The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-20
IN A PIE FAC TORY.
An Extensive New York Bakery and How
Ii L. Run


1t Is Run.
A large establishment was found on
Sullivan street, where the demands OF
the American appetite for this tooth
some pas try are met by a very extern
sive manufacture of these dainties.
Airy, three-story buildings encircle 3
courtyard, where all goods are deliv-
cred and received from the many neat
reconstructed wagons of the firm. The
capacity of the bakery permits the
company to buy materials in large or
ders through the exchanges, and thus
avail themselves of the fluctuations of
market price in lessening first cost of
the products made; hence, although
the best qualities of materials are
used. yet the manufactured srti-
Gle can be disposed of at a
very moderate figure. Immense guam
titles of all kinds of fruit in season and
canned goods, as well as the staple in
gradients of 100 barrels of flour, 90 bar
rels of sugar. 1,So0 gallons of milk.
5000 dozen eggs, with 1900 pounds
of lard, are used in this weekly out
put, which far exceeds 100. 900 pies,
and sometimes reaches half that num-
Der in day.
The different kinds of work are d.
vided among the employees in the vari-
Gus departments of the buildings, and
this cooperation of labor insures uni
formity in the quality of the pies inn
possible to obtain in any other way.
The lard is rubbed into the dry -four by
hand work in boxes and troughs
set against the wall along one
side of the crust department and
stacked upon huge piles ready
for use; the same treatment is given
both top and bottom crusts, but two
kinds of -four are used, because of the
different qualities required; the top
must be ''faky" and short, while this
would spoil the bottom crust; different
brands of -four are found to accomplish
those results better than distinct
recipes.
Along the opposite wall runs broad,
heavy shelf, with small army of men,
equipped with long, slender rollinG-pins
nd ladies, working before it. Every
three men work together; one appor-
tions out the dough and puts a single
ladleful of filling in each plate after
the second has rolled out q crust and
lined the bottom; then the third puts
on a top crust, marked with the distin-
gushing leaf or letters indicating the
contents of the pie, and, pairing off the
overhanging crust, places the pie in a
stack of trays ready TO be taken down
to the ovens
The preparation of the filing is Of in
terest, this being done partly by ma
chinery and partly by hand. Two
hands at one end of the fruit depart
ment run their small pairing machines
at high rate of speed. Some idea of
the rapidity of this work can be learned
by the fact that SO barrels OF apples can
be pared by these two men in 10
hours time. The fruit is cored and
the pits removed by hand and then
sliced by machinery. Small fruits are
picked over with the aid of screens,
which remove most of the stems,
leaves, etc.
The Fulfilling and the spiced sirups
in which the fruits are cooked are
boiled in large, bright, steam-heated
coppers, after being properly favored
by experienced tasters in the mixing
department. In the basement of
the building. running out IN
der the court yard, are the
ovens; 10 of these are ranged
along the side and end of the room.
These great brick structures are always
kept heated, the temperature being
thus nearly uniform, each can turn out
its round Of $50 N edium-sized pies, Fl
for an epicure, after twenty minutes
baking.
The pies are received from the ele-
vator, ready for baking, in stacks of
square wooden trays, and an empty hot
and well-lighted oven is filed by two
men. One takes a long handled peal"
10 the open door, the other places two
pies upon its spade-lilIe blade, which
are gently carried to their place in the
spacious oven, carefully slid off, and
Others follow until the oven. more than
10 feet square, is full. When baked
they are carried again TO the floor
a bove, whence they are shipped to all
parts Of the city and other nearby
markets. The sizes of the pies made
here vary from buttons" inches in
diameter 10 homemade" t3 inches
across, with several intervening sizes,
at prices varying accordingly.
The manufacture OF pies as special
tv was begun in New York IN a small
way as early as 1889, since which time
the industry has grown until the princi-
pal business house employs $50 men and
women, working from three in the
morning until three in the afternoon.
while other concerns are also engaged
in this line.
Instead o. having an unpleasant rev
elation Of what was in or under the pie
crust, the visit only displayed choice
food products skillfully prepared for
the table with scrupulous neatness and
care, equaling the cooking in ones own
kitchen, ana Of all the seasonable varie-
ties, as well as from canned fruits when
out of season. thus afording an eco
nomical supply Of popular dessert
without the heat and toll required for
home preparation.-N. !. Mail and Ex-
press
WORMS AND SNAKES