, 1885-09-29
sEcReTs.oF The BAKERY.



Minneapolis Tribunel
Cakes, pies and turnovers are all
made by hand except that the eggs are
beaten with q machine. out Of one
dough mixture as a foundation half a
do en- different sorts of cake may be
made by the addition Of some slight in
gredient. But the science comes in
knowing what kind Of an oven, as
women say, to use for each variety.
The decorative material is ordinary
f%rosting made out of pulverized white
sugar and eggs, with enough acid lemon
or cream Of tartar to cut the grain
oil the sugar. The f~rosting is put
into a cloth or rubber bag and squeezed
out through a tube, Just as the paints
with which plaques and landscapes are
evolved. There is an endless variety OF
tubes through which scars and garters
and different styles of posies and fol-
iage are squeezed.
The finer work, however, such as the
tracing Of vines, birds, and other elab-
orate patterns, is done with a minute
tracing tube, and gives them room for
real freehand drawing rather than me
chanical execution. The more elabor
ate solid pieces, such as wedding bells,
horse shoes, cooling doves, and palpitat-
ing hearts, which surmount the most
pretentious table architecture, are made
of gum paste, and are not edible, 80 the
foreman of the cake department said.
They are imported from Italy along
with organ-grinding and macaroni.
The process Of cracker making was
found to be more mechanical and less
freehand than bread, pie, or cake max
ing. Winter wheat is used exclusively.
Crackers made from spring-sown wheat
are tough and springy. the cracker
spongue is set over night in an i'm
mense trough, and is worked the next
morning through a patent screw mixer.
The dough m out in round columns
about a foot through, and is dumped
back two or three times until 1t 10 we'll
kneaded. Then it is sent down through
n chute in the floor to the platform,
from which it is fed in sections to three
rollers, one after another. The piece is
passed under each one several times,
and the rollers are so graded that the
dough gradually thins and lengthens out
as IL proceeds.
1t finally passes into what is called
the form, . which determines the width
Of the strip of dough. This strip is
then started upon n canvas re-
volying belt, over which is n
large revolving bush, which con
stantly dusts Hour upon it. Two or
three feet further on the dough comes
under the stamp, operated also by ma
chinery, and the crackers are given any
n of the dozens of shapes known to
the trade and families. If it is the
usual square soda cracker, there will be
five in a row, and the strip, of course, is
endless as long as the dough holds out.
AS they emerge from under the stamp
a boy stands ready with a sort of very
thin wooden shovel, without raised
edges, and with a handle several feet
long. and with this instrument called a
peel, he takes OIL a section about
three feet long, which he d~exterously
flirts with n twist of the wrist into the
oven, or rather upon n of the i'm
mems revolving ron shelves which are
contained in the oven. These shelves
are about three feet wide and fifteen feet
long, and one revolution serves to bake
the crackers a delicate brown. AS they
come up done, another boy stands with
a rake and hauls them unceremoniously
into large baskets, in which they are
transferred by elevator to the third floor
for packing.
When only partially cooled they, are
put away by girls into barrels and boxes
neatly lined with white paper, and are
left uncovered until cooled and dried.
While still warm they have a %toughness
which makes it possible to handle them
in a way that would break them into
bits when cold, In getting a perfect
edge on the outside rows of crackers a
strip about three-quarters Of an inch
wide is incidentally sacrificed on each
side, and this thrown back into the
general mass of dough, is supposed to
greatly improve it. The batch must
consequently improve from first to last,
as the amount of scraps keeps climbing
up toward a majority.
Cracker dust is another branch of the
manufacture. Any crackers that may
have been broken in handling or pack
ing are ground fine and sold, principally
to hotels and restaurants, for breading
meats, oysters, and soups, All the
flour sweepings are sold to farmers for
cattle feed, so there is little actual waste
anywhere about.