The Dutch oven — it’s not what you think
Beef up your dinner in ovenwear made from recycled railway tracks
Perhaps it’s the chucklesome name that has meant there’s been no new manufacturer of the Dutch oven since the Seventies. Or perhaps it’s because the original idea, a heavyweight cooking pot plus tight-fitting lid — a casserole dish to most Brits — was already perfect when it was invented in 17th-century Holland. Either way, it makes Combekk an oddity: the first new Dutch producer of this cast iron cooking vessel for 40 years. Doubling the heft of rivals like Le Creuset and using 100 per cent recycled steel, Combekk stamps the origin of its material on the base of its products: this here is the Railway Recycled Enamelled Cast Iron Edition. It’s made from train tracks. The “Dutch” in Dutch oven refers to the technique where iron is poured into a sand mould, something the good folk of the Netherlands are justifiably proud of inventing. Near indestructible and efficient at both retaining and evenly distributing heat, it comes with a 40-year guarantee — a neat bit of synchronicity, lest any upstart get any ideas.