- [Matt] We build offset smokers, open-fire grills,
pretty much anything that we can put a fire in,
we're gonna try to build it.
(flame whirring)
- All right!
- The smoker is the foundation
of any good barbecue restaurant.
Matt and Caleb Johnson of Mill Scale Metalworks
have been building custom smokers
for some of the biggest names in barbecue
out here in Austin, Texas.
So you've thought through the whole barbecuing process
in customizing how you're building this, essentially.
- [Matt] When Caleb and I designed this specific unit
we were thinking about sharing meals
with our family and our friends,
and thinking about having something in the backyard.
One of our issues with a lot of the barbecue pits
that we saw was that the firebox was too small.
So we like to build almost an oversized firebox.
The big reason is is that we wanted to have a firebox
that would accept full, standard-size logs.
And that way you don't have to use chunks,
you don't have to add one more step.
And once the logs are loaded in the firebox
it transfers into the cook chamber.
The smoke's gonna enter the cook chamber
and it's gonna come out on a smokestack
located on this side of the cook chamber.
- So who are buying these smokers primarily?
Are these, like, pitmasters,
restaurant owners, barbecue enthusiasts?
- Our larger ones, such as the 1,000 gallons
and some of the 500s,
a lot of times that's going to, like, a restaurant.
Sometimes it is going to an enthusiast,
and then you see some of the smaller ones,
some guys wanna use them in competition,
and some people just, they wanna win the Superbowl,
they wanna win the Fourth of July,
they wanna be the guy to show up
and just have the best smoker out there.
- So you haven't welded before, right?
- Never.
- Great, this is gonna be perfect.
So basically it's a wire-fed machine.
So, there's a ground clamp here.
It basically finds the steel and travels
up to there material that you're working with.
Once we strike an arc with the machine,
the wire's fed through the lead
and it almost acts like a filler material
that joins and bonds the two pieces together.
You know when you sew,
you kinda pin it and you set it first
and then you run your stitching?
- Yeah. - It's kinda the same way.
So I'm not even gonna whip it.
I'm just kinda kiss it.
(electricity crackling)
- I guess I have to do this now.
- [Matt] So all it is is just like right here,
I hit the button and I just dragged it down.
(electricity crackling)
Perfect.
That was perfect.
(electricity crackling)
- All right, so we're gonna build a cooking grate,
and this is what the meat is actually gonna be cooked on.
- [Katie] Right.
- Throw on a little face shield.
We got ear plugs in.
- Yeah.
- So, I'm on the side that's gonna get cut.
(saw buzzing)
Not too bad, right?
Do you wanna give it a try? - No.
- I'll trade ya spots.
- This scares the (bleep) out of me.
Why am I always holding a power tool?
- [Caleb] You're gonna do great.
(saw buzzing)
- [Katie] Oh my God.
- All right, so what we're gonna do next is,
we are gonna cut the steel for the plancha.
- Okay.
- Plancha is used in a lot
of South American cooking methods.
In Texas you could call it like a flat-top or a griddle.
Our plancha design is designed for our open-fire grills.
It's one of my favorite cooking methods.
It's very simple and it has a nice heat to it.
- We're going to cut this with an oxycetylene torch.
We're going to create a hot flame
that is gonna melt the metal.
And then we're gonna use this lever
to shoot out a burst of oxygen to basically
blow through that hot metal and that's what's gonna be
the actual cutting method as opposed to, like,
the grinding wheel where you use like friction cutting it.
This is basically gonna liquefy the metal,
and then we're gonna blow hot air to separate the metal.
- This seems complicated.
- This one's gonna be a little bit tricky
on the application.
- You started making planchas after smokers.
- Correct, correct. - That came later.
- Right.
- Caleb and I grew up grilling.
Our mom's from Portugal, so we had a lot of fish,
we had a lot of vegetables, and being in Texas,
we were able to combine the tradition of barbecue
but also seeing how other people eat
and cook around the world.
There's no end in sight because we're constantly fascinated
and impressed with how people are cooking.
- Yeah, and this allows you to do different things
in the smoker and on--
- [Matt] Yeah, sharing coals from the firebox,
from the smoker to the open-fire grills.
You could reverse-sear on a smoker,
finish it off on the grill.
- [Katie] Right, right.
- Finishing sausages off.
So the combination is a really beautiful marriage
between the two cooking methods.
- The smoker is built.
What needs to happen next?
- So, the first thing that we're gonna wanna do
is we're gonna wanna season it.
- Is this kind of similar to seasoning a cast iron pan?
We need to seal the metal?
- Absolutely, that's what we're going for.
And we're gonna do that
by putting some type of a fat or an oil.
In this situation we're gonna be using a beef tallow.
And we're gonna wipe it down
and then we're gonna heat it up.
The heat is going to help evaporate some of the oxygen
and some of the moisture that's in the steel
and then the fat is gonna bond with the steel
and it's gonna create a really nice, like,
non-stick, rust-prevented surface.
- [Katie] Okay.
- And that looks great.
- All right let's get this thing going.
- Okay, so I'm just gonna light some kindling.
- [Katie] What kind of wood are we using?
- Post oak. - Oak.
- [Mike] That's pretty commonplace in Texas.
- What are you cooking today,
and are you doing it direct or indirect?
- We're gonna put a whole gator on the cross
and then we're gonna-- - I have never had alligator.
- Well, hopefully you enjoy it.
- I've never seen anything cooked on a cross.
- I haven't seen anyone do a cross alligator situation.
- [Katie] Wow.
- Gators don't have any fat on 'em.
Or, they have very little fat on them.
One of the big things that you're doing
when you're doing a low-and-slow cook,
or smoking, or cooking over a fire,
is you're trying to render out fat
and that's kinda what moistens up the meat.
We're gonna actually kinda add fat to this guy.
Basically, we're gonna walk over there
and this end is gonna go into that.
- [Everyone] Cheers.
- What a day.
- Awesome day.
- Tastes good.
- Tastes like chicken.
- Tastes like Louisiana.
- Oh my God.