Smyrna times., 1875-10-20
Cooking for a Big Hotel at Saratoga,

A correspondent while guest of A. r. |
Stewards hotel in Saratoga (the "Grand |
Union y descended to the kitchen and
obtained some interesting facts and figures.
He tells of the force employed in the hotel
and how one thousand people are daily fed.
A few days ago (says the cOrrespondent,)
walked with the steward, Mr.. Walker Ii.
johnson, during the breakfast hour, through
the larder, kitchen, laundry, and servants
quarters of this vast temporary village.
The head cook, Edward Schelcher receives
twenty five hundred dollars for the season
at Saratoga; yet it is not considered a large
salary. He has thirty cooks and assistants
under him, and is responsible only to the
steward, who is autocrat over two hundred
and twelve walters, fifty laundry women,
thirty-twO cooks and assistants, and a con-
stabulary of storekeepers, contractors for
supplies, and runners. The chief barkeep-
er, Jerry Converse, who had opened six
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three
quarts of wine up to noon Monday, is absG-
lutte over wines. The following is a state
ment of the food consumed each day in
this hotel during the summer past Num-
Der of eaters in the house-Four hundred
and fifty persons on July 4th; eight hun
dred after July 5. Average, one thousand
to twelve hundred, not including nurses
and children. Number of employees, five
hundred. These are official figures in Mr..
Johnson's hand writing. Amount of stock
used per day-Beef, eighteen hundred
pounds; whole chickens, fifteen hundred
pounds; beef tongues, twenty; eggs, six
hundred dozen milk, eight hundred quarts;
cream, two hundred quarts flour, eight
barrels; whole sides of best beacon, forty !:
berries, four hundred quarts; oranges,
eight hundred; tomatoes, forty bushels /:
whole lambs, ten; mutton racks, four hun
dred pounds; barrels of potatoes, fifteen ;
ears of corn, four thousand pies, four
hundred; s puddings, four hundred ice
cream, fifty gallons; peaches, thirty bush
els; watermelOns, one hundred and fifty
nutmeg melons for breakfast, eight hun
dred. The ice cream in the hotel is frozen
by steam, the freezer being connected with
a band passing over wheel, so that il
turns in the ice cistern and equally freezes
the cream in a few minutes. The same
attachment grinds the coffee The pota
toes are mashed at the rate of one barrel il
five minutes by wooden cylinder working
in a colander. A machine also shaves the
Saratoga potatoes. The soft soap to wasl
the clothes is all made of refuse fat ; the
clothes are washed by steam machines anC
ironed by great mangles rolling over roller
t wound with sheets and table clothes. Th
laundry is separate edifce, clean anc
!, large enough for a gentleman's mansion
j, The cooks are of four nationalities Gel
. man (meats;) French (cntress,) Italian
!, (pastry,) and Spanish (rqgoutos.) A cuI
h board of bread is required every day 70
e toast, and bread is baked and toasted b
e five persons, working all day from 5 cioc
d A. NJ. to Up. NJ. The meats are roasted 0
spits turned by steam before separat
, furnace, the grease dropping into pans {
1t water, which is afterwards skinned fC
- gravy Inc ulshes are "aSheu Dy lOrC
of thirteen persons, who do nothing beside
a. a special service dispenses the cream all
II butter. Nine men cut up the meat I'M
o, steaks and chops. Nine gunners supple
is with ammunition, are out on the mountain
le perpetually killing birds, which are pa
ID for at seventy-fve cents apiece uniforml
The chickens are received in barrels fro
ne Syracuse; all the provisions except Il
to milk, come from New York city, and a
ordered by telegraph.