Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-01-23
BIG PIE FACTORIES.
METHODS BY WHICH THEY HANDLE
THEIR IMMENSE PRODUCT.
Ten to Fifteen Thousand Pies Made
and Baked In II NiEht-The Crusts,
the Filling and the FrOsting-AbsO-
lutte Cleanliness In the shops.

a visit to one of the largest pie con-
structing plants in 4 city would make
the average housewife who prides her
self in her baking green with envy.
The maker of old fashioned domestic
pies cannot easily conceive of Il system
by which Il barrel of apples and bar
rel of flour can, figuratively speaking,
start at one end of long bench and
leave the other end a thousand or less
finished pies, but this system is in use
in all the large pie bakeries.
The baking force goes on duty at 10
o'clock at night. During the day girls
have been pairing and slicing apples
and pumpkins, and the foreman has
| been splicing and sweetening the cook
ed fruit or mince, the custards and
other prepared filling which have also
been cooked by steam in large stone
stew watts. When the bakers so on
duty the filling is in place in front of
the great dough board in tubs holding
a half barrel each. and the stewed ap-
pies i'll full sized barrels. At one end
| of the bench is 4 great stack of flour,
near which stands pail of water into
which a saucer of baking powder has
| been dumped. The dough mixer at
tacks this heap and makes in it deep
| depression, into which the water is
| poured. The embankment of flour is
| rapidly turned into the water and
! stirred with the hands until thick,
| paSty dough has been formed. This is
| showed along until tall heap is form
ed at the mixers right, and the knead-
er, Il Spry young fellow, working with
an instrument resembling Il plasterer'S
trOwel, cuts off large masses and rolls
them until the mixing is completed
and then chops them into chunks of
suitable sizes for forming bottom crusts.
The men beyond roll the bottom crustS
and place them i'll the pans, which are
arranged in large wooden trays, heap
ed one upon another in stacks as tall
rs Il man. The stacks of trays are then
hauled to the filler by means of hook
inserted i'll Il ring i'll the truck at the
bottom.
The pies, whether 10000 or 10000
night are baked, are all filled by one
man. With long handled cup similar
10 that used i'll dipping milk from a
can he stands over Il tub of Stewed
pumpkin, mince or custard and fills
pies so rapidly that all of one mans
time is required 10 bring the trays TO
his side and that of another to take
them away. He works like an autom- |
atom, a filled pie resulting from every
drop and rise of his two hands. Nearly
a hundred pies a minute look like an
impossibility, but he sends them to the !
men who put on the top crusts and the !
meringues at that rate for many min !
utes at Il stretch. He has, by actual |
test. put half Il barrel of mince meat |
into pies within ten minutes.
The filled pies go into the big wooden |
trays to the men who cover them with !
the top crust or who put the meringue |
on with a conical shaped canvas bag |
open at the smaller end, out of which /
they squeeze the frosting on the fancy |
pies. The fancy pies and the plain
ones do not come together again until !
they meet in the delivery wagon about |
3 o'clock in the morning.
The top crust pies go to the draw
plate ovens and the pumpkins, Gus
tardS, meringues and tarts TO the older /
fashioned ovens, where they are han
died with long, slender shovelS. Out
of the larger drawplate oven is pulled
with a steel hook a plate of iron half an
inch thick or more already heated. The
thermometer in front of the oven shows
a temperature of 800 degrees. AS
many pies as will lie on this plate
about 100 at a time-are placed OH it
and it is pushed into the oven. The
hands of dummy clock at the side are
set to indicate the moment at which the
baking will be finished. Another plate
is then drawn ont and filled. and the
proceeding is repeated until the nights
work is finished. The pies, after baking.
go into wooden trays, as before, and
are taken to the shipping room, where
they are counted and loaded into the
wagons for delivery.
About forty girls. boys and men by
this system produce from 10000 to 49,
600 pies n day. They use about fifteen !
barrels of flour. six to ten barrels of
apples, nine or ten half barrels of |,
mince meat, nearly as much stewed
pumpkin and perhaps half as much
each of other fruits ana custards a bar
rel or more of lard, about two barrels
OF sugar and large quantities of spices.
Contrary TO all popular notions on
the subject, the wholesale manufacture
of pies in a modern establishment is
thoroughly clearly. WOrkmen are not
allowed TO enter the work rooms in
their street attire or TO change their
there. The use of tobacco at
all stages of the work is prohibited.
Splitting on the floor or on or into any
thing else in the work rooms is OK .
pressly and emphaticaliy forbidden.
The walls are white, and the floors OF
are dustleSs- Every scrap of
anything that can sour is daily washed
from the vessels used for filing. from
the cooking watts, from the trays and ,
fr IN the benches, and they are all ster-
iliZed with steam or boiling water
The shortening, sweetening and spic-
ing are carefully and accurately weigh
I'd in exact proportions. The baking
h tined n q cnnst Mt tnrnrLar-a tIlrn 20