Some Assembly Required (2007–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Some Assembly Required - full transcript
For all the everyday things,
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
BLOOMFIELD: I'm
Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
Today on "Some
Assembly Required,"
knives, lawn mowers,
and chocolate.
The sushi knife.
It's a knife unlike anything
most people have
in their kitchen.
It's super strong
and razor-sharp.
And to make it, we need
to work with the masters
who have perfected the
ancient art of metallurgy.
While Lou works at
the forge in Virginia,
I'm the lucky one who
gets to travel all the way to...
Here.
We are in Sakai, Japan.
And Sakai isn't just
known for its knives.
In fact, over 600 years ago,
the first samurai swords
were made right here in Sakai.
And that DNA from that
rich tradition of sword making
can be found in every
knife made in this city today.
I'm on my way to
one of the factories
of the Korin Trading Company,
one of the largest purveyors
of the world's strongest knives,
though their
factories are really
a network of back-alley shops.
Well, there's an old joke in
Japan, and it goes like this.
A man walks into a
knife-making workshop.
And what happens, Paul?
Can't speak Japanese.
He can't speak Japanese.
He can't understand anyone.
That's why we have
Paul Martin with us.
Paul Martin is my
trusty, patient interpreter.
He's going to help me
cross the cultural divide
as I learn to
craft a sushi knife.
I'm Brian Unger.
Making a razor-sharp knife
that is both strong and flexible
is a surprisingly difficult
and complicated task.
Kichiro-san, a
master knife maker,
will instruct me on the methods
essential to creating
a strong, sharp knife.
UNGER: So, tell me
about the process.
How does this begin?
First, he attaches
a piece of hard steel
and a bar of soft steel, and
then he welds that together.
Kichiro-san starts out with
two different pieces of metal.
One is soft iron, the
other is high-carbon steel,
the secret to
making a sturdy knife.
Hardened high-carbon
steel is so rigid and unyielding
that it breaks
rather than bending.
Watch.
If you try the same thing
with low-carbon steel,
it bends rather than breaking.
A composite steel
needs to be created.
The high- and low-carbon
steels have to be welded together.
High carbon for strength
near the sharpened side.
Low carbon for
flexibility along the spine.
Making composite steel
requires intense heat.
When the metals
begin to glow red-hot,
the structure of their
iron crystals changes,
allowing carbon atoms
to dissolve in them
like salt in water.
This softens the metal
so that it can be pounded
or forged well together.
The crystals have to
become completely entangled.
You can only forge
a perfect chef knife
if the heat is
perfectly regulated.
How hot is it inside the oven
where he forges that steel?
MARTIN: It's about 800 degrees.
UNGER: 800 degrees.
On its way to more than
1,200 degrees Celsius,
or 2,200 Fahrenheit, to weld
these two pieces together.
And this is all done
without any thermometer
or anything to tell him
what the temperature is.
He's just doing it all
from just sort of how
he's feeling the heat.
MARTIN: And the
color of the steel.
UNGER: And the
color of the steel.
To say that these
are handcrafted knives
is almost an understatement.
These are literally forged
and shaped by hand
from just crude steel.
Yes.
How many will he make in a day?
He usually makes 12 a day.
- A dozen?
- Yes.
The belt hammer's pounding
of the metal ensures flexibility.
That's how the master does it.
Now it's my turn.
- You want to do that bit?
- What?
Attaching the hard
steel to the bar.
Do I want to attach the
hard steel to the bar?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Just have the ambulance pull
up outside and just wait for me.
- Is that a no?
- Mm-hmm.
[Laughs]
Kichiro-san, thank you.
UNGER: Now, I'm
looking, basically,
down the throat of
a breathing dragon.
Sounds like bacon frying.
Sounds like bacon frying.
A lot hotter.
Yeah. You don't have to tell
him every stupid thing I say.
[Martin laughing]
This Japanese master
is gonna let me stamp out
my own pieces of
hard and soft metal.
MARTIN: He's gonna
leave you there on your own.
He's gonna leave
me here on my own.
MARTIN: Yeah.
Kichiro-san, is that
a wise thing to do?
[Laughs]
UNGER: So, I'm just
gonna back off the heat
with this lever
here, take this out.
That's the hard part
right there is turning it.
So I've got to turn the knife.
It's getting a little crooked.
I don't know if
you can see this,
but Kichiro-san is
wearing flip-flops.
[Martin chuckles]
Apparently, the steel-toe
boot really not a consideration.
Oh, he wants me back here.
Like this?
Kichiro-san, how am I doing?
- [Chuckling] Okay.
- Okay?
- [Chuckles]
- Okay.
I think he's lying,
but, you know.
MARTIN: You can
have that as a present.
I have this as a present?
Yeah. He's gonna give it to you.
Really? I can?
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- MARTIN: [Laughs]
No one will want to use that
knife anyway since I made it.
The knife has to be ground down
to a quarter-of-an-inch
thickness on its spine.
This is the optimum
width for a tool
that needs to be strong yet
lightweight and flexible enough
for the delicate
work of slicing sushi.
Then it's stamped.
This is really a
very personal step
where the maker actually begins
to write his name in the blade
that says where the
knife has been made.
You know, who would want
to use a sushi knife anyway
made by someone
from Dayton, Ohio?
Well, the metal has its
signature stamped in it,
but it's still a long, long
way from being a real knife.
Next, we have to prepare
the steel to hold an edge.
So, with this clay soup here...
The quenching process
means it will have lasting
strength and sharpness.
Itsuo-san will actually apply
sort of a porridge of
water and clay to the blade.
Once the clay dries,
it's back into the fire
where the blade is heated
until it glows bright red.
So, this is kind of a second
stage of heating the knife.
They actually
reheat it after this clay
has been rubbed on the
knife and sort of hardened.
MARTIN: Yeah.
See him taking it in and out.
He's trying to get
an even temperature
all the way along the blade,
and when he gets it
to the right temperature,
then he'll quench it into
this pot of water here.
In doing so,
we are once again altering
the molecular structure.
Before heating,
the steel contains tiny
crystals of nearly pure iron,
and its carbon is located
outside those crystals.
But at red heat, the carbon
dissolves into the iron,
and the steel
becomes homogenous.
When you then
quench the steel...
[Hisses]
the dissolved carbon
atoms scramble frantically
to get back out
of the iron crystals,
but they don't have
time to escape.
They're trapped.
The resulting
carbon-stuffed iron crystals
are incredibly hard and at the
heart of a good cutting edge.
Here in Japan, we're
learning from the masters
how to make the strongest,
sharpest sushi knife.
Having created a strong blade,
now it's time to
get to the point...
of sharpening.
We're going to give
this knife its edge.
At the moment,
it's not quite a knife,
so we find ourself
in this sort of quiet
residential alleyway in Sakai,
where finally this
blade gets its character.
This knife becomes a knife.
MARTIN: Hey, Brian.
Hi, there. I'm here
to sharpen my knife.
I think I've found
the right place.
Hi. My name is Brian.
Nice to meet you.
Shinpai Ino has been honing
blades for more than 35 years.
Now, this needs
to become a knife.
Now, I have to ask you
before we get started,
why is the water that these
blades are stored in so green?
I mean, it looks
like antifreeze.
MARTIN: To stop it from rusting.
UNGER: To stop it from rusting?
The knives are raw metal.
If exposed to the air around us,
they begin to rust
almost immediately.
So they soak in a solution
that halts corrosion.
Sort of an "Edward Scissorhands"
look going on over here.
Now it's time to give
our knife some real edge.
For centuries, this has been
the way these knives have
been made, on a stone wheel.
Okay.
[Scraping]
Wow.
This was the first
blade that we forged,
and it has no edge on it.
And this is just after just a
few minutes on the wheel
where you can see the
first edge has been applied.
The qualities of
this unique steel
allow the sushi knife to
be honed to a severe angle.
But unlike western-style knives,
these are grinded by Japanese
masters on just one side,
allowing for unmatched
sharpness and precision.
A dull knife actually
damages the cells in the fish,
thereby altering the
taste of the sushi.
