or two from the National Treasure
    https://goo.gl/xRcNyx

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  2. Tim, you cannot fine tune an aga! It's really really easy when you get used to it. I would never go back to an ordinary cooker where you have to WAIT for things to heat up! If you want to roast vegetables, you might be better off moving the shelf onto the oven floor halfway through. But obviously keep an eye on them. The big disadvantage of an aga is you can't smell things burning ( but I guess you've already discovered this!).

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  3. You caught on in no time, Tim. It took me several years not to have an armful of sickle-shaped burns. The main problems with using an Aga are, as Frances says, that you expect any other oven to be hot whenever you want it; and that you sometimes discover the panful of carbonised mushrooms the next day. Of course, modern Agas can be regulated, but I rather think they're missing the point.

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