Cheese Graters Hot Sauce Silver Jewellery Traditional Mexican Chairs
Many recipes call for shredded ingredients, which is why a cheese grater is an indispensable kitchen tool. Depending on which type of blade or blades a grater has, you can coarsely shred to finely grate not just cheese but also potatoes and vegetables. Graters come in different sizes, shapes, and configurations, from flat models with one blade to box graters with a different blade on each side. The blades are made from a stainless-steel sheet that's just 1/50 of an inch thick. The sheet enters a shearing machine, where a die descends and cuts the blade shape, holes and all. The machine's dies are interchangeable, so when it's time to produce a different model, workers simply remove this die and install another one. Stainless steel is the ideal blade material because it's food-safe, durable, and rust-proof. For this model, the next step is to curve the blade. They insert it into a press that bends it with a rounded die. The press also turns over the edges along three sides, forming a channel for a handle. The handle is made of stainless-steel wire. A bending machine wraps it around a grater-shaped form... Then cuts the end free, releasing what is now a finished handle. Now for this model's final assembly. Workers slide a handle into the blade's channels. Next they put the blade in a press, which forces the channels closed, encasing the wire. With the handle and blade now locked together, the grater is finished. Another model has a built-in tray to collect the grated food. This machine forms the pivoting handle which enables the blade to stand upright in the tray. First the machine cuts a strip of stainless steel to the required length. It makes holes for a rivet on each side. Then it bends the piece to a "u" shape. Meanwhile, a forming press shapes the tray out of a stainless-steel sheet. The tray moves to the next press, which slices off the excess from the perimeter. The tray is now completely formed. All that's left to do is punch a hole on each side for the rivets that attach the handle that props up the blade. They take the handle and rivet it to one end of the blade. Next, they rivet the tray to the other end of the blade, and the grater is fully assembled. This company packaged certain models in blister packs. Workers put the grater in a clear plastic cover, then position a printed cardboard backing over it. The backing is coated with transparent, heat-activated glue. A few seconds under a hot press, and the plastic cover adheres to the backing, encapsulating the grater. From a basic version on up, a grater is an essential kitchen tool most cooks can't do without. When it comes to cuisine, some like it hot. A quick way to satisfy a picante-loving palate is with a splash or two of hot sauce, typically served with mexican food such as nachos, tacos, and burritos. It can also spice up everyday fare such as eggs, potatoes, and sandwiches. This american company has been producing hot sauce, also called a pepper sauce, since 1868. Its signature version is made from tabasco peppers, a type of chile pepper. The brand also comes in additional varieties, using habanero, chipotle, and green jalapeño peppers. The company has pepper fields at its home base in louisiana, as well as in central and in south america, using seeds harvested from the louisiana crop. The company president uses his experienced eye to select the best plants for seed extraction-- those with even and early-ripening, juicy peppers, well-formed, layered branches, and healthy, damage-free leaves. He marks his selection with a string. Then pickers harvest those peppers and send them to the seed extractor. The peppers are hand-picked for sauce production, as well. To determine which ones are ripe enough, the pickers use what cajuns call a petite baton rouge, french for "little red stick". If a pepper matches the color of the stick, they harvest it. If not, it stays on the plant. It's labor-intensive but ensures only the perfect peppers go into the sauce. Within hours of harvesting, the factory grinds the peppers and mixes them with salt. This creates a mash which then goes into oak whiskey barrels to ferment and age. Wooden barrels breathe, letting in just enough air to spur natural yeast growth-- the key to fermentation--  but not too much air, which would discolor the mash and produce a metallic flavor. After laying paper on top of the mash to prevent surface discoloration, workers seal the barrels. Then they spread a layer of salt over the top. The barrels now go to the warehouse, where the mash ferments and ages for three years. Fermentation releases carbon-dioxide gas, which forces liquid out through a vent hole in the top of the barrel. The salt absorbs the liquid and hardens. After the three-year fermentation and aging period, they break up the salt and open the barrel. What was once pungent and acrid is now aromatic, with a mellow, complex flavor. However, it still needs significant refining. So they pump it into large mixing tanks, add vinegar, then churn for three to four weeks. That's now long it takes for the vinegar to break down the pepper solids into smaller particles. During that process, the vinegar also takes on the color, flavor, and aroma of the peppers. The sauce requires no cooking whatsoever because the vinegar acts as a natural preservative. The next step is a two-stage milling process. The first mill extracts the pepper pulp. The second mill removes the seeds. The sauce is now finished. The quality-control department analyzes samples from every batch of sauce for viscosity, ph, salt level, and other criteria. Lab technicians also perform taste tests for flavor, clearing their palate in between with crackers and cooling the fiery heat with ice-cream bars. Once the batch gets the thumbs-up, it's pumped to the bottling line. The company uses glass rather than plastic because glass is a better barrier against oxygen. Oxygen penetration would adversely affect the flavor and color of the sauce. The capping machine twists on a plastic screw cap. Then the bottles travel to the labeler, which adheres the main product label, slips on a decorative neck band, and applies a clear plastic seal over the cap. Hot off the production line and ready to go. People have been making jewelry and other objects since about 4,000 b.c. silver remains popular today because of its beauty and its affordability compared to gold and platinum. Pure silver is rather soft, so it's traditionally combined with one or more metals to give it hardness and strength. The silver used in jewelry is traditionally sterling silver. Sterling is composed of 92.5% silver and 7.5% alloy. The alloy is usually copper or copper combined with other metals. This mexican jewelry manufacturer melts the standard ratio of copper and zinc alloy to