Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-03-04
BIG PIE FACTORIES.
METHODS BY WHICH THEY HANDLE
{ THEIR IMMENSE PRODUCT. *. %sS

THEIR IMMENSE PRODUCT. %ts%
Ten to Fifteen Thousand Pies Made
and Baked In . Night-The Crusts,
the Filling and the Frosting-Abso-
lutte Cleanliness In the shops. II
A visit to one Of the largest pie con
structing plants in a 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 system
by which barrel Of apples and bar
rel Of flour can, figuratively speaking,
start at one end Of long bench and
leave the other end thousand or less
finished pies, but this system is in use
In all the large pie bakeries. 5.=
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 go 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 in full sized barrels. At one end
Of the bench is great stack Of -four,
near which stands pail Of water into
which a saucer of baking powder has
been dumped. The dough mixer at
lacks this heap and makes in it deep
depression, into which the water is
poured. The embankment Of -four 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, a spry young fellow, working with
an instrument resembling 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 in the pans, which are
arranged in large wooden trays, heap
ed one upon another in stacks as tall
as man. The stacks. of trays are then
hauled to the filler by means of hook
inserted in ring in the truck at the
bottom.
The pies, whether 10000 or 5000
| night are baked, are all filed by one
man. With long handled cup similar
| to that used in dipping milk from a
can he stands over a tub Of stewed
pumpkin, mince or custard and fills
/! pies SO rapidly that all of one mans
time is required to bring the trays to
his side and that of another to take
them away. He works like an autom-
atom, a filed pie resulting from every
drop and rise Of his two hands. Nearly
a hundred pies 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 stretch. He has, by actual
test, put half barrel of mince meat
into pies within ten minutes.
The filled pies 60 into the big wooden
trays to the men who cover them with
the top crust or who put the meringue
on with 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
5 o'clock in the morning.
The top crust pies 60 to the draw
l NJ r." nd
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 steel hook a plate Of iron half an
.nch thick or more already heated. The
thermometer in front of the oven shows
4 temperature of $50 degrees, As
many pies as will lie on this plate
about 100 at time-are placed on It
and it is pushed into the oven. The
hands Of q dummy clock at the side are
vet to indicate the moment at which the
baking will be finished. Another plate
ls then drawn out and filled, and the
proceeding Is repeated until the nights
work is finished. The pies, after baking,
~ utO WOOuSu trays, aS OeIOre, anu
are taken to the shipping room, where
hey are counted and loaded into the
wagons for delivery.
About forty girls, boys and men by
his system produce from 10000 to 49,
700 pies day. They use about fifteen
barrels Of -four, six to ten barrels of
spples, nine or ten half barrels OF
mince meat, nearly as much stewed
pumpkin and perhaps half as much
zach Of other fruits and custards, bar.
'el or more of lard about two barrels
II sugar and large quantities Of spices.
/ Contrary to all popular notions on
1 he subject, the wholesale manufacture
II pies in modern establishment Ii
thoroughly cleanly. Workmen are not
allowed to enter the work rooms in
heir street attire or to change their
aothing there. The use Of tobacco at
y lll stages OF the work Is prohibited.
Splitting on the door or on or into any.
hing else in the work rooms IL ex-
lressly and emphatically forbidden.
The walls are white, and the floors Of,
4 0ncrete are dustlesG Every scraan of