An ironclad good deal

This week I received another “loyalty points reward” item: A cast iron Dutch oven (photos above, fresh out of the box). There were reasons I bought the pan, but I discovered as I was getting ready to write this post that this is one of those “onion stories” in which something seemingly simple and ordinary has a lot of hidden layers. Such is the way of things, I guess.

I recently blogged about the end of Flybuys, the NZ customer loyalty programme, and how I wanted to use up my points before they expired. However, the same day I ordered my reward, I ordered another one from a different programme, and for a similar reason.

Roughly a year or two after I moved to Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, I joined the Air New Zealand Airpoints loyalty programme, mainly because one of the shops I went to frequently at the time had switched to that programme from Flybuys. In the couple years since, I accumulated points from diverse places like when I switched my insurance policy to a new company, from that shop that motivated me to join, and also some from my trip to Fiji in January.

The points from all loyalty schemes eventually expire, and I got an email awhile back telling me I had a lot that were expiring on December 31, and I wanted to use them up. I decided pretty quickly that I wanted to use my points and some cash to get”The Old Dutch 4.5L Double Dutch Oven”, made by NZ company, Ironclad Co. And now, the layers present themselves.

My motivation for getting one is that I had an enamelled cast iron round roasting/casserole pan/pot/whatever of a similar capacity, one that Nigel and I bought many years ago. However, the enamelled pan wasn’t compatible with my induction cooktop, and that meant I could only use the casserole pan in the oven. At previous houses, I’d make my family’s beef stew recipe in it, starting with browning the beef in it in small batches, before putting everything in it and them moving the pot to the oven for a few hours to slowly cook.

So, I used the expiring points and $145 cash to buy the Dutch oven, and gave my old enamelled pot to my brother-in-law, an excellent cook I knew would be glad to have it (they have a gas hob, as Nigel and I did at the time we bought it). The Dutch oven is currently listed art $379 saved (roughly US$214 today), so I saved $234 (US$132) and used up some Airpoints I’d have lost. That’s a good deal, in my opinion.

The reason I wanted that pan in particular is that I already have one of their frypans, the 28cm model. I bought it at the Waikato Home & Garden Show back in October 2022—and I never mentioned any of that on this blog at the time. However, I did mention it on my personal Facebook (and included the photos at the bottom of this post):

Went to the Waikato Home & Garden Show and saw that [Ironclad Co] was there, and I bought the legacy cast iron pan, which is made in New Zealand from recycled iron, and it comes with a “three generation guarantee”. My mother had a cast iron cookware set, so I grew up using them. Decades later, Nigel and I bought a cast iron pan, but I had to give it away because it wasn’t compatible with the induction cooktop I now have. I first came across the company during the first Covid lockdown, when, like a lot of people, I became really interested in buying NZ-made products (some of this company’s stuff is made in Australia). I held off, to be honest, because the pans are expensive. But, I needed to replace a non-stick pan, and I’d prefer one that becomes naturally non-stick with use (and proper care), and the company had a good Show Special price, and it’ll last me the rest of my life, so, yeah: I finally bought the pan I’ve wanted for a couple years. Very happy they were at the show! (NOT an ad—I bought the pan for the same price as anyone else). 🙂

I never mentioned it here, maybe, because it was in 2022—my worst-ever year for blogging. Still, now the story is all caught up, why I bought the Dutch oven, and also the fact that I have extensive history using cast iron cookware. Oc course there’s a bit more to it.

The company no longer says it casts its cookware in New Zealand, but most of the cheaper cast iron cookware in the shops is made in China, possibly with inferior grade of iron, and I at least know that Ironclad Co.’s cookware complies with FDA and California standards for food-grade iron cookware, something that may not be true for the Chinese-made ones. At any rate, the company itself is Kiwi, and the products are outstanding.

The company is famous for its “Three Generation Guarantee”: “If your cookware warps, cracks, or loses structural integrity over 100 years of normal daily use, we’ll replace it.” There's a very Kiwi addition to that:

"Normal daily use" means cooking with it, taking it camping, or using it on an oven, BBQ, or campfire. It doesn’t cover things like throwing it into the ocean on a dare, using it as a hammer, eating it, or melting it down for a drink—things of that sort.

This particular Dutch oven is pretty unique. Its oval shape means I could roast a chicken in it, but the other features are very unusual. The lid has no knobs because it can be flipped over and uses as a frypan. In that same position, it can be placed on the placed on top as a lid and filled with hot coals to make it a campfire over. Or, the Dutch oven can be placed upside down on top, turning it into a smoker, among other things. However, I expect I’ll probably only use it as a conventional Dutch oven: Among other reasons, I’m pretty sure my camping days are in my past, however, I do hope to get my generation’s worth of use from both of them.

Back in October, I joked about buying pens and a cookie jar as the first things I’d bought for myself since February. Technically, the cookie jar was the only thing I didn’t need, and it was only $6. All of which means that the Dutch oven is actually the first significant thing (in terms of amount spent) that I’ve bought myself since February—my Christmas present to myself? Maybe. But at the very least, I got to use the soon-to-expire points and bought that Dutch oven in a very good deal—an ironclad good deal.

This story was originally just about using up some loyalty scheme points to buy a cast iron Dutch oven I’d wanted for ages because I needed to replace the similar sized one I had, and because I like that particular company’s products—none of which I’d ever mentioned on this blog. Maybe now, at the end of another bad year for my blogging, I’m turning a corner? Well, there’s certainly no “Three Generation Guarantee” about that, but maybe a Christmas miracle?