Whatever you do,
don't let go of that.
Don't let go of that no
matter what happens.
Okay.
This is extremely
dangerous, and the trick here
is to apply just the
right amount of pressure
at just the right angle,
a skill gained after
years of practice.
I'm doing a
terrible job on that.
MARTIN: He says
you're moving it.
You're not keeping
it at an angle.
UNGER: So, the important
part is to keep the same angle
as I push it down.
I didn't ruin that knife, did I?
- Did I ruin that knife?
- [Speaking Japanese]
He said if you kept going,
you would've ruined it.
If I had kept going, I
would have ruined it.
Obviously, the edge
isn't finished yet.
Using a smaller wheel,
then a whetstone,
the blade is honed to
razor-quality sharpness.
[Martin laughs]
- Oh, you can cut your hair, too?
- Yeah, yeah.
But I wear a toupee, so this
is very unnecessary for me.
Oh, shoot.
I just... Yeah, I
felt that on my hair.
I think this knife is done.
Actually, it's not.
It needs a handle.
What we have here
is a finished traditional
Japanese carving knife
complete with its wooden handle.
This is forged from
carbon steel, handcrafted,
and with the signatures
carved into the blade.
The only thing left is to
actually use this bad boy.
So, we're at Uweda,
and we brought our knife,
the one we've been forging
over the past couple of days.
Paul, our trusty interpreter,
you will take your
seat at the bar.
I'm going to go
back into the kitchen.
I present to you the knife.
Should I come across
on this side and watch?
- [Speaking Japanese]
- Okay.
Okay, I'm gonna
actually try now to...
Well, using our knife
that we forged and made.
Uh... this is the first time
I've cut sashimi, so like this.
Like this.
Okay.
And he said to use
the whole blade.
Oh, wow. I'm making... wow.
You know what? Is it moving?
CHEF: [Laughing] Yes, yes.
MARTIN: He
said it's still alive.
- It is still alive.
- Yeah.
[Laughter]
That was good.
[Shuddering]
I just got the worst
heebie-jeebies.
Uweda-san, this one's
dead, right? Okay.
Okay.
Okay, so I have
now completed this
with the application
of the lime,
and behold this
lovely plate of sashimi.
These knives may be strong,
but they're also
amazingly delicate.
To give you an idea of how
delicate these knives are,
if you don't wipe
them after every use,
after one slice of the
fish, it begins to rust.
This is the knife we just
made, and after I used it once,
I've already kind of
botched this knife,
and it needs repolishing.
Paul, would you like to try?
No. I'm good,
thanks. I don't eat fish.
Right.
Can I get you a pint instead?
[Laughs] Yes, please.
He'll have a pint. No sashimi.
Is that how it goes?
Well, it is one of the
great summertime rituals,
mowing the grass.
Some like to do figure eights.
Some like diagonals. Some
like straight up and down.
But whatever your poison was,
you had to admit
it sure felt good
leaving a nice, clean,
mowed trail of yard behind you.
Well, John Deere figured
this out a long time ago.
Their mowers are made
of hundreds of parts
working together to handle
one simple job, cutting grass.
And those machines are made
here in Horicon, Wisconsin.
Well, the assembly here at
John Deere begins with this.
30,000 pounds of steel.
It's morning time here,
and we're just using
a 25-ton hoist to lift it.
Excuse me. I have
to press some steel.
Now, they will go through
about two of these
giant coils of steel
in about four to six hours.
I got to get one of these to
move some stuff in my backyard.
In less than two hours,
that 26,000 pounds
of shapeless steel
will be pressed, cut, and molded
into 1,500 smaller pieces,
parts we're gonna
need to build our tractor.
Today we're making
the Select Series 300.
It's pretty amazing what a
thousand-ton press will do.
UNGER: Now, what's the
gauge of this steel, Lou?
BLOOMFIELD: It's
like 3 millimeters thick.
- It's really strong.
- UNGER: 3 millimeters thick.
That's pretty thin.
That's why it takes a thousand
tons to stamp this stuff.
That pressure alone
forces the steel into shape,
changing its molecular structure
without requiring
any additional heat.
Once we join together
these metal parts,
we'll have our frame.
It'll hold the guts of this
machine, like the engine.
Eventually, the frame will
join with the fender deck,
the part that the rider sits on.
And I've got to stack
160 of these in an hour.
It's all about strength
right here, core strength.
And I need about 20
more pounds on me
to effectively use this
for eight hours in a day.
[Grunts]
'Cause this stuff is heavy.
Once the heavy lifting is over,
the fender decks will be washed
and then coated in a
primer to prevent rusting.
And then they'll
get painted a color
that's pretty recognizable.
That John Deere green
is not a liquid paint.
It's a powder.
These robot spray guns
are charging the powder
electrically with high voltage.
It comes out with
negative charge,
and it's attracted to positive
charge on the metal cart.
The two stick together like
socks coming out of a hot dryer.
There are some real
advantages to electropainting.
For one, this baked-on
paint is less likely to run.
And if anything is
painted accidentally,
it can be vacuumed away.
That makes the process
as green as the color.
99.9% of the excess paint
is recovered and reused.
The fender deck is
done, so we're ready
to start putting the rest of
the lawn tractor together.
And this baby is where
you load all of these pieces
into a frame.
Now, there are 15 of these.
It'll be welded in 37
spots automatically,
but Arnie and I here have
to load this thing correctly.
And at this point, I'm
just getting in his way.
Assembling a frame is a bit
like putting together a puzzle,
but Arnie Gorder
could do it blindfolded.
He's been working
here for 29 years.
This is the side of the
frame, and I think it goes in...
Yeah.
There is nothing
intuitive about this.
Oh, yeah. It's a
good thing he's here.
Bye-bye.
Now it's the robot's turn
to weld all the seams.
GORDER: Here it comes.
And voilà.
From behind the magic
curtain, a finished welded frame.
I've distracted Arnie,
and I've completely
screwed up the production
here at John Deere.
I broke the welder.
Arnie, I would just bang on it.
Oh, no.
Well, we got all our parts.
I'm gonna go build me
a John Deere tractor.
Here in the assembly
area of the factory,
tractors are outfitted
with all the parts
that make them go, from
the engine to the axles.
Each piece is added separately,
as these machines go from
bare frame to finished tractor.
Over here are fenders.
In another area over
here are some fuel tanks.
The engines were
added right over there.
And over here, a
dashboard assembly.
All these things
are just kind of
swirling around each
other in synchronous orbit
to maximize the efficiency.
Adding all these parts
is incredibly complicated,
yet a brand-new lawn tractor
rolls off the assembly
line here every 56 seconds.
Everywhere you got to
watch where you're going.
They have these smart
carts taking garden tractors
from one part of
the factory assembly
to some other part
of the assembly.
It's a way of maximizing the
efficiency of every worker here
so that the part comes to them.
It's pretty ingenious.
This is how they do it.
These carts... These smart carts
follow the magnetic
strips in the floor,
and they're talking to
each other by Ethernet,
and off they go with
nobody guiding them.
More than 20 different models
of tractors are produced here.
Smart carts tell workers
what model they're assembling
and which part it needs.
And if a particular model
doesn't require a certain part,
the frame will
just zip right on by.
The smart system
also tells workers
at each individual substation
what to make, how to
build it, and when to attach it.
Even this little marker
has a sensor right here
that makes sure
that when I do this
and mark that these washers
are facing the right direction,
that I put it back.
It senses it.
Then there are
cameras below here
that make sure the dimples are
facing upward on these washers.
Even the torque wrench...
has a light that turns green,
telling the main computer
that the right amount of torque
has been put on the blade.
That combination of human skill
and automated
assistance is critical
considering how
precisely constructed
a lawn mower has to be.
So, we have our
freshly-painted frames here
for our lawn tractors.
This is just one of the
many sub-assemblies
here at John Deere.
And in this area, this
is where the lawn tractor
really starts to take
shape... On these frames.
The engine will be dropped down,
the pedestal which
contains the steering column
and some of the controls
and our mower deck.
