The average kitchen is full of cooking appliances – from your standard ovens and ranges to microwaves, toasters, slow cookers, grills, rotisseries, deep fat friers, steamers, and toaster ovens. For every type of cooking and every kitchen application, there’s a unique piece of machinery to do the job. AGA seeks to consolidate all that functionality into a single appliance. Their kitchen ranges are custom designed to be the right size and produce the right temperature and type of heat for a huge variety of applications, and are made with interchangeable parts so you can get exactly the functionality you need.
So how does it work? It’s pretty simple, actually – AGA’s kitchen ranges have a somewhat vintage flair to them, with tons of small doors and drawers and brightly colored enamel finishes, arranging several different, specialized ovens around a central heat source. Outwardly, their ranges more strongly resemble vintage ovens than shiny modern appliances, but even the most wood stove-styled of their ovens like this Pro-Style Broiler are made with sophisticated heating technology.
AGA’s kitchen ranges, like this Pro Style Range are made of smaller cast iron oven units centered around a primary heating source, typically gas, though this model has an electric range. Each smaller stove is designed to transfer heat in a specific, targeted way to create a variety of heating environments in a single appliance. All the ovens are heated by a central burner that transfers heat via cast iron plates to the individual ovens, without any heating elements in direct contact with your food. This provides an incredibly precise, even, radiant heat that cooks your food naturally and consistently, and with a great degree of control over the temperature.
The beauty of AGA’s kitchen ranges is that they can be completely custom designed to your needs, mixing and matching parts to help replace your existing appliances. But what kinds of oven compartments are we talking? The obvious one is the baking oven – a medium sized oven that produces an even, moderate, all-around radiant heat that’s perfect for getting a golden, flaky crust on pastries, and even, moist cakes and casseroles. This is one of the ovens that comes standard on most AGA kitchen ranges, including compact models like this 4 by 2.
Next, many AGA kitchen ranges include a roasting oven, like this Pro Style Range. These are about the same size as the baking ovens, and produce an even, flameless and coil-less heat that cooks evenly and won’t dry out meat. The roasting oven cooks quickly, and can cook a 28 lb turkey start to finish in just 3 1/2 hours. The cast iron interior of the roasting oven gets quite hot, which means it can also double as an indoor grill, giving a crisp char to meats and vegetables alike when used on high heat.
The simmering oven on AGA kitchen ranges like this Cast Iron Dual Feature is the perfect replacement for your favorite slow cooker, producing an extremely consistent, low heat and cultivating a moist environment that’s perfect for breaking down tough meat over a long cook time. You can even safely leave it on all night long, just like your slow cooker, but with a much higher capacity…and without wasting valuable counter or cabinet space. The simmering oven also dual purposes as a steamer, as the gentle heat is perfect for steam cooking vegetables, especially root vegetables, without an extra bulky appliance or using up a spot on your stove.
Even the range itself on AGA kitchen ranges is unique, with a rapid-responding ceramic grill-style gas stove and specialized plates that produce a very high, very even heat that’s perfect for searing meat, stir frying, or deep frying. While many conventional stoves don’t get hot enough for a genuine stir fry, AGA kitchen ranges are designed specifically to rapidly produce, maintain, and withstand very high heats. Many of them can even be used as grills, and some, like this S-Series 6-4, come with an additional cast iron griddle for breakfast foods – two more appliances you won’t need.
Like the increasingly-popular double oven, AGA’s kitchen ranges provide significantly more functionality than your average oven, but only take up a fraction of the space. Even a simple, totally average sized oven offers as many as four different cooking “zones” in a single unit, plus the whole range configuration on top. If that still isn’t enough cooking capacity, you can double up and get a modular secondary smaller unit, like this 4×2 Modular Range. With almost infinite customizability, preparing large meals is easier than ever. You won’t have to juggle your oven between many multiple dishes, because each dish will have its very own oven. And because each and every one of AGA’s kitchen ranges is hand built and painstakingly finished in a color of your choosing, you know you’re getting a quality product that will not only declutter your kitchen, but make it look beautiful as well.
What type of cooking would you like your kitchen range to be able to do? Any appliances you really wish you could replace?
