Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-11-12

An Establishment That Turns Them ove
bv the Thousand.


bv the Thousand.
'sIf you want to see something In
teresting," lie said, come with me. Ii
Will make your mouth water IL you
have taste for the sweets, and In addi-
ton Ii will give y0u an insight into =
business that has reached immense pro
portions within the last ten years.
Down this street, ana up the next, and
up long flight OF stairs, 70 Office
where the lucky number OF thirteen
misses were at work. This was the ini-
tial bow 10 the largest pie factory in
the whole OF Gotham. and for that mat
ter the entire country. Here it Is that
an average Of 1900 pies are turned
out every day Of the week except Fri
day, when the figures go over the TO-
600 mark, because OF the demands for
Sunday. Pies. little and big, and In all
conditions Of preparation, are to b. seen
here, and the average Office boy or
downtown -clerk" would imagine him
self In pie heaven were he to get upon
the ground.
Ask the most experienced housewife,
and she will readily testify to the state
ment that il Is no easy matter to make
flrst-class pie. Pie making is easy
with the young bride only Still. In
this big factory spoken of. 1t really does
seem simple affair-the putting to-
gether OF fruit and douglI-becalise the
workmen go through the performance
In Empire State Express order; but IL
rather than personal pleasure. TO
make pie correctly, as well as digest
lively. II Is necessary TO resort to four
processes.
Take. for instance, n minre pie. The
work of preparing the filling is the first
undertaking. and then I'm regular order
come the task OF making the crust,
TO some ideas, it Is essential to the well
fare of the aforesaid pie that the meat
required be OF superior kind. This
obtained, 1t Is consigned to an immense
steam-jacketed copper kettle that has
the capacity of n medium sized barrel.
In this way Ii is cooked, and then in
trusted TO the beneficial graces OF an
enormous chopping machine. that does
Its work as finely as .projectile from a
twelve-inch gun might do with a wood
en- fence. Next come for attention the
beef suet. apples. cition, currents,
spices. and finally the brandy, and thest.
are mixed with the mncemeat by an
other machine. and are sent to the fl
Ter. While the mincemeat Ii being
mixed with tile other mixture, another
force of men are preparing the crust.
This force OF men work before an inn
mensc trough, and are rugged out in
clothes OF immaculate white, with
bare arms MS powdered with -four as
the hair on their heads. The trough is
partly filed with -four, and shortening
or lard Is worked into it by the white
workmen. Water that has been spe-
cially iced Is worked into the mixture
in the trough. and the whole thing soon
takes on quite dOugh-like appearance.
This dough is taken to another force
Of men, who roll II out into thin slices
and place it on tin plates. This op-
Grafton Is perhaps the quickest of any
OF the processes. The men go through
the mountain Of dough like wind
through sand hill. Quicker than it
takes to tell. the white-cOvered tins are
delivered to the fillers-in, and no army
of old topcrs ever filed in as rapidly as
they do. All use a long handled dipper
which has a capacity just sufficient to
fill one pie. With this dipper in one
hand and the dough-covered tin plate
I'm the other. the filler-in dips the dipper
into the barrel of filling alongside Of
him, raises ii in the air and with a
graceful movement of his wrist turns
it into the waiting plate. This accom-
plished. everything is ready for the
oven. The latter is a gigantic thing
operated much on the style OF the Fer
ris wheel Suspended by its axle above
red-hot fire is wheel about ~ feet
long and IL inches in diameter. Eight
iron platforms are hung from the rims
Of this wheel and upon these plat
forms the pies are placed. The manner
of suspension is such that the pies al
ways remain horizontal. One of the
platforms is always over the opening in
the oven. The attendants cover the
platform with pies and the wheel is
then turned until the next platform
comes into view. which in lake manner
is filed. This is continued until the
eight platforms have beeo covered
The next turn brings into view the first
lot put in. all baked to a nicely. They
are then removed and the platform
filed again. Again the wheel turns
and another army of baked pies is pre-
scented and removed. This Is continued
hour after hour so long "a the demand
lasts. An average Of about LOO pies
are baked hourly over this oven The
pie factory Is n great institution, and
must be seen to be appreciated.