What are we doing
exactly, Tania?
- Putting on the hitch plate.
- Hitch plate.
- Hitch plate.
- Putting in the hitch plate.
- And...
- And the axle.
It's the foundation for
what we're making...
Correct.
Which is a four-wheel
steering tractor.
This riding mower has a
distinctive steering design.
If you turn the steering
wheel to the left,
the front wheels go left.
But unlike, say, a car,
the rear wheels
will actually go right.
That kind of mechanism
allows riders to
make very tight turns,
and it helps make sure that no
patch of lawn goes unmowed.
The experts at John Deere
here in Horicon, Wisconsin,
are showing us how
to make a lawn tractor.
This is where the rubber meets
the road here at John Deere.
Now, this has a pretty
unique quality, this tractor...
Four-wheel steering.
I don't have that on
my little hybrid car,
but let me ask you something.
It's like a fire engine
with that long trailer
- in the back, right?
- Yep.
What kind of challenges
does that present here
to the folks at John Deere?
It's very hard to supply
both torque from the engine
and steering to the same wheel.
So they've attached the
wheel not directly to the axle,
but through a knuckle joint.
This thing right here
allows the engine to turn
and therefore twist the wheel
at the same time
the wheel is steering.
Now it's time to attach the
most crucial element of all...
The almighty blade.
UNGER: Dimple is up,
dimple is up, dimple is up.
Time to put some torque on.
Torque.
Oh, yeah. That little green
mark means I'm good.
Torque.
The challenge is making
sure that a single blade
can produce an
even cut of your lawn.
One key is getting the
grass to stand at attention.
The mower does that
with a curved portion
on the end of the
blade known as the sail.
BLOOMFIELD:
It's cut like a wing.
As it rushes through
the air like this,
it kicks the air up
and creates an updraft
that basically carries
the grass upward with it.
Suction?
Suction. Airflow. Suction, yeah.
All this precision
comes down to physics.
The grass is
inertial. It has inertia.
An object at rest
tends to stay at rest.
What do you mean?
This is the way the world works.
Things that aren't moving...
It's hard to get them moving.
And that blade of grass
is hard to get moving.
If you come on it fast enough,
you can slice right through it.
But you still have to
have a sharp blade.
A dull blade will tear
grass instead of cutting it.
This leads to water
loss and brown grass.
After the blade is set in place,
it gets attached to the
frame and mower deck.
But we're not through yet
because without a system
to run all of this, the
blade would be useless.
Gene, I want to
ask you a question.
Gene Hayes is a design
engineer here at John Deere.
You can bring that in here.
We got a couple of
things going on here.
Now, when you're
powering the mower
and it's moving at one
speed... Fairly slow usually...
But the blade's moving
so fast underneath.
And they're going
at, like, what...
200 RPM or something like that.
How do you get two
speeds out of one engine?
We've got two pulleys on here.
The top pulley drives
the transmission.
The bottom pulley
drives the mower deck.
So you got two belts
going to two different places
on two pulleys, basically?
That's right.
So, without a pulley system like
this, engineered to this degree,
you couldn't do
two things at once?
Correct.
You'd just drive over it
and then have someone cut
it with scissors behind you?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
All that's left are
the final touches.
Give it some force.
Put some muscle into it.
This is where all the big
pieces finally come together.
Up we go.
Pull this baby out.
Rotate her over.
And under we go.
Ahh.
Look at that.
It's a marriage of two things.
It's how they cut grass.
Well, we are at the end of
the line here at John Deere.
This lawn tractor...
Almost done,
and these are the run-in men.
This is Stan.
That's John, and
they're the run-in men
because this is where we
get to see if this Deere can run.
I'm ready.
JOHN: Go ahead and start it.
- [Engine turns over]
- You got it.
Oh, yeah! It runs like a Deere.
We are in San
Francisco at the oldest
family-owned-and-operated
chocolate factory
in the country.
And the moment you
walk into their lobby,
you see the star of our
piece... The cacao tree.
Now, these grow 20 degrees
above and below the equator,
usually in a rainforest.
This is a cacao pod, and
in there are the cacao seeds
from which we get
the food of the gods...
The chocolate.
Whatever shape
or size it comes in,
chocolate satisfies our
most intense sugar cravings.
But ironically,
the seed that makes
chocolate isn't sweet at all.
We are in the laboratory
at Guittard Chocolates,
and this is, what,
flavor central, right, Ed?
That's it. This is
where it happens.
This is where it all happens.
Ed Seguine is the vice president
of research and development
at Guittard Chocolates.
And right before
us, we see the bean.
SEGUINE: These are
the raw cocoa beans.
This is what the
farmers provide to us.
Before they get to Ed, the
cocoa beans and their pulp
must spend days
fermenting and drying out.
From their initial flavor,
you'd never guess what's
gonna come out of them.
What would this taste like
if we were just to
bite into this now?
Would I get a
chocolaty sensation?
Absolutely not. It would
be the last thing you'd taste.
- What would I taste?
- It's gonna be bitter.
It's gonna be astringent.
There will be some interesting
floral aromatics in there.
But it will be totally
lacking of chocolate.
This is a total disappointment.
To inspect the beans,
a sampling of them
makes its way into the lab
and into this contraption
known as the bean guillotine.
[Crunch]
Nice. Pretty efficient
and probably sharp.
SEGUINE: Unfortunately, yes.
UNGER: You speak
from experience?
- No, because I have all my...
- Oh, yeah, I was gonna say.
All the tips of your fingers
are there and everything else.
All right.
From the looks of them,
the fermentation has
been done really nicely
on this particular lot of beans.
UNGER: Mm-hmm.
SEGUINE: You
see the nice fissuring
in these beans over here.
UNGER: Yeah. Like
little splintered inside.
SEGUINE: They're
separating inside.
Fermentation has
literally killed the beans
and in the process,
started to change their flavor
by destroying some of
the bitter-tasting molecules.
Notice the smell. [Sniffs]
You can smell.
There's an interesting
fragrance that comes off of that.
They actually smell vinegary.
- Yeah, they do.
- They don't smell pleasant.
I mean, it's not like you're
getting this big, chocolate,
wafting deliciousness
coming out of there.
There's no chocolate
whatsoever at this point.
From rainforests
around the world...
Ghana, Ecuador, Ivory Coast.
Sackfuls of beans sit
here in the warehouse
till Ed gives the nod.
I suppose you'll
go through what...
All of these in a day?
These beans are the product
of the cacao tree's
survival method.
It's evolved so that when birds
eat the sweet pulp of the pods,
they spit out the bitter
beans onto the ground,
which brings us to step
one... Washing the beans.
So, you got to clean the beans?
Hey, anything that's been laid
out in the sun for a week or two
in the jungle... Every
high-stepping critter,
low-flying varmint's
been across it.
- I want to clean them.
- [Laughs]
Got to watch out
for them varmints.
Herleif has to go through 5,000
pounds of beans in one day,
and he makes it
look so fun I want in.
- Well, can I do one?
- Sure.
What do you do? Just
right here? Just rip it open?
The beans pour down
this grate to get cleaned.
Then they ride up an
elevator to get roasted.
[Machine humming]
This is a very, very noisy area.
This is where they
roast the beans.
Now, Ed, how hot are you
making these beans here?
Hot enough to bring
out all the flavor,
and, beyond that, I'd
have to kill you if I told you.
Okay.
Roasting the cocoa beans is
one of the most critical steps
in creating the
chocolate flavor.
Roasting transforms all the
flavor precursor molecules
into the scents that
we identify as chocolate.
Among those precursors
are amino acids,
the building blocks of proteins.
And when you heat
those in the presence
of natural sugars
already in the beans,
they develop into these
wonderful aromatic flavors.
Fingers.
The roasted bean is shelled,
and what's left is the center.
This right here...
That's the good part.
That's the prize... the nib.
The nib.
The nibs have to
be cooked just right.
Over-roasting or under-roasting
can lead to
bad-tasting chocolate.
So Ed and I do a flavor check.
Now, what will this taste like?
This will begin to
taste like chocolate.
