84 



were obtained during the year from Plymouth, and a 

 proper pressing battery will be set up and tried in the 

 current year. 



It will be observed that this is one method of satisfy- 

 ing the demand for fish as human food while obtaining 

 the valuable oil as a separate product ; since the fish are 

 not gutted they can be very rapidly placed beyond fear 

 of taint, for they are simply roused up at once with the 

 salt just as they are received from the sea, while the 

 large quantity of salt used keeps the fish good almost 

 indefinitely if the air is kept away from them ; this is 

 secured by retaining them airtight in the barrels in 

 which they were pressed, while the heavy pressure used 

 consolidates the fish into an indurated yet slightly moist 

 mass. These fish boiled up with rice and vegetables, 

 as the pressed pilchards are cooked in Italy, should 

 prove very good food. 



lo. The curing of prawns is a useful advance. 

 Hitherto the only method known to the general curer 

 was that of simply strewing the prawns, wholly unsalted, 

 on the beach to dry, the resulting product is always 

 badly tainted or of very strong odour. Moreover, as 

 prawns are mostly caught in large quantities in the mon- 

 soon period (e.g., prawns worth Rs. 15,000 at low prices 

 were caught in a single day at Tanur in July) it is often 

 difficult to dry them at all ; consequently, while the 

 fishermen get low prices for their catches, the curers run 

 the risk of losing both their money and their prawns. 

 Obviously then it is necessary to cure or preserve the 

 prawns by salting, etc., and to find some mode of drying 

 them. 



The first step now taken at Tanur is to boil the 

 prawns in salt water and thus to sterilise and partly 

 cure them, the second is to shell the boiled prawns, 

 the third to salt or brine them for a few minutes only, 

 since the shelled flesh rapidly take up salt, the fourth 

 to semi-dry them. It is found that this method yields 

 a product which is suitable for the best tables, and keeps 

 perfectly for months, while, being only semi — instead of 

 bone — dry, it retains the prawn flavour and with but 

 slight soaking is an excellent and nutritive article of diet. 

 Fully-dried prawns are comparatively savourless, and 

 are both difficult to cook and to digest ; the semi-dried 

 prawns have none of these disadvantages. 



