40d:Barrel

Barrels are used for storing things such as food, seed bags and alcohol. They can be made out of wood or metal. Making a barrel from wood requires one log, and making a barrel from metal requires three bars of the same type. Because of this it is usually more economical to make wooden barrels. However, barrels are still a good use for abundant metals or alloys with little overall utility (such as nickel, pewter, billon, brass, or even gold), especially on maps with limited numbers of trees. Metal barrels are supposedly ten times more effective than wooden ones at keeping vermin at bay (see vermin.)

A barrel is also used in the construction of a dyer's shop and an ashery.

If the "Mix Food" toggle is on (from the orders menu - default is on), then dwarves will store similar food into the same barrel, resulting in "Plant Barrel", "Meat Barrel", etc. Turning off this toggle will force the dwarves to store food more explicitly ("Plump Helmet Barrel", etc.), possibly demanding more barrels. Turning off "Mix Food" is primarily useful if you have stockpiles that specialize based on plant type; for instance, a pig tail stockpile near the weaver, a cave wheat stockpile near the mill, etc.

Each barrel has a capacity of 10 items. Exceptions are alcohol, where a barrel stores as much as can be squeezed in from a single plant stack, and seeds, which can be stored in bags which in turn are stored in barrels. If you have a stack of more than 10 items (typically cooked food), it will not be stored in a barrel.