HOT PIES AT TRENTHAM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 58, 2 August 1940, Page 2

HOT PIES AT TRENTHAM

A New Department In The Wet Canteen KITCHEN has been added to the A wet canteen at Trentham Camp for the production of hot pies and pastries. It began humbly, with just a few dozen "small goods" a day. Soon the news spread abroad. Now the production chart shows an astonishing upward trend. From dozens it has shot up to hundreds, and the peak point has not yet been reached. The soldier's appetite, whetted by fresh air and exercise which only a military camp can provide, is phenomenal. His daily ration is the best in the world, both in quantity and quality, and is excellently cooked, yet here is what the wet canteen kitchen produced and sold one day last week: Sugar buns, 180; meat pies, 624 (720 were being prepared for the following day); apple pies, 120; jam tarts, 216, In addition to these delicacies, 240 hot saveloys were sold that evening in the canteen, for it seems that a hot saveloy goes well with a cup of coffee or a glass of beer. It must be remembered that the wet canteen is not open until 4.30 o’clock in the afterncon and then only for a brief period. It reopens again later in the evening when the principal business is done and is closed at 9.30 p.m. Beer is not the only drink, There are three machines for mixing milk shakes, with special coolers in which the milk is contained until it is required. Bottles of soft drinks of every colour and flavour occupy almost half of the shelves of this spacious and spotless canteen. There are huge urns for coffee, The new kitchen is complete with allelectric units, even to special ovens for keeping the pies and tarts at "eating heat" until the soldiers arrive. And

arrive they do, in hordes, as soon as they come off parade. Most of them, it seems, like a "snack" before they go to prepare for their evening meal, and that "snack" consists of a hot pie, liberally treated with Worcester sauce, or an apple pie and a couple of tarts. \ nsists As the soldier’s evening meal co of meat and at least two or three vegetables, sweets and fruit, with tea and bread and butter, it is no miracle that\_ most of the younger men are putting on — weight, or at least moving any surplus to the right quarter. There is no stinting of supplies, for returns are always available. The canteen cook, who is an expert in such matters, amd produces pastry resembling those traditional golden crusts mother is reported to have made, was bending over what looked like about a quarter of an acre of prepared dough, ready for another lot of pies. His electric ovens were already full; so were the warming ovens behind the bar counter. "They certainly like them," he told me, "The numbers are going up every day. I made 52 dozen meat pies yesterday, and I’m preparing 60 dozen for to-day. The boys like to dash in here when they come off parade and they like a pie or two in the evening. The news is only now getting about." Such is the demand for pies that he thinks he will soon have to requisition for an assistant to help him cope with the quantity. The wet canteen is contained in a large separate building, close beside the dry canteen. As soon as business closes for the night water is run into the pipes conveying the beer from barrels in the store room to taps from which it is drawn at the counter. Those pipes are filled with water until the time of opening the canteen the following day. Regulations are strict and just as strictly enforced. There is no abuse of privilege. Only half the long bar counter is devoted to the sale of beer-the other half provides for soft drinks and coffee and the pies which have become so popular.