Anyone know about gehring knives??

[kris]

I'm not familiar with them but a local store has some of the ergo-grip line on clearance for reasonable prices.(a 20cm carver was $34 Canadian) They look and feel quite nice. They're high carbon steel and forged, not stamped (I think) in Solingen and the company has been around since the 50's. Here is their website below. Not much information about the actual manufacturing process. Any information would be greatly appreciated as I do need a set of good knives and the price/feel is right!
www.gehring-shop.de

[kitchenelf]

sorry kris, I know nothing about these knives. But if the money and feel is right then I always say go for it. It's when the money is over the top that I really have to do some research.

[kris]

I've sent off an email to the company to get a little more info. Hopefully someone there can read english and will get back to me soon. I've already picked up a few pieces of open stock and have been impressed so far.

[kitchenelf]

kris, let me know what you found out. This is one of those embarassing sort of stories but my husband bought me the set of knive from the infomercial where they cut the can/nail/shoe, etc. They were only $50.00. THEY ARE SO SHARP!!!!! They are great. I have a drawer full of expensive knives and these are my favorite! LOL. They are not heavy though. So if I want a heavy knife, which sometimes you do, I still use my expensive ones.

My son asked for knife when we were eating pork chops one evening, he likes to eat on those Glad plates. I told him the knife was very sharp - he cut the chop, looked at me and said, "I think I cut through the plate". LOL He didn't cut totally through but he did make a nice mark!

The only thing about these knives is shipping and handling is so expensive that if you buy 2 sets it's just shipping and handling on one, which was $30.00!! So it's best to find someone else who wants them and then it's just $15.00 per person, which is still 3X what it actually is but it helps.

Looking forward to hearing your response from them.

[kris]

Well, I was lucky enough to find a mismatched set at another branch of the same store that had some of the better quality knives mixed in and was quite inexpensive. Personally, I could care less if all the handles don't quite match exactly. They're pretty close anyway. I also found a "herb chopper" and small cutting board that has a little bowl carved out of it that accomidates the knife perfectly. Pretty cool looking, even if it's practical value is somewhat questionable. I'm just going to keep my eye out for when they put the carving set with the bizarre looking fork on sale. They had quite a few at one store and I don't think they'll sell. The only things I'll need after that are a chef's knife and a cleaver!

[kitchenelf]

I'm glad you found some - who cares about everything matching perfectly!! The cutting board you mentioned with the bowl cut out, did it have the curved rocking blade that goes with it? I think they would be great for cutting herbs, it would keep them in the same general vicinity anyway!.

I went to look at the carving set - that is a very unique shape for the fork - it's a really nice-looking set of knives. Good luck with the rest of your set.

[kris]

Yes, the board had a knife that came with it. it's a 3" blade that looks rather nasty and fits perfectly in the little depression. It's got a weird bulbous handle that fits very nicely in the hand. As far as the carving set goes, I'll probably end up using the knife that comes with it as a general workhorse as I like a less beefey blade for carving. The fork, though should be interesting. Looks like a particularly viscious afro pick!

[kitchenelf]

ROFL - yes it does!!!! it looks rather "weaponish" also.

Please come back and let us know any great recipes you cook up.

[kris]

My personal favorite recipe right now comes from a book by Sarah Woodward called Moorish Cooking. It's an excellent book and I highly reccomend it to anyone looking for some very unique dishes. THe tajines are especially good as they're usually just throw everything in the pot and cook for an hour or two types of recipes. You don't even need to brown the meat in a lot of the cases. this one is called "moorish style kebabs" and comes from spain. It's typical street vendor style food and is easy to prepare but tastes wonderfull. I personally find it even better if you up the cayenne to 1 1/2 tsp for some added kick.

Take 1 tsp cumin, 3 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne and 1/2 tsp turmeric and mix with 6 tbdp olive oil. Marinade 1 1/4 lb cubed pork (a little fatty is good. Also good with chicken) for at least 4 hours and grill or broil on high for 4 to 5 minutes each side. Serve with lemon wedges and a good sprinkeling of salt. Very tast and easy!

I also enjoy cooking all sorts of Asian food and am lucky to have a huge Chinatown with some amazing stores near my work in Toronto. Makes finding non-western ingredients fairly easy and the resteraunt supply stores are great for all sorts of kitchen tools. You can even buy a 4 foot diameter wok!

[kitchenelf]

4' diameter wok?????? yikes!