Slicing and Dicing

Had dinner last night with a lady who was trained as a butcher. She made beef Wellington two ways, one with a layer of Iberico ham and one with a thin crepe layer and we had a piece of each - superb! I brought a 2004 Artadi Vinas de Gain Rioja.

We naturally got into a discussion of knives and how 'production' meat workers use plastic handles stainless blades that are easy to clean, and have no idea about what a really good high carbon steel blade can achieve in sharpness.

I came across this Bob Kramer video (he partnered with Henckels to produce a line of very good knives that don't cost thousands of dollars like his Damascus blades. Watch and then get out that stone!

Pic of the Wellingtons at the bottom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NX3enj_NT8

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Nice Wellies.

I have one Henckels that is really sharp; I can use that one to cut paper-thin slices from my favorite finocchietta. The rest of my knives are 'sharp enough'.

Great looking Beef Wellington.

The popular vote went to the Wellie with Iberico ham in it! The duxelles were very good!

The pastry likely took awhile - will have to up my game if I want to create a pate en croute for the next terrine event!

BTW, treated myself to a little Xmas present.

[Jenise]

Wow. Is that the real deal? (The ones you wait in line like two years to pay $1000+ for.) I'm thinking with Zwilling on it, no, but I don't closely follow the knife market.

It's GORGEOUS.

That's what I am getting. The high carbon blades are the ones in the video - they are a tad less. I gave in to vanity and couldn't resist the Damascus version even though ti is a hundred bucks more than the HCS version.

Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eAk8WM0uiw for a comparison between them.

The blades you are thinking of are not the ones Kramer does is a joint venture with Zwilling/Henckels, they are the ones branded by him alone and they cost thousands (frequently tens of thousands) and are not sold, but are auctioned off on his site https://kramerknives.com/

[Jenise]

Absofuckinglutely get the Damascus! Interesting comparison on the video.

Btw, I'm absolutely in love with my Global. The way it fits in my hand, and the lighter weight of it compared to my old Henckels and Wusthofs, is incomparable. It feels like it was custom-made for me; couldn't love a knife more. (I have never had the luxury of choosing my own knives, unfortunately, I've acquired all as gifts from Bob except for the two Kalon knives I have that you got Sue one like, and I bought those for the design aesthetic as much as the fact that I found them on close-out so they weren't an investment on any level--it was a surprise in fact that I ended up loving them as much as I do.) Bob only thought of the Global after I bought myself a small Global turning knife. Oh, and I waxed poetic about one a friend brought to a Hawaiian condo we shared last year. It was Global's bread knife, which doesn't look at all like a bread knife, and which was in fact a brilliant choice as an all-around knife if you're only going to bring one from home. I'd love to have one of those, too.

Kramer/Zwilling does a Damascus bread knife - 'only ' $350 on Amazon.

Next time you are up here I'll let you hold my Kramer!