3 Oven Aga Cooker

The useful thing about a 3 oven Aga is not just that it has three doors, it’s that each oven has a clear job. Once you understand what each one is “for”, planning a meal becomes very straightforward.

Roasting oven

The roasting oven is your high-heat workhorse. It’s used for:

• Roasts and joints of meat
• Crispy potatoes and vegetables
• Pies, pasties and sausage rolls
• Gratin dishes and lasagnes
• Quickly baked items like pizzas and flatbreads

The upper part of this oven is fiercest, with heat softening as you move lower. You can use this to your advantage, put potatoes or crackling higher for extra crisp, and move more delicate items lower down.

Baking oven

The baking oven is what really separates the 3 oven experience from the 2 oven one.

Instead of relying on a cold plain shelf to protect cakes and biscuits from roasting heat, you now have a moderate, stable oven that is perfect for:

• Cakes and sponges
• Muffins and traybakes
• Biscuits and cookies
• Bread, rolls and soda bread
• Quiches, tarts and everyday one-tray bakes

If you bake often, having this middle-temperature oven “always ready to go” is usually the reason people choose a 3 oven Aga.

Simmering oven

The third oven is the gentle one. It runs at a much lower temperature and is ideal for:

• Slow stews and casseroles
• Braises and pulled meats
• Stocks, bone broths and long-simmered soups
• Meringues
• Keeping plates and dishes warm

Think of it as a built-in slow cooker and plate warmer rolled into one. Many owners will move dishes down here to hold them without overcooking while they finish off veg or gravy on the hotplates.

Boiling plate and simmering plate

On top you still have two hotplates under the lids:

• The boiling plate, which is extremely hot and used for fast boils, searing, stir-fries and getting pans up to temperature quickly
• The simmering plate, which is gentler and used for sauces, porridge, eggs and general low-heat pan work

You don’t fiddle with knobs as much as you do on a conventional hob; instead you move pans between plates and lift or lower the lids. Once you get used to it, it’s an easy and instinctive way to cook.

From the outside, many 2 and 3 oven Agas look very similar and often share a similar footprint. The main difference is inside: a 2 oven Aga has a roasting oven and a simmering oven, while a 3 oven Aga adds a third, dedicated baking oven.

On a 2 oven Aga you create a baking zone in the roasting oven, usually with the help of a cold plain shelf to temper the heat. This works well once you are used to it, but it does mean the same oven is doing two jobs.

On a 3 oven Aga you have:

• A roasting oven for high-heat cooking
• A baking oven set at a more moderate temperature
• A simmering oven for long, gentle cooking and warming

In practice this gives you three clear temperature zones to work with at the same time. If you bake regularly, like to cook several dishes together, or simply prefer not to rely on cold shelves and juggling shelf positions, a 3 oven Aga usually feels more relaxed to live with than a 2 oven model.

If you are still deciding between the different Aga sizes across the whole range, you can also look at our main Which Aga cooker should you choose guide.