On the 10th of June, when 9 lb. 30 1/2 loths of soup, 1 lb. 28 loths of meat, and 5 lb. 24 loths of bread dumplins, in all 17 lb. 18 1/2 of Food were prepared, and the process of cooking, from the time the fire was lighted till the victuals were done, lasted two hours and forty-five minutes, and twenty-nine pounds, Bavarian weight, of fire-wood were consumed.
On the 11th of June, when 11 lb. 26 loths of bread soup, and 8 lb. 8 loths of bread dumplins, in all 20 lb. 2 loths of Food were prepared, the process of cooking lasted one hour and thirty minutes;—and seventeen pounds of wood were consumed.
On the 20th of June, in Serjeant Kein's mess, 15 lb. of soup; 1 lb. 22 loths of meat, and 8 lb. of liver dumplins, in all 24 lb. 22 loths of Food were prepared, and through the process of cooking lasted two hours and forty-five minutes, only 27 1/2 lb. of fire-wood were consumed.
On the 21st of June, the same quantity of soup and meat, and 7 lb. of bread dumplins, in all 23 lb. 22 loths of Food were prepared in two hours and thirty minutes, with the consumption of 18 1/2 lb. of wood.
On the 22nd of June, 15 lb. of soup, and 10 lb. of meat dumplins, in all 25 lb. of Food, were cooked in two hours and forty-five minutes, and the wood consumed was 18 lb. 10 loths.
The following table will show, in a striking and satisfactory manner, the expense of fuel in these experiments:
Date of the Time employed Quantity Quantity Quantity Experiments. in cooking. of Food of Wood of Wood to prepared. consumed. 1 lb. of Food.
June 1795. Hours. min. lb. loths. lb.
10th 2 45 17 18 1/2 29
11th 1 30 20 2 17
20th 2 45 24 22 17 1/2
21st 2 30 23 22 18 1/2
22d 2 45 25 0 18 1/4
———— —————- ———-
Sums 5 12 15 111 0 1/2 100 1/4
———— —————- ———-
Means 2 23 22 0 1/5 20 1/20 10/11 lb.
The mean quantity of Food prepared daily in five days being 22 lb. very nearly, and the mean quantity of fire-wood consumed being 20 1/20 lb.; this gives 10/11 lb. of wood for each pound of Food.
But it has been found by actual experiment, made with the utmost care, in the new kitchen of the House of Industry at Munich, and often repeated, that 600 lb. of Food, (of the Soup No. I. given to the Poor,) may be cooked with the consumption of only 44 lb. of pine-wood. And hence it appears how very great the waste of fuel must be in all culinary processes, as they are commonly performed; for though the time taken up in cooking the soup for the Poor is, at a medium, more than FOUR HOURS AND A HALF, while that employed by the soldiers in their cooking is less than TWO HOURS AND A HALF; yet the quantity of fuel consumed by the latter is near THIRTEEN TIMES greater than that employed in the public kitchen of the House of Industry.