The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-09-28

Take twenty-five pounds Of ham and 2s eggs
Break each egg in a cup just to ascertain if # Il
fresh. Cut the ham in thin slices and qusrte
them. Put into boiling water and simmer for
Eve minutes. Drain on water. Fry ham anc
put aside to keep warm. Take a large bake par
and cover bottom with lard Fly eggs in pan
result. ham and Mess Manual am
Cook Book Of the United States Navy.
Pause. ye housewives and learn how
Uncle Sam officially creates q batch Of
ham and eggs in his cooking school at the
Brooklyn Navy Yards. It's a serious mat
ter preparing food for a hundred hungry
men at one time. but the recipe will h
you how It's done. And isn't he the care
full man-Uncle Sam?
Cooking for the boys in blue. you OBJ
serve. Is a serious matter under thess
conditions. but it's all written down In a
book, and the head cookman and his eight
assistants are there to see that all the
ton of Singing a frying pam In the navy
live up to the rules.
interviewing each egg separately is not
the least OF these rules. Behold a ham
omelet: Fifteen pounds of ham and TWEEN
ty-two dozen eggs will be required. Chop
ham nne. Put eggs, one at a time. in a
large pan. Season with pepper. Beat eggs
at least twenty minutes. until they are
dead. Take large. narrow baking pan and
cover bottom with lard. When lard is hot
pour two dozen well-beaten eggs into each
pan. Remove from bottom of pan occa-
sionally. When eggs are set put a quantity
OF chopped ham along the center and foil
the sides over the center"
There is no mention of a slice OF lemon
or a dash of green parsley, for that is con-
fidered an unnecessary luxury in the navy.
IL the blum old tobacco chewing cooks Of
the navy could look down on this day when
the master of the gaileys prepares the
rations for the ships crew by rule they
would unanimously agree that the world
was coming TO an end and the good old
navy was going to the bow-wows.
But such a school does exist and holds
sway on or near the cruiser Columbia, now
lying in the Navy Yard. II has a printed
textbook called the General Mess Manual
and Cook Book. United States Navy" In
this are a hundred or more recipes. of
which the above are samples. To be sure,
there is no regular schoolroom, with desks
and biackboards. but there are about ten
teachers and a cooks galley and utensils
10 work with
I. As fast as a man is graduated he is termed
..avaiiable" and is sent to some warship on
the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. Cooks are
much needed in the navy, so that there are
very few pupils left In the yard at one time,
which is a sad thing. for they are thereby
ObbCa " NAt VI -
class yell. How would IL sound to hear a
couple of men with their heads out of port
holes OF two passing warshlps greet each
other with something like this:
Who are We? Who are wef
Cooks OF the class Of Oughte three,
n Cooks Of the L. s. Navee.
At the present time the school is located
on the Cob Dock. II Is the intention Of
the department at Washington to put the
school aboard the Columbia and to meet the
requirements the cooks galley Is being re-
built and enlarged.
C. Pohiman. ranking as first class. is the
headmaster of the school,. and II. Iudeha
and B. p. Gonzeiuz. also first-clRss cooks,
are his able assistants p. Dobson and c.
Rosmuser are second-class cooks. through
whom the "greenies" must pass before they
get to the tender mercies OF the headmas-
tiers. and J. Sullivan. fourth class. handles
the freshmen" Then there is Baker Felr-
son. second class. and Paul, the marine
cook. that they must meet before they are
labeled available" and ready for sea.
It all started about a year ago, in obedi-
ence to department order No. z7Ss4o. when
q board was appointed ito consider and re-
Dc-r upon all matters relating to the navy
ration and systems Of messing" The board