The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-11-11
A PIE FACTORY.
not A COMMON BAKERY But A
BIG PIE MILL.
Ovens That Will Hold Four Hundred
Pies at IA Time-Ten Tons of Mince
Meat In One Day.

Meat In One Day.
There 10 a genuine pie factory down in
Sullivan street. IL stands amid the old
tumbledown houses, sending out de-
licious odors 20 tickle the palate of the
Sullivan street small boy. At three in
the morning the work begins and at
three p. IN. the work is over and half the
pies made that day are eaten.
Upstairs in a long low ceiled room
sat man, half hidden behind piles and
piles Of golden pumpkins. They were
heaped In every direction, all fat and
fair and yellow, ready to be cut into
pumpkin pies. What visions of ghostly
Puritan dinners, with every man armed
| TO the teeth, prim, quiet children with
| buckled shoes and serious faces, maids
with white fichus and Quaker bonnets,
and guard at the door on the look
out for Indians, those pumpkins could
conjure! In France the pumpkin l.
made into vulgar soup, In Germany 1t Is
preserved and in Italy it is eaten raw as
a medicine, but only in this great and
| glorious land Of liberty, nervous pros
tration, dyspepsia and indigestion is the
| golden fruit made into pies!
At this season OF the year there is n
pei feet epidemic pumpkin pie appetite
and that slave OF the pumpkin sits on
the top floor in the Sullivan street pie
| factory and does nothing but cut pump
kins all day long TO supply the demand.
In smother room the manufacture OF
mince meat is carried on by machinery,
while in another room the meat is pre-
pared. Apples, pears, peaches, etc, are
| Cd h,, III la
cored by hand, An apple or pear is placed
on a little upright spike attached to
which is a revolving steel wire supplied
with a small square scraper. The ma
chine is set in motion by hand, and the
scraper whirls around and around the
apple, at each revolution shaving off
neatly a piece of the skin. Then the
fruit is cut into small pieces and is sent
to be mixed with spice. 1t takes an ex-
pert to know just how much to mix in
the fruit.
Downstairs the pies are made, and the
way these men conquer the upper
crust" would make a young housewife
give up housekeeping to morrow. There
Is no use in trying if you can't make pies
like your husbands mother did. Now,
you never can; it cannot be acquired by
industry, energy or persistence. The
secret OF making upper crust is GIT
from the gods, and any one who can do
it is genius.
Ii is worked and watched and flattened
and handled as gently as baby; If the
butter works through, you know the fate
of that crust, and it tries TO work
through the professional pie bakers
met har a.
ii does not succeed. VOLTA tout
The men all stand at a long table, and
the dough, already mixed with lard, is
brought to them in large buckets, hold
ing about thirty pounds. A lump is
then put on the table, rolled out, cut In
small squares and laid on tin plates.
These plates are then handed to man
who stands ready, knife in hand, to
shave off the ends of the dough which
hangs over the outside of the plates.
The plates are then placed in wooden
tray and taken to the fruit counter to re-
ceive their "insides." The men at the
fruit counter hold large wooden spoon
in their hands and as the tray comes
along before them they supply each pan
literally with fruit or sauce, as the case
may be. The plates are then replaced
on the tray and carried to another table,
where they receive the fine, tlaky crust
par excellence, the upper one. 1t almost
seems a shame to desecrate these upper
crusts of pie society by grotesque AS
for apple, BIS for berry, P's for pump
kin, etc. Then they are sent TO be
baked.
There are half score of ovens in the
factory. each Of which will hold 400
four. cent pies or 126 fourteen cent pies.
1t requires two men TO run an oven.
One man stands at the door Of the oven
and directs his partner where to place
his pastry treasures. The man who
places the pies in the oven is assisted in
doing so by large shovel-a flat affair,
fifteen or twenty feet long. The pies
are put on the shovel in couples, and
are thus put in sociably to bake. In
Just twenty minutes they are finished,
hot, Juicy aud brown, and packed in the
cases to be put in the wagons. The
sending out OF pies begins ut 30 a m.
and all the wagons are back by noon, as
no one buys pies after that.
There are twelve wagons, twelve sleek,
fat, gayly comparisoned horses and
twelve charioteers all for driving pies so
that they may arrive at their various
destinations in style, as BELTS good pies.
Every year the Social Twelve as the
drivers call themselves, give ball, and
then one has n chance 20 Judge whether
the making of pies has anything to do
with worshiping terpsichore. The presi-
dent of the factory. Mr.. William Thomp-
son, says there must be an affinity
between the two.
The popular taste for pies is tickle but
constant, and to be depended upon in its
very fickleness. There is one steady
standby. That is apple pie the year
through. In September. October and
November, the ripened fulness of the
the year, the public taste longs for
pumpkin, and there is also pretty good
run on peach. In December, January
and February mince pie comes to the
front. Just ubout the holidays it is