NO DISHCLOTHS USED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3111, 27 April 1942, Page 2

NO DISHCLOTHS USED

IN VAST WAR KITCHENS ENVY OF THE HOUSEWIVES Housewives may well envy the great kitchens which are now part of Britain’s war factories, serving substantial meals at 1/5 and washing up in one hour 12,000 plates, cups, saucers, knives, forks and spoons without a single dishcloth. Here is one of their meals: Scotch broth 2d, roast lamb, mint sauce and two vegetables 9d; apple tart 21d, roll and butter l|d, coffee 2d.

The new kitchens which prepare these meals are themselves factories in miniature, with ovens as high as sft.

Into one machine igoes the potatoes which, are peeled at a speed of 561 b a minute; another machine mashes the potatoes; a third rolls out the pastry for the apple tart. When they are all cooked, the dinners go into a vast hot cabinet, 180 at a time; and 7000 workers sit down to this good hot meal little more than 10 minutes after they have knocked off work.

Anything left over is tipped into a bin and a warm spray is played upon each side of a line of empty plates as they pass along a conveyor belt. The plates are then dowsed with cold water, a hot spray is turned on them and they dry at once as they meet the cold air.

Not a dishcloth is used in the wash-ing-up of this dinner for a family of 7000 workers for the war.