Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-02-11
A BIG KITCHEN.
How the Veterans Are Fed at the Soldiers
Home at Day ton, Ohio.


That department of the home of great
est interest to housekeepers is the dining
hall and kitchen. Both are found in
one building, the front portion of which is
occupied on both the upper and lower
floors by two dining-r0oms, each 90x130
fleet, and together cover an area of half
an acre. The lower story portion contains
the kitchen, bakery, bread and pie rooms,
cooling vaults, an all the paraphernalia
necessary to the providing for the vast
household. Eacn dining-room seats l 100
men, making 1920 at sitting; and when
the first set is through eating, so large is
the force, of walters and SO accurate the
discipline that onl twenty minutes are re-
quired to clear the tables, and prepare
them for the second 1000 diners After
the first lot OF men have # the hall bell
is rung and the army Of walters dash in
close on each others heels, but in perfect
order remove the dishes, crumbs, and clean
the tables, after them comes files of men
with heaps Of clean plates and bowls which
they slap down on the tables regardless of
hicks, and with a noise, should think,
Ike artillery. The meat is brought in on
huge trays, and the coffee served from
large tin pots at each end Of each table
of them regularly paid and part detail
ed'' from the outside as help All the
work is done by the veterans, no women
being employed at the home
A large archway from the dining-hal
leads into the kitchen, a sanctum presided
over by the head cook and thirty Two
assistants. Here are to be seen the range,
twenty feet long, the vast copEer caIdrons
fer cooking soup and vegetables, and seven
coffee boilers. each holding upwards of a
hundred gallons, which are filled and
emptied twice day the year through In
describing this part of the Home there is
nothing left to do but to plunge into
statistics, Or cannot do it justice. Here
are some verified figures of quantities Of
food used at the Home: it takes seven
barrels Of mackerel Sd bushels of potatoes,
and $50 gallons of coffee FOR their Friday
breakfast; seven tubs Of mashed potatoes
and three whole beeves go to one day S
dinner; As pounds Of tea every night for
supper; 200 dozen eggs for Easter break
fast; 40 sheep go TO a pot-pie; and 800
pounds of corned beef, with 80 bushels of
potatoes, for one mess of hash. Twelve
hundred pies, requiring three tubs Of but
ter 10 the upper crust, and three tubs Of
lard for the lower, with twelve barrels Of
apples for the filing, make one days de
sert. -Four hundred square feet Of ginger.
bread are baked twice week. On Christ
mas day the veterans are treated to 400
turkeys, seven barrels of cranberry, sauce,
1920 mince pies, and oysters, celery, and
other delicacies in proportion. Bread is
baked every day, beginning at midnight.
Il is kneaded by steam, six barrels of -four
to a mixing the machine being filed three
| times. These eighteen barrels of -four fill
room shelved to the ceiling with
fragrant loaves, which are all eaten in one
day.
The following is bill of fare, selected
at random from their printed lists:
SUNDAY.
| Breakfast fried ham or sausage, pota.
toes, bread, butter, and coffee.
Dlnner-Roast mutton, sweet pot atoes,
turnips, pickles, bread, butter, coffee, and
appIo-pie.
| Supper tewed fruit, cookies, bread,
/ butter, and tea.
WEDNESDAY.
Breakfast Corned- beef hash, bread, but
ter, and coffee.
Dinner-Roast beef, baked potatoes,
onions, bread, butter, and coffee,
Supper-Pig's tongues or tripe, beets,
tomato catsup, bread, tea, gingerbread.
| The average cost to the government OF
this boarding house is twenty cents day
! for each soldier; not so expensive when we
consider the quality ard variety of food
used The congressional appropriation,
covering all expenses Of the home for the
fiscal year ending June 80, 1890 was
| $40 90k 50 H 2rOarsS Wpaklv