It's got a little bit more of a
browned, baked note right now...
- Oh, yeah.
- But if you continue
to chew it, you'll get
more chocolate flavor out.
Like a nut.
Like a chocolate nut, you know.
The nibs pass Ed's approval
and become the foundation
of the chocolate butterflies
we'll be making later.
But we can't use them like this.
To turn this nib
into edible treats,
we have to go from solid
to liquid to solid to liquid
to solid to liquid
back to solid.
Stick with me, folks.
It's gonna be a wild ride.
Okay. The first thing we
do is grind up the solid nib.
Basically, we're just
reducing that chocolate seed...
These nibs...
To its liquid form.
This is called
"chocolate liquor."
Now, there's no booze in it.
It contains cocoa
and cocoa butter.
Because cocoa
butter's melting point
is just below body temperature,
it gives chocolate that
melt-in-your-mouth quality.
To get the smoothest,
silkiest chocolate,
Guittard has to add extra
cocoa butter to its cocoa liquor.
It gets that cocoa
butter by extracting it
from a portion of the
cocoa liquor in this press,
which exerts 2
million pounds of force
on a cylinder full
of cocoa liquor
and squeezes out
the cocoa butter.
But combining extra cocoa
butter with cocoa liquor
doesn't make chocolate.
We need a few more ingredients.
We have made all
of our ingredients.
- Right?
- That's correct.
And now we need to mix them
to actually start making chocolate.
SEGUINE: Just mixing some
basic ingredients together.
But on an enormous
scale you do this.
Our mixing bowl is 5,000 pounds.
I see a lot of
buttons, a lot of lights.
Looks confusing.
This is a machine straight
out of "Willy Wonka."
We have the cocoa
butter, the liquor surge tank.
Now you're gonna put
those into this little line.
This little line is gonna feed
into these two digital readouts.
Correct.
Sugar, milk.
If I follow this line upward,
it's going to take
me back over...
- SEGUINE: No, you missed.
- I missed right here.
- It goes over there.
- It goes right here.
This isn't
complicated at all, Ed.
Ed, here, has a
PhD in flavor science,
but even he's
having some trouble
figuring out this machine.
Pull the mixer "A" motor. Yep.
That's good. Let it go.
We have to do it again.
- Okay.
- I didn't have that pulled out.
Go ahead and pull it out again.
Ed, do you work here?
[Chuckling] Yeah.
Oh, I heard something.
No. You heard a door shut
on the other side of the wall.
[Both laugh]
Finally, we get things going.
UNGER: Let's
give it another drop,
and then I'll switch it back.
SEGUINE: Right about
where we ought to be.
And now we head
back down to the floor
for another flavor check.
UNGER: We could walk out of
the room, but the whole crew is...
Is in the way.
[Laughter]
All of our ingredients are in.
And like a vintner
checking his grapes
at each wine-making step,
Ed constantly monitors the
development of his chocolate.
At this point, the texture is
nowhere near what he wants.
This is kind of gritty.
- It feels a little gritty.
- Yeah.
But the flavor is
getting much closer.
It tastes just like
chocolate. Pretty good.
- You taste the milk in it?
- Yeah.
A quick pass through
five massive rolling pins
pulverizes the gritty paste.
These refiners turn this
pasty stuff into a dry powder
by exposing a whole
lot of new surface area.
The particles, as they
go through the refiner,
are ground down to less than
.002 of an inch in diameter.
The vat just can't cover
those surfaces well,
and it's left as a powder.
How do you get it
to become a flake?
We're not taking anything away.
We're not adding
any... Just making it fine.
Turns it into a powdery
flake until it's mixed again.
Now, is that smooth?
[Laughs]
That is delicious!
At this point in the process,
our chocolate is
packed with flavor,
but there are still some
unsavory molecules.
Plus, we have to
turn this powder
into an easy-flowing liquid,
a tall order involving heat
and a monstrous mixer.
This part of our chocolate
assembly is called "conching,"
named after this
scary machine...
A big, giant blender
you'd find in a horror movie.
It's where our finely ground
milk-chocolate powder is dumped,
and it's blended
and mixed together
for hours and hours and hours,
sometimes days, depending on
how expensive the chocolate is.
It kind of stews in the
heat and its own juices,
and that enhances flavor.
The acidity in all that
chocolate liquor is released,
and, eventually, this turns
into a thick chocolate syrup.
Liquid chocolate is great
if you want to drink
your candy bar.
Guittard ships out their
confection-making chocolate
in solid hunks, so we'll
have to harden our syrup.
But we don't just cool it down.
Oh, no. That would
be way too easy.
Now, in order for Guittard
to make a chocolate bar
that holds together as a
solid at room temperature,
they have to put it through
a process called "tempering."
That's kind of a
fancy way of saying
they heat the chocolate
up, cool it down,
and then bring the
temperature back up.
From there, they feed
that heated chocolate
through a system of pipes
and then fill these trays
with what is finished
Guittard chocolate bars.
The multiple changes
in temperature
lets the fats
crystallize properly,
giving our chocolate its
characteristic gloss and snap.
Delicious.
These 10-pounders are
getting packed and shipped
to confectioners
around the world.
Guittard.
Check out that big hunk of slab
of chocolate
deliciousness right there.
- Here they come.
- MAN: Dinner!
But most of this is
going to confectioners
who will turn it
into other candies.
This happens to be
a mild dark chocolate.
And I got to tell you,
you just kind of want to...
[Chuckles]
Did you know that we consume
3 1/2 billion
pounds of chocolate
every year in this country?
- Right.
- What is wrong with us?
Nothing. It's good for you.
One of these 1,500-pound boxes
gets delivered locally
to Charles Chocolates
where those big bars
become perfectly
little bites of candy.
I'll tell you what.
I never miss an opportunity
to wear a good hairnet.
Yeah, I'm the same way.
Chocolate artisans
make up a tiny portion
of a $13-billion-a-year
industry.
All right, Charles.
This is our Guittard
chocolate that Lou and I made.
And we're gonna turn it
into something so
beautiful like that.
- Exactly.
- Which is really
the fanciest peanut-butter
cup I've ever seen.
Well, it's probably the best
one you'll ever taste, as well.
I'm looking forward to it.
To make these delicious
peanut butterflies,
we first melt our 10-pound bars,
but melting destroys
the crystals formed
when we tempered the
chocolate back at Guittard.
So before we use it
here, we temper it again.
You temper the crap
out of chocolate, it seems.
CHARLES: One of the
nice things about chocolate
is at the end of the day,
whatever chocolate we
haven't used, we can reheat it
and then come back tomorrow
morning and temper it again.
And there's no ill effect.
You have to keep retempering
'cause it will overtemper
after a while, right?
The seed crystals get
too big and too many.
CHARLES: It's easy to
identify. The chocolate gets thick.
It gets gloppy.
And we know at a glance
that we've gone too far
and we need to start over again.
You just kind of put
it right under there
and just kind of do this thing.
CHARLES: Exactly.
If we've overtempered
our chocolate,
we have an even bigger problem.
Our butterflies will
stick to the mold.
Luckily, we've done everything
right, and they pop out easily,
so we just keep going.
Inside this plastic bag
is the peanut praliné...
Correct.
Or as I call it,
liquid peanut butter.
Or you can call it
liquid peanut butter.
I'll only take a little offense.
You feel this in your back.
Not when you're my size.
It's one of the
advantages of being short.
Being a little shorter.
The last step is sealing up
our candies with a final layer.
This is probably the easiest
part of the whole process.
Okay.
- You kind of missed a spot.
- Yeah, I noticed that.
I'm gonna fix that.
A few hours with Charles,
and I've yet to make
a "Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory" reference.
Oh, wait. I just did.
We just tap it a little bit.
There it is. From
bean to butterfly.
To my mouth.
Hard to believe
this sweet, little thing
had such a bitter beginning.
Yeah. Hey, what
is that over there?
- I fell for that once.
- You didn't even...
You did not even look
over there for a second.
all the stuff in our world,
there's the story of
how it comes to be.
