Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1918 — Uncle Sam’s Sailors Well Fed [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Uncle Sam’s Sailors Well Fed

Sea Cooks of the New Merchant Marine Are Trained for the Difficult Task

at sea is not what it used » to be in the “good old days” that we ■ J® read about. “A hard biscuit and a ' slice of cold salt beef,” w’hlch Dana mentions in “Two Years Before the jSjF * • Mast” as tils usual meal after a fT)Ym long, hard watch off Cape Horn, is no longer the diet of the American merchant sailor. ' ' The modern sailor man is well & fed, with plenty of fresh meat, vegetables and soft bread, no matter what the voyage he may be on. Modern refrigerating plants and modern cooking methods are to be thanked for that. On the hundreds “of new ships which are being built for the merchant marine by the United States shipping board careful attention is paid to the equipment for storing, cooking and serving food. The government is fully aware that sailors, like soldiers, work best on well-filled stomachs. Care is taken also that efficient men are employed as cooks on the nation’s new merchant fleets. Good sea cooks are not numerous, even in normal times. Having that fact in mind, the United States shipping board, with the thoroughness that- marks all its efforts to create an unequaled merchant marine, is engaged in training an adequate number of cooks to man the galleys of its new’ ships. Young men of character and intelligence are chosen for Instruction. The training of cooks is part of the work done by the shipping board’s recruiting service. This service has a fleet of training ships, based at Atlantic and Pacific ports, on all of which young Americans are taught by experienced cooks the serious business of preparing good food at sea. Besides that, the board has special cooking schools on two of the ships—the a former Atlantic liner stationed at Boston, and the steamer Dorothy Bradford, stationed at New York. Cooking at sea is by no means the same thing as cooking on land. The sea cook has several things to bear in mind that the land cook, in hotel, restaurant or home kitchen never has to think about. Take for instance some of the precautions he must observe as illustrated by the following “Don’ts for Sea Cooks:” <

Don’t expect the stove to remain in a perpendicular position, nor the cook. You are on a moving platform, namely, the ship’s deck, which often rolls and sways with the motiop of the ship lit;, the sea. Don’t fill a kettle full of liquid. The rolling of the ship will cause the contents to slop over and with fats may start a fire. Don’t allow pots and-pans to get adrift. As a guard „ against this, the galley range has fin iron rail around it. Don’t permit dishes to be left on dresser or pantry 'Shelf as on land. If you do they will slide off and be smashed. There are little pigeon-holes for each kind, into which the dishes fit, there being a high bar across the front, with a space cut out through which a dish may be reached and lifted out. x. On modern ships the serving is done by men in the steward’s department, called stewards, so the sea cook of today needs none of that dexterity of foot that one-legged John Silver showed as he pegged bis way aft with dinner along the slippery <leck in the brig of “Treasure Island.” It Is a truism aboard ship that only a cook who likes his job is worth his salt A discontented cook will spoil good food. This psychology is recognized by the shipping board in choosing young men for training as cooks. Only those who volunteer for the job are wanted. There are plenty who do. Out of 3,000 apprentices always on the training fillips a certain percentage may be counted on to ask for training as cooks. These young men are serving on the nation’s “bridge of ships” from patriotic motives. Some may go back to their home towns when the war Is over; but others will remain In the merchant marine, And will take a partin the country’s peace expansion at sea as dignified as that taken by captain, mate or engineer on the ship on which they serve. Nor will they suffer In a financial ..♦•J, for a chief cook gets S9O a month wages, be-

sides his board and quarters —a net income of SI,OBO a year. When the young law student, or bank teller, or blacksmith’s helper who has decided to become a sea cook reports for instruction on the Meade or the Bradford he is taken in hand by a wise old chef who proceeds to teach him the A, B, C’s of sea cooking. These embrace some general rules as to cleanliness and general galley practice, neatly typewritten, under the head “Advice to the Cook.” The most particular housewife will find these rules sound. Here are a*few’ of them: Great cleanliness, as well as case and attention, are required trom a cook. Keep your hands very clean. Try to prevent your nails from getting black or discolored. Don’t scatter in your galley; clean up as. you go; put scalding water into each saucepan or stewpan as you finish using it. Dry your saucepans before you put them on the shelf. Never scrub inside of a frying pan; rub It with wet silver-sand, rinse It out well with hot water afterwards. Wash your pudding cloths, scald and hang them to dry directly after using them; air them before you put them away, or they will be musty. Keep in a dry place. Be careful not t,o use a knife that has cut onions until it has been cleaned. Keep sink and sink-brush very clean: be careful never to throw anything but water down Sink. Do not throw cabbage water down it; throw it away, as its smell is very bad. Never have sticky plates or dishes. Use very hot water for washing them; when greasy" change it. Clean coppers with turpentine and fine brickdust, rubbed On with flannel; polish them with chamois and a little dry brickdust. Clean your tins with soap and whiting mixed, made into a thick cream with hot water. Rub it on with flannel; when dry. whisk it off with clean chamois and dry whiting. * ■ Take care that you look at the meat the butcher brings, to see If it is good. Let there be no waste in the kitchen. ft In Uncle Sam’s school for sea cooks instruction begins, logically, with cereals for breakfast. It happens that the instruction chef on the Bradford is a Scot, and when Jamie Nicol gets through teaching a new hand the art of cooking oatmeal there is nothing further to be said. The novice is next shown how to fry eggs and bacon, how to make hash and how to prepare hamburg steak. These are his first steps. He next gets a chance at dinner, with making soups and roasting and boiling meats and cooking various kinds of vegetables. In this work he learns the mysteries of the big galley range a mighty stove, near seven feet long —of the steam kettle that will cook soup for 100 men and of the steam-oven cooker for vegetables. If he is ambitious, the beginner takes a special course in baking and pudding making, for real puddings take the place of the traditional soggy duff of old times on Uncle Sam’s merchant ships. Rice pudding is a favorite. Lucky is the young man \vho learns to cook rice from a veteran who acquired the art on a trader out of Rangoon or a clipper from Calcutta. _ - “Never put your rice into the kettle until the water is boiling, then scatter it in.” That is the standard rule for rice. “Then we tell ’em to be sure never, to put in the sugar until the rice is done,” says the chef. It has been found that six weeks of intensive training will make a very good sea cook of a beginner if he shows proper aptitude. “We can tell the natural cook,” says Jamie Nicol, "by the questions he asks. The good beginners ask all about everything and make notes. We have a number who put everything they want to remember down in a book. They will make good.” ' , ■!, * . " ' . X . . ..

it Is the ambition of most sea cooks to get on a big ship. In wartime, cooking on the smallest vessel is an essential calling, but the big vessel with its modern equipment' and efficiency organization appeals strongly to the type of young man now taking up sea cooking for Uncle Sam. The large vessels carry several cooks. A 5,000ton freighter has a chief cook, a second cook, who is also baker, and a third cook, or cook’s mate. The chief cook is usually the meat cutter also, and in these times scientific meat cutting, as well as cooking, is required on the merchant fleet and taught in the shipping board’s floating cooking schools. • I ✓