CANNING SARDINES 89 
The packers now remove the heads from the fish with shears or 
pinch them off as they pack. The packed cans are placed on flat 
trays and cottonseed oil is added to them, a tray at a time, by an 
oiling machine. At times mustard sauce is added to the cans instead 
of oil. They then pass through the sealing machine. 
In most plants quarter-oil cans are processed in boiling water for 
one and one-half to two hours. Steam retorts are coming into use. 
After processing the cans are cleansed by shoveling them about in 
sawdust or by washing them with a cleaning solution. 
Most of the pack consists of quarter-oils. Large quantities of 
the so-called ‘‘three-quarters’”’ mustard pack are prepared. The 
preparation of this pack is virtually identical with that for quarter- 
oils. In fact, the larger fish seldom are separated from the smaller 
ones, all being prepared together. The larger fish are then packed in 
three-quarters cans (contents 10 ounces) with mustard sauce. These 
cans are processed about two hours in boiling water. 
The process just described is the one used for “standard’’ goods. 
Fancy packs usually are fried in oil, as already described under 
“California methods.” These packs often are put in olive oil. 
Some fish are smoked also before being canned. 
Years ago the fish were cooked in Ferris-wheel type ovens over 
coke fires. Crackers still are cooked in this kind of oven. This and 
other equipment, employing similar cooking conditions, have not 
proved satisfactory. The natural draft of the furnace did not create 
enough velocity to get rapid heat transfer from the air to the fish or to 
put enough heat in the cooking chamber to prepare the fish quickly 
unless high air temperatures were used. Such temperatures, besides 
scorching the fish and oxidizing the oil, caused excessive loss of oil 
and sticking of the fish to the wire flakes. 
FOREIGN METHODS 
In France, Spain, and Portugal sardines ® are prepared by the 
frying-in-oil process.’ This process was first developed by the 
French and is now widely used in California and to some extent in 
Maine. Details of the process are described under “California 
methods,” pages 73 to 85. 
A translation of the description given by Gruvel 8 of the Nor- 
wegian process for preparing quarter-oil sardines follows: 
Immediately after arriving at the cannery the small sprat, or brisling, are 
placed in 20° brine for about a quarter of an hour. When this is completed, 
from 20 to 30 of the fish are placed at one time upon a metal rod. A machine 
is used for this purpose. The fish are placed head foremost into cavities in a 
wooden frame. A lid is then lowered,. which holds the fish in place, while a 
heavy wire is threaded through a hole in the frame, catching all the fish a little 
below the eye. Thirty such rods are prepared and placed in a wooden frame 
where they are retained by lateral notches. These 30 rods contain around 606 
fish. The frames are placed one above another in a smoke oven. In order to 
get an even smoking, the frames are moved from the lower part of the oven, 
near the burning sawdust, to higher places, and eventually removed from the 
top. New frames take their places and are so moved from the bottom to the 
top. An oak fire is used, burning sufficiently for three things to be accomplished: 


16 Immature European pilchards (Sardina pilchardus pilchardus and Sardina pilchardus sardina) are used. 
1 The following paper gives an excellent description of French methods: ‘The French Sardine Industry.’”” 
By Hugh M.Smith. Bulletin, UJS. Fish Commission, Vol. X XI, 1901 (1902), pp. 1-26, 8 pls. Washington. 
16 “En Norwége l’Industrie des Péches.” By A. Gruvel. Office Scientifique et Technique des Péches 
Maritimes. Notes et Mémoires, No. 16, p. 60. Paris, 1922. 