Hello. I'm Brian Unger.
BLOOMFIELD: I'm
Professor Lou Bloomfield.
UNGER: From the drawing
board to the assembly line,
it's how the ordinary is
actually extraordinary.
Today on "Some
Assembly Required,"
knives, lawn mowers,
and chocolate.
The sushi knife.
It's a knife unlike anything
most people have
in their kitchen.
It's super strong
and razor-sharp.
And to make it, we need
to work with the masters
who have perfected the
ancient art of metallurgy.
While Lou works at
the forge in Virginia,
I'm the lucky one who
gets to travel all the way to...
Here.
We are in Sakai, Japan.
And Sakai isn't just
known for its knives.
In fact, over 600 years ago,
the first samurai swords
were made right here in Sakai.
And that DNA from that
rich tradition of sword making
can be found in every
knife made in this city today.
I'm on my way to
one of the factories
of the Korin Trading Company,
one of the largest purveyors
of the world's strongest knives,
though their
factories are really
a network of back-alley shops.
Well, there's an old joke in
Japan, and it goes like this.
A man walks into a
knife-making workshop.
And what happens, Paul?
Can't speak Japanese.
He can't speak Japanese.
He can't understand anyone.
That's why we have
Paul Martin with us.
Paul Martin is my
trusty, patient interpreter.
He's going to help me
cross the cultural divide
as I learn to
craft a sushi knife.
I'm Brian Unger.
Making a razor-sharp knife
that is both strong and flexible
is a surprisingly difficult
and complicated task.
Kichiro-san, a
master knife maker,
will instruct me on the methods
essential to creating
a strong, sharp knife.
UNGER: So, tell me
about the process.
How does this begin?
First, he attaches
a piece of hard steel
and a bar of soft steel, and
then he welds that together.
Kichiro-san starts out with
two different pieces of metal.
One is soft iron, the
other is high-carbon steel,
the secret to
making a sturdy knife.
Hardened high-carbon
steel is so rigid and unyielding
that it breaks
rather than bending.
Watch.
If you try the same thing
with low-carbon steel,
it bends rather than breaking.
A composite steel
needs to be created.
The high- and low-carbon
steels have to be welded together.
High carbon for strength
near the sharpened side.
Low carbon for
flexibility along the spine.
Making composite steel
requires intense heat.
When the metals
begin to glow red-hot,
the structure of their
iron crystals changes,
allowing carbon atoms
to dissolve in them
like salt in water.
This softens the metal
so that it can be pounded
or forged well together.
The crystals have to
become completely entangled.
You can only forge
a perfect chef knife
if the heat is
perfectly regulated.
How hot is it inside the oven
where he forges that steel?
MARTIN: It's about 800 degrees.
UNGER: 800 degrees.
On its way to more than
1,200 degrees Celsius,
or 2,200 Fahrenheit, to weld
these two pieces together.
And this is all done
without any thermometer
or anything to tell him
what the temperature is.
He's just doing it all
from just sort of how
he's feeling the heat.
MARTIN: And the
color of the steel.
UNGER: And the
color of the steel.
To say that these
are handcrafted knives
is almost an understatement.
These are literally forged
and shaped by hand
from just crude steel.
Yes.
How many will he make in a day?
He usually makes 12 a day.
- A dozen?
- Yes.
The belt hammer's pounding
of the metal ensures flexibility.
That's how the master does it.
Now it's my turn.
- You want to do that bit?
- What?
Attaching the hard
steel to the bar.
Do I want to attach the
hard steel to the bar?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
Just have the ambulance pull
up outside and just wait for me.
- Is that a no?
- Mm-hmm.
[Laughs]
Kichiro-san, thank you.
UNGER: Now, I'm
looking, basically,
down the throat of
a breathing dragon.
Sounds like bacon frying.
Sounds like bacon frying.
A lot hotter.
Yeah. You don't have to tell
him every stupid thing I say.
[Martin laughing]
This Japanese master
is gonna let me stamp out
my own pieces of
hard and soft metal.
MARTIN: He's gonna
leave you there on your own.
He's gonna leave
me here on my own.
MARTIN: Yeah.
Kichiro-san, is that
a wise thing to do?
[Laughs]
UNGER: So, I'm just
gonna back off the heat
with this lever
here, take this out.
That's the hard part
right there is turning it.
So I've got to turn the knife.
It's getting a little crooked.
I don't know if
you can see this,
but Kichiro-san is
wearing flip-flops.
[Martin chuckles]
Apparently, the steel-toe
boot really not a consideration.
Oh, he wants me back here.
Like this?
Kichiro-san, how am I doing?
- [Chuckling] Okay.
- Okay?
- [Chuckles]
- Okay.
I think he's lying,
but, you know.
MARTIN: You can
have that as a present.
I have this as a present?
Yeah. He's gonna give it to you.
Really? I can?
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- MARTIN: [Laughs]
No one will want to use that
knife anyway since I made it.
The knife has to be ground down
to a quarter-of-an-inch
thickness on its spine.
This is the optimum
width for a tool
that needs to be strong yet
lightweight and flexible enough
for the delicate
work of slicing sushi.
Then it's stamped.
This is really a
very personal step
where the maker actually begins
to write his name in the blade
that says where the
knife has been made.
You know, who would want
to use a sushi knife anyway
made by someone
from Dayton, Ohio?
Well, the metal has its
signature stamped in it,
but it's still a long, long
way from being a real knife.
Next, we have to prepare
the steel to hold an edge.
So, with this clay soup here...
The quenching process
means it will have lasting
strength and sharpness.
Itsuo-san will actually apply
sort of a porridge of
water and clay to the blade.
Once the clay dries,
it's back into the fire
where the blade is heated
until it glows bright red.
So, this is kind of a second
stage of heating the knife.
They actually
reheat it after this clay
has been rubbed on the
knife and sort of hardened.
MARTIN: Yeah.
See him taking it in and out.
He's trying to get
an even temperature
all the way along the blade,
and when he gets it
to the right temperature,
then he'll quench it into
this pot of water here.
In doing so,
we are once again altering
the molecular structure.
Before heating,
the steel contains tiny
crystals of nearly pure iron,
and its carbon is located
outside those crystals.
But at red heat, the carbon
dissolves into the iron,
and the steel
becomes homogenous.
When you then
quench the steel...
[Hisses]
the dissolved carbon
atoms scramble frantically
to get back out
of the iron crystals,
but they don't have
time to escape.
They're trapped.
The resulting
carbon-stuffed iron crystals
are incredibly hard and at the
heart of a good cutting edge.
Here in Japan, we're
learning from the masters
how to make the strongest,
sharpest sushi knife.
Having created a strong blade,
now it's time to
get to the point...
of sharpening.
We're going to give
this knife its edge.
At the moment,
it's not quite a knife,
so we find ourself
in this sort of quiet
residential alleyway in Sakai,
where finally this
blade gets its character.
This knife becomes a knife.
MARTIN: Hey, Brian.
Hi, there. I'm here
to sharpen my knife.
I think I've found
the right place.
Hi. My name is Brian.
Nice to meet you.
Shinpai Ino has been honing
blades for more than 35 years.
Now, this needs
to become a knife.
Now, I have to ask you
before we get started,
why is the water that these
blades are stored in so green?
I mean, it looks
like antifreeze.
MARTIN: To stop it from rusting.
UNGER: To stop it from rusting?
The knives are raw metal.
If exposed to the air around us,
they begin to rust
almost immediately.
So they soak in a solution
that halts corrosion.
Sort of an "Edward Scissorhands"
look going on over here.
Now it's time to give
our knife some real edge.
For centuries, this has been
the way these knives have
been made, on a stone wheel.
Okay.
[Scraping]
Wow.
This was the first
blade that we forged,
and it has no edge on it.
And this is just after just a
few minutes on the wheel
where you can see the
first edge has been applied.
The qualities of
this unique steel
allow the sushi knife to
be honed to a severe angle.
But unlike western-style knives,
these are grinded by Japanese
masters on just one side,
allowing for unmatched
sharpness and precision.