silver... Then also remelts silver left over from the jewelry production process. At 1,760 degrees fahrenheit, it takes just seconds for these solid metals to become molten sterling silver, at which point workers pour it into a stainless-steel mold. The silver rapidly cools and hardens into a flat bar. Workers extract the bar and clean it with sulfuric acid, then pass it between two rollers and a press. The rollers apply more than 3,300 pounds of pressure. Workers feed the bar into the press repeatedly, each time turning the wheel to narrow the gap between the rollers to progressively thin it out. Rolling the bar scrambles its molecules, making the silver brittle. So they reheat it to rearrange the molecules into a regular pattern again and restore flexibility and malleability. The bar now goes through another rolling press to radically reduce the thickness. This 4/10-of-an-inch-thick bar becomes a thin strip a mere 1/100 of an inch thick. In doing so, it also lengthens dramatically from 10 inches to just over 4 yards. The strip now passes through a series of forming rollers, which progressively curl the edges up and inward until the strip becomes a hollow tube. Then the machine solders the edges, sealing the tube. The tube is still way too thick for making earrings and rings, so on it goes to another thinning operation. The machine grabs one end of the tube and pulls it through a series of circular dies which have progressively narrower diameters. Once the tube is the required diameter, a winding machine curves it. Some tubes then move on to a cutting machine which uses a diamond head to engrave a pattern in the surface. To make hoop earrings, an artisan steadies a piece of curved, engraved tube in locking tweezers and solders on an earring hook, then the latch into which the hook snaps. Some pieces of jewelry incorporate cubic-zirconia stones. In this design, a computer-guided laser machine has already cut two patterned pieces out of an ultra-thin silver sheet. A stamping machine then rounded each piece into a half-sphere. The artisan now solders the two halves together, encasing the cubic-zirconia stones inside. Then he solders the rest of the earring components made from silver tubing and silver wire. Here an artisan is making a pendant. He locks cubic-zirconia stones in between the front and back frame pieces. Then he positions the center piece within the frame, soldering it in four spots. Next, he solders a ring to the top of the pendant... Then the bail, the loop for the chain, around the ring. Next, into the finisher, a rotating barrel of abrasive powder that rounds edges and smoothes rough spots. A buffing with a cloth wheel then polishes the silver to a mirror finish. The same computerized laser machine that cut the sphere earrings can also etch an elaborate design on the surface of a piece. It can reproduce virtually any image that can be created or copied with software. The laser draws by pulverizing a microlayer of silver. As the laser works, a built-in suction device vacuums the silver powder away. Besides adding strength and durability, the alloy makes sterling silver less porous and, therefore, shinier. And the copper in particular has anti-corrosive properties which reduce tarnishing. The mexican barrel chair is sometimes called montezuma's chair, after the 9th aztec emperor who, as legend has it, enjoyed sitting in one. After the spanish conquest of the aztec empire, these chairs were deemed seats of honor for visiting v.i.p.s. Now considered more rustic than regal, anyone can sit in a chair like montezuma's. There are various versions produced in mexico today, many handcrafted using techniques that date back centuries. With a sharp, curved blade, the craftsman first splits a chunk of mexican rosewood into long, narrow pieces. He cuts 36 splints for the chair's distinctive lattice work. He pares down the ends of each splint, and he carves a round head onto each end. These heads will stop the rope from sliding off as he ties the splints together. He pulls the back away from a much longer piece of wood and then trims it to slimmer dimensions. This wood is fresh from a local shrub called guizema. It's so pliable, it's almost elastic, allowing the craftsman to bend it around his knee into a "u" profile. Too much force, and he could crack the wood. Too little, and the curvature won't be right. A thick nail used on railway tracks is now used as a hammer as he nails a linear piece of wood to a curved one, completing his chair base. He now loops plastic rope around the tips of the two splints and ties them together. He lays the tied splints to holes in the guizema wood base. He angles the top end of the splints diagonally and ties them together to create the chair's trademark lattice. He then arranges the rounded willow wood frame on top and lashes the tied tips to it. He reinforces the chair base with willow wood branches that have been scraped flat. He nails five of these poles to the base of the chair. The next craftsman secures a rounded bundle of willow branches to the protruding poles. This completes the back framework. Another worker now strings rope made of agave plant fiber across the seat framework and ties it to it. He creates a strong yet flexible webbing to support the seat. He now splits open some locally grown reeds and flattens them with a stone. Basket-weave-style, he interlaces the flattened reeds to create a plated material that will be the next layer for the seat. After cutting it to the exact shape and dimensions, he places it on top of the webbing. He then stitches a strip of leather along the border. His co-worker now reinforces the plastic ties at the chair base with leather rope. The leather ties also give the base a more finished look. He turns the chair on its side and trims the poles. He also carves slivers of wood from the base so that it's even all the way around, allowing the chair to sit level on the floor. The next worker drapes tanned and stretched pig-skin leather over the back framework. He trims it to the contours of the bent willow wood. He covers the reed seat with more leather from the same hide and cuts away the excess. Using a leftover swatch of leather, he applies wax made from pig and cow fat to leather rope. The wax allows the rope to slide easily through holes in the leather so there are no snags as he stitches the upholstery together. The leather upholstery is now tight and tailored. The next worker sprays mineral dye onto the leather. It's honey-colored for a warmer look, and it also hides any minor flaws. After the dye, he applies a protective coat of lacquer. They heat an iron stamp and apply it to the latticed base to brand the wood with the company name. And with that job done, it's time to take a seat. But with so many twists on this ancient design, it could be tough to decide which one.