Re:Soyers Famine Kitchen- Description

If anyone could sketch a working plan from this description I would be very grateful.

The exterior and covering is of a temporary nature, being formed of boards and canvass, enclosing a space of forty-five feet long, and forty feet wide. The interior consists of a steam-boiler, on wheels, thirteen feet long, and four feet wide, with a glaze-pan over it, capable of containing three hundred gallons; and at the end an oven to bake one hundred weight of bread at a time; and all heated by the same fire. Under the boiler is an excavation to contain coals, and round it an elevated platform to give access to the glaze-pan. At the distance of eight feet, round the boiler, are eight iron bain marie pans with covers, six feet long and twenty-two inches wide, on wheels, and made double, to be boiled, by steam, and contain, together, one thousand gallons. At each end, extending between the pans, are the cutting tables – at one end the meat, and at the other the vegetables; and under which are placed wooden soaking tubs, on wheels, and chopping blocks for the meat drawers and sliding shelf. Four feet beyond these are placed a row of tables, eighteen inches wide, in which a hole is cut, and therein placed a quart iron white enamelled basin, with a metal spoon attached thereto by a neat chain; there are one hundred of these, and the table forms the outer boundary of the kitchen; leaving a space of two feet six inches between it and the wall. Inside the table are fastened tin water-cases, at the distance of ten feet apart, containing a sponge &c, to clean out the soup basins.

Round the two supports of the roof are circular tin boxes for the condiments. Seven feet from the ground at each corner is placed a safe five feet square and seven feet high, with sides of wire, for ventilation, which contains, respectively, meat, vegetables, grain and condiments. At the same elevation as the safes are sixteen butts, containing 1792 gallons of water.

At the entrance in the centre, is the weighing machine. The fire being lighted, a certain quantity of fat or dripping is placed in the glaze-pan, and in the soup-pans the farinaceous ingredients, or thickening, along with the water. As soon as the fat is melted in the glaze-pan, the vegetables, cut into thin slices, or dice, are placed therein; after the lapse of ten minutes, the meat, which has been previously cut into small pieces, is added, and allowed gradually to fry, until the juice is extracted, and a good glaze formed, which will be in about thirty-five minutes.

The condiments are then added, and the glaze is removed, and distributed equally in the bain marie pans; it is boiled for twenty minutes, and the soup, or food is complete; this is the time used in making the soup, when such farinaceous ingredients or flour, oatmeal, and rice or barley, previously soaked, are employed; but peas, Indian corn meal, and many other ingredients, will take longer boiling. It is ready to be removed by ladies into the basins in the surrounding tables. Outside the table is a zigzag passage capable of containing one hundred persons in a small place in the open air; at the entrance is a checker-clerk, and an indicator; or machine which numbers every person that passes; and on the other side is a bread and biscuit room, where those who have partaken of the soup, and are departing, receive on passing a quarter of a pound of bread or savoury biscuit; as I prefer giving it then, instead of with the soup or food, it being sufficient for one meal without, and will not only save time, but when eaten afterwards, will be more wholesome, and act more generously on the system, than when eaten in haste. When the soup, or food is ready, notice is given by ringing the bell, and the one hundred people are admitted, and take their places at the table – the basins, being previously filled, grace is said – the bell is again rang for them to begin, and a sufficient time is allowed them to eat their quart of food.
During the time they are emptying their basins the outside passage is again filling; as soon as they are done, and are going out at the other side, the basin and spoon are cleaned, and again filled; the bell rings, and a fresh number admitted; this continuing every successive six minutes, feeding one thousand persons every hour; but as there are three thousand quarts more to distribute, which occupies only seventy minutes to make, other means must be used for distributing the food for which purpose a door is provided at the entrance of the kitchen, to which persons come with tickets, which are given to them by district visitors or subscribers; or, if not with tickets, to purchase the food, and which they take home with them.
There are also provided carts and barrows for either horses, donkeys, or men to draw, containing from twenty-five gallons to two hundred gallons each, with fires attached, so that the soup or food contained in them should be hot or cooking on its way to the place of distribution. Such is a brief description of the kitchen. I also propose to change the diet every day, according to the provisions obtainable, and on fast days to give meagre food.

I propose that these kitchens be erected in populous districts, and where there are any already erected, to adapt them by as little expense as possible to my plan, so as to economise both fuel, material and hands. I then propose that the food should be distributed by carts to the surrounding villages by a party appointed for that purpose; thereby saving the expense of separate establishments, and the chance of bad food, from ignorance in its manufacture; it will also prevent the distribution of raw meat, or raw food, which, at the present moment is in many cases abused; besides, from the want of knowledge in its preparation, causes disease, and do more harm than good.

It cannot be stressed enough how important Alexis’s kitchen was for Ireland, allowing many more people to be fed. His kitchen in some semblance or other was copied in most towns. It did not resolve the politics of Ireland, nor cure the potato famine but it did save lives. Alexis already mentioned the benefits that besides serving soup it could distribute it as well, allowing small villages and obscure houses to benefit from soup. Of the people who complained about the soup, not one was in need or even partook of the soup. Those that did, the poor, were grateful for the soup and that is all Alexis cared about. However, the poverty that Alexis saw had a great effect on him.

Alexis left Ireland on Sunday 11th April 1847 and on the night before; several of his friends gave a dinner in his honour, at the Freemason’s Hall, College Green. He was thanked for all that he had done for Ireland. He was presented with a very elegant snuffbox, with the inscription. “Presented to M. Alexis Soyer, in testimony of the high sense entertained of his valuable scientific and philanthropic services while engaged in this country on his mission of good in behalf of the destitute poor, by some of his admiring friends, who gladly avail themselves of an early opportunity to mark their regard for himself personally, and the esteem in which his beneficent and truly useful labours have been held by them, Dublin, 10th April 1847.”

Taken from F Clement loford (unpublished)