Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

a supplementary scale for it, from five diets to one hundred, leaving only a few pounds to be guessed. If any mistake occurred, it could be of no material consequence. I also had tinned iron, skewers made, with numbers to each, to prevent the meat being mixed in the boilers, as expedition, cleanliness, and proportion should be the motto of all such establishments. This plan was followed to the last. As all the boilers had been well tinned, I showed the men how to make tea on a large scale. Their plan was to tie the tea in a piece of cloth, and throw it into the boiling water. In a few minutes the cloth had shrunk so much, that the aroma of the tea, instead of being diffused, was retained in the centre, the inside of the bag being scarcely soaked. This I proposed to remedy by having fine nets made for the purpose. Miss Nightingale immediately had this done, and they were a great improvement. This, after all, was not quite satisfactory, as the tea had to be made in the same boilers as the soup and meat. The coppers were fixtures, and of such large dimensions, that it was almost impossible to clean them properly. I therefore invented my Scutari Teapot, with its valuable and economical improvement upon the old system, the model of which is given at the end of the book. (See Addenda.) DESCRIPTION OF TEAPOT. I had a large kettle made, holding eight quarts, and put a coffee filter to it. I then placed the rations of tea for about twenty men in the filter, poured in the boiling water, and, to my astonishment, made about one-fourth more tea, perfectly clear, and without the least sediment. Four of these kettles made enough tea for all the hospital, and this at once induced me to order some upon a smaller scale for the various wards, where at night it is often of the greatest importance that tea should be prepared quickly, in large quantities. I cannot too strongly recommend it to large families, institutions, and