A dull knife actually
damages the cells in the fish,
thereby altering the
taste of the sushi.
Whatever you do,
don't let go of that.
Don't let go of that no
matter what happens.
Okay.
This is extremely
dangerous, and the trick here
is to apply just the
right amount of pressure
at just the right angle,
a skill gained after
years of practice.
I'm doing a
terrible job on that.
MARTIN: He says
you're moving it.
You're not keeping
it at an angle.
UNGER: So, the important
part is to keep the same angle
as I push it down.
I didn't ruin that knife, did I?
- Did I ruin that knife?
- [Speaking Japanese]
He said if you kept going,
you would've ruined it.
If I had kept going, I
would have ruined it.
Obviously, the edge
isn't finished yet.
Using a smaller wheel,
then a whetstone,
the blade is honed to
razor-quality sharpness.
[Martin laughs]
- Oh, you can cut your hair, too?
- Yeah, yeah.
But I wear a toupee, so this
is very unnecessary for me.
Oh, shoot.
I just... Yeah, I
felt that on my hair.
I think this knife is done.
Actually, it's not.
It needs a handle.
What we have here
is a finished traditional
Japanese carving knife
complete with its wooden handle.
This is forged from
carbon steel, handcrafted,
and with the signatures
carved into the blade.
The only thing left is to
actually use this bad boy.
So, we're at Uweda,
and we brought our knife,
the one we've been forging
over the past couple of days.
Paul, our trusty interpreter,
you will take your
seat at the bar.
I'm going to go
back into the kitchen.
I present to you the knife.
Should I come across
on this side and watch?
- [Speaking Japanese]
- Okay.
Okay, I'm gonna
actually try now to...
Well, using our knife
that we forged and made.
Uh... this is the first time
I've cut sashimi, so like this.
Like this.
Okay.
And he said to use
the whole blade.
Oh, wow. I'm making... wow.
You know what? Is it moving?
CHEF: [Laughing] Yes, yes.
MARTIN: He
said it's still alive.
- It is still alive.
- Yeah.
[Laughter]
That was good.
[Shuddering]
I just got the worst
heebie-jeebies.
Uweda-san, this one's
dead, right? Okay.
Okay.
Okay, so I have
now completed this
with the application
of the lime,
and behold this
lovely plate of sashimi.
These knives may be strong,
but they're also
amazingly delicate.
To give you an idea of how
delicate these knives are,
if you don't wipe
them after every use,
after one slice of the
fish, it begins to rust.
This is the knife we just
made, and after I used it once,
I've already kind of
botched this knife,
and it needs repolishing.
Paul, would you like to try?
No. I'm good,
thanks. I don't eat fish.
Right.
Can I get you a pint instead?
[Laughs] Yes, please.
He'll have a pint. No sashimi.
Is that how it goes?
Well, it is one of the
great summertime rituals,
mowing the grass.
Some like to do figure eights.
Some like diagonals. Some
like straight up and down.
But whatever your poison was,
you had to admit
it sure felt good
leaving a nice, clean,
mowed trail of yard behind you.
Well, John Deere figured
this out a long time ago.
Their mowers are made
of hundreds of parts
working together to handle
one simple job, cutting grass.
And those machines are made
here in Horicon, Wisconsin.
Well, the assembly here at
John Deere begins with this.
30,000 pounds of steel.
It's morning time here,
and we're just using
a 25-ton hoist to lift it.
Excuse me. I have
to press some steel.
Now, they will go through
about two of these
giant coils of steel
in about four to six hours.
I got to get one of these to
move some stuff in my backyard.
In less than two hours,
that 26,000 pounds
of shapeless steel
will be pressed, cut, and molded
into 1,500 smaller pieces,
parts we're gonna
need to build our tractor.
Today we're making
the Select Series 300.
It's pretty amazing what a
thousand-ton press will do.
UNGER: Now, what's the
gauge of this steel, Lou?
BLOOMFIELD: It's
like 3 millimeters thick.
- It's really strong.
- UNGER: 3 millimeters thick.
That's pretty thin.
That's why it takes a thousand
tons to stamp this stuff.
That pressure alone
forces the steel into shape,
changing its molecular structure
without requiring
any additional heat.
Once we join together
these metal parts,
we'll have our frame.
It'll hold the guts of this
machine, like the engine.
Eventually, the frame will
join with the fender deck,
the part that the rider sits on.
And I've got to stack
160 of these in an hour.
It's all about strength
right here, core strength.
And I need about 20
more pounds on me
to effectively use this
for eight hours in a day.
[Grunts]
'Cause this stuff is heavy.
Once the heavy lifting is over,
the fender decks will be washed
and then coated in a
primer to prevent rusting.
And then they'll
get painted a color
that's pretty recognizable.
That John Deere green
is not a liquid paint.
It's a powder.
These robot spray guns
are charging the powder
electrically with high voltage.
It comes out with
negative charge,
and it's attracted to positive
charge on the metal cart.
The two stick together like
socks coming out of a hot dryer.
There are some real
advantages to electropainting.
For one, this baked-on
paint is less likely to run.
And if anything is
painted accidentally,
it can be vacuumed away.
That makes the process
as green as the color.
99.9% of the excess paint
is recovered and reused.
The fender deck is
done, so we're ready
to start putting the rest of
the lawn tractor together.
And this baby is where
you load all of these pieces
into a frame.
Now, there are 15 of these.
It'll be welded in 37
spots automatically,
but Arnie and I here have
to load this thing correctly.
And at this point, I'm
just getting in his way.
Assembling a frame is a bit
like putting together a puzzle,
but Arnie Gorder
could do it blindfolded.
He's been working
here for 29 years.
This is the side of the
frame, and I think it goes in...
Yeah.
There is nothing
intuitive about this.
Oh, yeah. It's a
good thing he's here.
Bye-bye.
Now it's the robot's turn
to weld all the seams.
GORDER: Here it comes.
And voilà.
From behind the magic
curtain, a finished welded frame.
I've distracted Arnie,
and I've completely
screwed up the production
here at John Deere.
I broke the welder.
Arnie, I would just bang on it.
Oh, no.
Well, we got all our parts.
I'm gonna go build me
a John Deere tractor.
Here in the assembly
area of the factory,
tractors are outfitted
with all the parts
that make them go, from
the engine to the axles.
Each piece is added separately,
as these machines go from
bare frame to finished tractor.
Over here are fenders.
In another area over
here are some fuel tanks.
The engines were
added right over there.
And over here, a
dashboard assembly.
All these things
are just kind of
swirling around each
other in synchronous orbit
to maximize the efficiency.
Adding all these parts
is incredibly complicated,
yet a brand-new lawn tractor
rolls off the assembly
line here every 56 seconds.
Everywhere you got to
watch where you're going.
They have these smart
carts taking garden tractors
from one part of
the factory assembly
to some other part
of the assembly.
It's a way of maximizing the
efficiency of every worker here
so that the part comes to them.
It's pretty ingenious.
This is how they do it.
These carts... These smart carts
follow the magnetic
strips in the floor,
and they're talking to
each other by Ethernet,
and off they go with
nobody guiding them.
More than 20 different models
of tractors are produced here.
Smart carts tell workers
what model they're assembling
and which part it needs.
And if a particular model
doesn't require a certain part,
the frame will
just zip right on by.
The smart system
also tells workers
at each individual substation
what to make, how to
build it, and when to attach it.
Even this little marker
has a sensor right here
that makes sure
that when I do this
and mark that these washers
are facing the right direction,
that I put it back.
It senses it.
Then there are
cameras below here
that make sure the dimples are
facing upward on these washers.
Even the torque wrench...
has a light that turns green,
telling the main computer
that the right amount of torque
has been put on the blade.
That combination of human skill
and automated
assistance is critical
considering how
precisely constructed
a lawn mower has to be.
So, we have our
freshly-painted frames here
for our lawn tractors.
This is just one of the
many sub-assemblies
here at John Deere.
And in this area, this
is where the lawn tractor
really starts to take
shape... On these frames.
