St. Landry democrat., 1894-01-20
A PIE FACTORY.
NOT A COMMON BAKERY HiT =
BIG PIE MILL,

tImnled0Wn houses sending out de-
liclous odOrs to tickle the palate Of tn,
sullivan street small boy. At three il
the morning the work begins and Il,
three p. III. the work is over and half TIT
pies made that day are eaten
Upstairs i'll a long, low ceiIcd room
sat man, half hidden behind piles aud
piles of golden pumpkins. They were
heaped IN every direction, all fat and
fair and yellow, ready TO be cut int,
pumpkin pies. What visions of gh0stly
Puritan dinners, with every man armed
to the teeth, prlln, quiet children with
buckled shoes and serious faces, maids
with white tichus and Quaker bounets,
and II guard at the door on the look,
out Tor Indians, those pumpkins could
conlure! In France the pumpkin is
made into vulgar soup, In Germany it is
preserved and in Italy it is eaten raw MS
medicine, but only in this great and
glorious land Of liberty, nervous Iross
tration, dyspepsia and indigestion is the
golden fruit made into pies,
At this season Of the year there is u
perfect 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 another room the manufacture Of
mlnce meat is carried on BY machinery,
while in another room the meat is pre-
pared. Apples, pears, peaches etc, are
peeled by Il little machine. After being
cored by hand, an apple or pear is placed
on little upright spike attached to
which is revolving steel wire supplied
with small square scraper The ma
chine is setin motion by hand, and the
scrapcr whirls around and around the
apple. at each revolution shaving off
neatly 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 ''con1uer the upper
crust" would make a young housewife
give up housekeeping to morrow. There
IS no use i'll trying II 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 Il gift
from the gods, and any one who can do
it is a genius.
It is worked and watched and tluttened
and handled as gently as baby if the
butter works though, you know the fate
Of that crust, and it tries to work
through the professional pie bakers
crust Just as hard as any one cIse's. But
it does not succeed. VOLTA tout.
The men all stand at long table, and
the dough, already mixed with lard, is
brought to them in large buckets, hold
in@ about thirty pounds. A lump is
then pat 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 Oft the ends Of the dough which
hang over the outside OF the plates
The plates are then placed in wooden
tray :'nd taken to the fruit counter to re-
ceive their ''insides. The men at the
fruit counter hold a 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, tiaky crust
par excellence, the upper one. 1t almost
seems shame to desecratc 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 a 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 all oven.
One man stands at the door of the oven
and directs his partner whore to place
his pastry treasures. The man who
places tee 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 i'll socially 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 at 80 a. m.
and all the wagons are back by noon, as
no enc buys pies after that.
There are twelve wagons, twelve sleek,
tat, gayly comparisoned horses and
twelve characters 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
hen one has chance to Judge whether
he making of pies has anything to do
With worshiping terpsichore. The presi-
lent of the factory, Mr.. William Thomp-
son, says there must be an affinity
between the two.
The popular taste for pies is tickle but
and to be depended upon in its
yery fckleness. There is one steady
standby That is apple pie the year
hrou, h. In September, October and :
November, the ripened fulnHc>:;so Of the
he year, the public taste longs for
pumpkin, and the is also pretty good
IN on paa@G In December, January
nd February mince pie comes to the
ront. Just ubout the holidays it is
more in demand even than apple. For
Instance, on the day before Christmas last
ear ten tons of mincc meat was used for
'ies. In March, April and May people
want custard and rhubarb, which comes
ext to apple in demand. In June, July |
nd August whortleberry, blackberry and
1trrsa.wberry pies are largely consumed,
'ss strawberry shortcake, which is also
made al tie pie factory, is in demand.
from this one pie foundry the average
ales per day require the following items,
'wenty barrels of flour, |, 200 quarts OF
nix, 5000 eggs, 5000 pounds of lard,
3 barrels Cor about 1000 poundsJ OF
ugar, besides all the fruit. There is
l0re fruit used in comparison than any
hing else, and no less than twenty bar
als Of anIles arc usel eNcrN day II New