A Newfound Respect For All Those Who Cook On An Aga Stove.

 The art of cooking without dials.

Some just press a few buttons on their microwave and others still turn a dial. Yes, the good old fashioned electric stove we like to cook on. I am showing my age, aren't I? New electric stoves come with buttons to push in order to turn them on. ( Only know that from watching cooking shows )

The last few days we've been double heating. Our kitchen aga as well and that is the one which is so amazing despite its seventy odd years. It produces amazing and almost instant heat and has a hot plate to boot. 

It takes a while to get used to this idea but yesterday and today I have cooked porridge on this stove. No dials, no direction but merely a sense of where it should bubble away. The trick is to find pot and pans without any plastic sticking out via handles. A quick melt there! Luckily we've got two and interestingly enough they are the ones I inherited from my grandmother's things. Actually my aunt dropped them off as she had more than enough herself. So many pots, so little time!

We forget that in our grandmothers' day almost all cooking was done on a wood burning stove. Even cakes, breads and casseroles were perfected that way. Imagine cooking on your electric stove without knowing how high the heat is or what number the dial is set to. Turning down a pot on an aga isn't as easy as turning back the dial on a stove. No, one has to move the pot to spots various distances away from where the main fire is. Baking a cake without temperature gauge is a feat in itself and thankfully I don't have the iron grid that came with the stove so I can't try. Too darn difficult to bake without the usual temperature settings. Perhaps some day in the future.

As I was thinking about what to write today I remembered how both Bob and I were excited like little kids at Christmas when we saw how magical the porridge cooked on the aga. There is a feeling of contentment and satisfaction getting it cooked, perhaps aided by the inescapable fact that cooking on such a stove does require one to be present. In the moment. Watching that it doesn't stick or burn while stirring it. Quite nice to be pulled back from a multi-tasking life and be mindful of a pot of porridge. Very soothing, almost like knitting or gardening...

Biggi