130 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL- XIII, 



even at the Government Cannery. In the first place there are 

 many highly nutritious fish which cannot be canned in slices or 

 whole, being too coarse or bony, or strongly flavoured, or too big 

 for canning whole and not big enough for canning in slices; e.g., 

 cat fish, and many others. These could be made up into excellent 

 pastes if the subject were studied by an expert with sufficient 

 time for experiment, and the lack of this has been an insurmount- 

 able difficulty hitherto. In the second place, there are many 

 untried recipes, actual and possible, for utilizing the fish at present 

 in use, e.g., prawns, sardines, mackerel, bamin (polynemus), seer, 

 pomfret, etc. Some of these will be given or suggested below. 

 What is insisted on is that pastes can be made of various fish, 

 by different recipes, of fresh fish or of cured fish, etc., and that 

 these pastes will not only utilize fish not largely used when whole 

 on high class tables, but will provide food in a very portable and 

 economical form, since pastes are made solely from the flesh 

 of fish without bones or other useless portions, and are so 

 consolidated that a considerable quantity of flesh and nutriment is 

 contained in very small compass. In this case, what Americans 

 call " straight" pastes, i.e., simple pastes made solely of fish flesh, 

 without any admixture of butter, flour, etc., may be prepared ; the 

 object is not to provide a delicacy or savoury but a concentrated 

 food for domestic manipulation. 



203. Prawn paste. — For this product prawns are boiled in 10 per 

 -cent brine and shelled as usual, or the fish may be boiled in fresh 

 water, which makes shelling easier and salt subsequently added. 

 The flesh is then passed through a cutter which breaks it up into 

 somewhat coarse fragments and by a second and finer cutting into 

 a granulated mass. This mass is then transferred to a marble or 

 polished slate table, mixed with butter, oil, a little of the water in 

 which the prawns were boiled, some salt (if needed), mace, and 

 red pepper to taste. The mass is then rolled with a heavy roller 

 of large diameter so that the paste may not be touched by the 

 hands of the operator, until the paste is uniform and viscid. It 

 may then, if necessary, be ground in a stone mortar. In order to 

 give a slightly increased or stronger flavour to the delicate paste a 

 little essence of anchovies or anchovy sauce may be added. Water 

 should be added if the paste is too thick or too strongly flavoured 

 milk is also added in some cases and renders the paste milder* 

 The smooth viscid mass is then packed, usually in 4 oz. cylindrical 