The engine will be dropped down,
the pedestal which
contains the steering column
and some of the controls
and our mower deck.
What are we doing
exactly, Tania?
- Putting on the hitch plate.
- Hitch plate.
- Hitch plate.
- Putting in the hitch plate.
- And...
- And the axle.
It's the foundation for
what we're making...
Correct.
Which is a four-wheel
steering tractor.
This riding mower has a
distinctive steering design.
If you turn the steering
wheel to the left,
the front wheels go left.
But unlike, say, a car,
the rear wheels
will actually go right.
That kind of mechanism
allows riders to
make very tight turns,
and it helps make sure that no
patch of lawn goes unmowed.
The experts at John Deere
here in Horicon, Wisconsin,
are showing us how
to make a lawn tractor.
This is where the rubber meets
the road here at John Deere.
Now, this has a pretty
unique quality, this tractor...
Four-wheel steering.
I don't have that on
my little hybrid car,
but let me ask you something.
It's like a fire engine
with that long trailer
- in the back, right?
- Yep.
What kind of challenges
does that present here
to the folks at John Deere?
It's very hard to supply
both torque from the engine
and steering to the same wheel.
So they've attached the
wheel not directly to the axle,
but through a knuckle joint.
This thing right here
allows the engine to turn
and therefore twist the wheel
at the same time
the wheel is steering.
Now it's time to attach the
most crucial element of all...
The almighty blade.
UNGER: Dimple is up,
dimple is up, dimple is up.
Time to put some torque on.
Torque.
Oh, yeah. That little green
mark means I'm good.
Torque.
The challenge is making
sure that a single blade
can produce an
even cut of your lawn.
One key is getting the
grass to stand at attention.
The mower does that
with a curved portion
on the end of the
blade known as the sail.
BLOOMFIELD:
It's cut like a wing.
As it rushes through
the air like this,
it kicks the air up
and creates an updraft
that basically carries
the grass upward with it.
Suction?
Suction. Airflow. Suction, yeah.
All this precision
comes down to physics.
The grass is
inertial. It has inertia.
An object at rest
tends to stay at rest.
What do you mean?
This is the way the world works.
Things that aren't moving...
It's hard to get them moving.
And that blade of grass
is hard to get moving.
If you come on it fast enough,
you can slice right through it.
But you still have to
have a sharp blade.
A dull blade will tear
grass instead of cutting it.
This leads to water
loss and brown grass.
After the blade is set in place,
it gets attached to the
frame and mower deck.
But we're not through yet
because without a system
to run all of this, the
blade would be useless.
Gene, I want to
ask you a question.
Gene Hayes is a design
engineer here at John Deere.
You can bring that in here.
We got a couple of
things going on here.
Now, when you're
powering the mower
and it's moving at one
speed... Fairly slow usually...
But the blade's moving
so fast underneath.
And they're going
at, like, what...
200 RPM or something like that.
How do you get two
speeds out of one engine?
We've got two pulleys on here.
The top pulley drives
the transmission.
The bottom pulley
drives the mower deck.
So you got two belts
going to two different places
on two pulleys, basically?
That's right.
So, without a pulley system like
this, engineered to this degree,
you couldn't do
two things at once?
Correct.
You'd just drive over it
and then have someone cut
it with scissors behind you?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
All that's left are
the final touches.
Give it some force.
Put some muscle into it.
This is where all the big
pieces finally come together.
Up we go.
Pull this baby out.
Rotate her over.
And under we go.
Ahh.
Look at that.
It's a marriage of two things.
It's how they cut grass.
Well, we are at the end of
the line here at John Deere.
This lawn tractor...
Almost done,
and these are the run-in men.
This is Stan.
That's John, and
they're the run-in men
because this is where we
get to see if this Deere can run.
I'm ready.
JOHN: Go ahead and start it.
- [Engine turns over]
- You got it.
Oh, yeah! It runs like a Deere.
We are in San
Francisco at the oldest
family-owned-and-operated
chocolate factory
in the country.
And the moment you
walk into their lobby,
you see the star of our
piece... The cacao tree.
Now, these grow 20 degrees
above and below the equator,
usually in a rainforest.
This is a cacao pod, and
in there are the cacao seeds
from which we get
the food of the gods...
The chocolate.
Whatever shape
or size it comes in,
chocolate satisfies our
most intense sugar cravings.
But ironically,
the seed that makes
chocolate isn't sweet at all.
We are in the laboratory
at Guittard Chocolates,
and this is, what,
flavor central, right, Ed?
That's it. This is
where it happens.
This is where it all happens.
Ed Seguine is the vice president
of research and development
at Guittard Chocolates.
And right before
us, we see the bean.
SEGUINE: These are
the raw cocoa beans.
This is what the
farmers provide to us.
Before they get to Ed, the
cocoa beans and their pulp
must spend days
fermenting and drying out.
From their initial flavor,
you'd never guess what's
gonna come out of them.
What would this taste like
if we were just to
bite into this now?
Would I get a
chocolaty sensation?
Absolutely not. It would
be the last thing you'd taste.
- What would I taste?
- It's gonna be bitter.
It's gonna be astringent.
There will be some interesting
floral aromatics in there.
But it will be totally
lacking of chocolate.
This is a total disappointment.
To inspect the beans,
a sampling of them
makes its way into the lab
and into this contraption
known as the bean guillotine.
[Crunch]
Nice. Pretty efficient
and probably sharp.
SEGUINE: Unfortunately, yes.
UNGER: You speak
from experience?
- No, because I have all my...
- Oh, yeah, I was gonna say.
All the tips of your fingers
are there and everything else.
All right.
From the looks of them,
the fermentation has
been done really nicely
on this particular lot of beans.
UNGER: Mm-hmm.
SEGUINE: You
see the nice fissuring
in these beans over here.
UNGER: Yeah. Like
little splintered inside.
SEGUINE: They're
separating inside.
Fermentation has
literally killed the beans
and in the process,
started to change their flavor
by destroying some of
the bitter-tasting molecules.
Notice the smell. [Sniffs]
You can smell.
There's an interesting
fragrance that comes off of that.
They actually smell vinegary.
- Yeah, they do.
- They don't smell pleasant.
I mean, it's not like you're
getting this big, chocolate,
wafting deliciousness
coming out of there.
There's no chocolate
whatsoever at this point.
From rainforests
around the world...
Ghana, Ecuador, Ivory Coast.
Sackfuls of beans sit
here in the warehouse
till Ed gives the nod.
I suppose you'll
go through what...
All of these in a day?
These beans are the product
of the cacao tree's
survival method.
It's evolved so that when birds
eat the sweet pulp of the pods,
they spit out the bitter
beans onto the ground,
which brings us to step
one... Washing the beans.
So, you got to clean the beans?
Hey, anything that's been laid
out in the sun for a week or two
in the jungle... Every
high-stepping critter,
low-flying varmint's
been across it.
- I want to clean them.
- [Laughs]
Got to watch out
for them varmints.
Herleif has to go through 5,000
pounds of beans in one day,
and he makes it
look so fun I want in.
- Well, can I do one?
- Sure.
What do you do? Just
right here? Just rip it open?
The beans pour down
this grate to get cleaned.
Then they ride up an
elevator to get roasted.
[Machine humming]
This is a very, very noisy area.
This is where they
roast the beans.
Now, Ed, how hot are you
making these beans here?
Hot enough to bring
out all the flavor,
and, beyond that, I'd
have to kill you if I told you.
Okay.
Roasting the cocoa beans is
one of the most critical steps
in creating the
chocolate flavor.
Roasting transforms all the
flavor precursor molecules
into the scents that
we identify as chocolate.
Among those precursors
are amino acids,
the building blocks of proteins.
And when you heat
those in the presence
of natural sugars
already in the beans,
they develop into these
wonderful aromatic flavors.
Fingers.
The roasted bean is shelled,
and what's left is the center.
This right here...
That's the good part.
That's the prize... the nib.
The nib.
The nibs have to
be cooked just right.
Over-roasting or under-roasting
can lead to
bad-tasting chocolate.
So Ed and I do a flavor check.
Now, what will this taste like?
This will begin to
taste like chocolate.
It's got a little bit more of a
browned, baked note right now...
- Oh, yeah.
- But if you continue
to chew it, you'll get
more chocolate flavor out.
Like a nut.
Like a chocolate nut, you know.
The nibs pass Ed's approval
and become the foundation
of the chocolate butterflies
we'll be making later.
But we can't use them like this.
To turn this nib
into edible treats,
we have to go from solid
to liquid to solid to liquid
to solid to liquid
back to solid.
Stick with me, folks.
It's gonna be a wild ride.
Okay. The first thing we
do is grind up the solid nib.
Basically, we're just
reducing that chocolate seed...
These nibs...
To its liquid form.
This is called
"chocolate liquor."
Now, there's no booze in it.
It contains cocoa
and cocoa butter.
Because cocoa
butter's melting point
is just below body temperature,
it gives chocolate that
melt-in-your-mouth quality.
To get the smoothest,
silkiest chocolate,
Guittard has to add extra
cocoa butter to its cocoa liquor.
It gets that cocoa
butter by extracting it
from a portion of the
cocoa liquor in this press,
which exerts 2
million pounds of force
on a cylinder full
of cocoa liquor
and squeezes out
the cocoa butter.
But combining extra cocoa
butter with cocoa liquor
doesn't make chocolate.
We need a few more ingredients.
We have made all
of our ingredients.
- Right?
- That's correct.
And now we need to mix them
to actually start making chocolate.
SEGUINE: Just mixing some
basic ingredients together.
But on an enormous
scale you do this.
Our mixing bowl is 5,000 pounds.
I see a lot of
buttons, a lot of lights.
Looks confusing.
This is a machine straight
out of "Willy Wonka."
We have the cocoa
butter, the liquor surge tank.
Now you're gonna put
those into this little line.
This little line is gonna feed
into these two digital readouts.
Correct.
Sugar, milk.
If I follow this line upward,
it's going to take
me back over...
- SEGUINE: No, you missed.
- I missed right here.
- It goes over there.
- It goes right here.
This isn't
complicated at all, Ed.
Ed, here, has a
PhD in flavor science,
but even he's
having some trouble
figuring out this machine.
Pull the mixer "A" motor. Yep.
That's good. Let it go.
We have to do it again.
- Okay.
- I didn't have that pulled out.
Go ahead and pull it out again.
Ed, do you work here?
[Chuckling] Yeah.
Oh, I heard something.
No. You heard a door shut
on the other side of the wall.
[Both laugh]
Finally, we get things going.
UNGER: Let's
give it another drop,
and then I'll switch it back.
SEGUINE: Right about
where we ought to be.
And now we head
back down to the floor
for another flavor check.
UNGER: We could walk out of
the room, but the whole crew is...
Is in the way.
[Laughter]
All of our ingredients are in.
And like a vintner
checking his grapes
at each wine-making step,
Ed constantly monitors the
development of his chocolate.
At this point, the texture is
nowhere near what he wants.
This is kind of gritty.
- It feels a little gritty.
- Yeah.
But the flavor is
getting much closer.
It tastes just like
chocolate. Pretty good.
- You taste the milk in it?
- Yeah.
A quick pass through
five massive rolling pins
pulverizes the gritty paste.
These refiners turn this
pasty stuff into a dry powder
by exposing a whole
lot of new surface area.
The particles, as they
go through the refiner,
are ground down to less than
.002 of an inch in diameter.
The vat just can't cover
those surfaces well,
and it's left as a powder.
How do you get it
to become a flake?
We're not taking anything away.
We're not adding
any... Just making it fine.
Turns it into a powdery
flake until it's mixed again.
Now, is that smooth?
[Laughs]
That is delicious!
At this point in the process,
our chocolate is
packed with flavor,
but there are still some
unsavory molecules.
Plus, we have to
turn this powder
into an easy-flowing liquid,
a tall order involving heat
and a monstrous mixer.
This part of our chocolate
assembly is called "conching,"
named after this
scary machine...
A big, giant blender
you'd find in a horror movie.
It's where our finely ground
milk-chocolate powder is dumped,
and it's blended
and mixed together
for hours and hours and hours,
sometimes days, depending on
how expensive the chocolate is.
It kind of stews in the
heat and its own juices,
and that enhances flavor.
The acidity in all that
chocolate liquor is released,
and, eventually, this turns
into a thick chocolate syrup.
Liquid chocolate is great
if you want to drink
your candy bar.
Guittard ships out their
confection-making chocolate
in solid hunks, so we'll
have to harden our syrup.
But we don't just cool it down.
Oh, no. That would
be way too easy.
Now, in order for Guittard
to make a chocolate bar
that holds together as a
solid at room temperature,
they have to put it through
a process called "tempering."
That's kind of a
fancy way of saying
they heat the chocolate
up, cool it down,
and then bring the
temperature back up.
From there, they feed
that heated chocolate
through a system of pipes
and then fill these trays
with what is finished
Guittard chocolate bars.
The multiple changes
in temperature
lets the fats
crystallize properly,
giving our chocolate its
characteristic gloss and snap.
Delicious.
These 10-pounders are
getting packed and shipped
to confectioners
around the world.
Guittard.
Check out that big hunk of slab
of chocolate
deliciousness right there.
- Here they come.
- MAN: Dinner!
But most of this is
going to confectioners
who will turn it
into other candies.
This happens to be
a mild dark chocolate.
And I got to tell you,
you just kind of want to...
[Chuckles]
Did you know that we consume
3 1/2 billion
pounds of chocolate
every year in this country?
- Right.
- What is wrong with us?
Nothing. It's good for you.
One of these 1,500-pound boxes
gets delivered locally
to Charles Chocolates
where those big bars
become perfectly
little bites of candy.
I'll tell you what.
I never miss an opportunity
to wear a good hairnet.
Yeah, I'm the same way.
Chocolate artisans
make up a tiny portion
of a $13-billion-a-year
industry.
All right, Charles.
This is our Guittard
chocolate that Lou and I made.
And we're gonna turn it
into something so
beautiful like that.
- Exactly.
- Which is really
the fanciest peanut-butter
cup I've ever seen.
Well, it's probably the best
one you'll ever taste, as well.
I'm looking forward to it.
To make these delicious
peanut butterflies,
we first melt our 10-pound bars,
but melting destroys
the crystals formed
when we tempered the
chocolate back at Guittard.
So before we use it
here, we temper it again.
You temper the crap
out of chocolate, it seems.
CHARLES: One of the
nice things about chocolate
is at the end of the day,
whatever chocolate we
haven't used, we can reheat it
and then come back tomorrow
morning and temper it again.
And there's no ill effect.
You have to keep retempering
'cause it will overtemper
after a while, right?
The seed crystals get
too big and too many.
CHARLES: It's easy to
identify. The chocolate gets thick.
It gets gloppy.
And we know at a glance
that we've gone too far
and we need to start over again.
You just kind of put
it right under there
and just kind of do this thing.
CHARLES: Exactly.
If we've overtempered
our chocolate,
we have an even bigger problem.
Our butterflies will
stick to the mold.
Luckily, we've done everything
right, and they pop out easily,
so we just keep going.
Inside this plastic bag
is the peanut praliné...
Correct.
Or as I call it,
liquid peanut butter.
Or you can call it
liquid peanut butter.
I'll only take a little offense.
You feel this in your back.
Not when you're my size.
It's one of the
advantages of being short.
Being a little shorter.
The last step is sealing up
our candies with a final layer.
This is probably the easiest
part of the whole process.
Okay.
- You kind of missed a spot.
- Yeah, I noticed that.
I'm gonna fix that.
A few hours with Charles,
and I've yet to make
a "Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory" reference.
Oh, wait. I just did.
We just tap it a little bit.
There it is. From
bean to butterfly.
To my mouth.
Hard to believe
this sweet, little thing
had such a bitter beginning.
Yeah. Hey, what
is that over there?
- I fell for that once.
- You didn't even...
You did not even look
over there for a second.