CANNING SARDINES 113 
temperature should be kept low enough to prevent the fish from 
becoming very soft and to keep much oil from being rendered. 
Experience with the kind of equipment used and with different drying 
conditions and sizes of fish is necessary to determine these in any 
individual case. At least 6 to 8 per cent of water (preferably more) 
should be removed from the fish by drying. Generally speaking, less 
water has to be removed from fat fish than from lean ones to obtain 
satisfactory results. This is because fat fish contain less water than 
lean ones. A fish analyzing 16 per cent fat may analyze about 64 
per cent water, while a lean fish containing 1 per cent of fat may con- 
tain 78 per cent water. 
Drying can be accomplished with least expenditure of labor in a 
continuous multiapron, tumbling drier. Recommendations with 
regard to this kind of drier are given on pages 127 to 129. These 
and the general notes given in that part of this document apply 
equally well here. 
The fish should be packed tightly into the can as they will shrink 
somewhat when sterilized. A very lightly salted, thick, tomato sauce 
should be used, and this will take up the water that cooks out of the 
fish in the retort. 
The regular process used in sterilizing fried fish is sufficient for 
raw-packed products. 
Fish for the quarter-oil pack should be prepared in the same 
general way as for the pound-oval pack, except that much more water 
should be removed from them. The process, however, is not as 
satisfactory for preparing fish for the quarter-oil as for the pound-oval 
pack. 
ADVANTAGES 
Fish properly prepared for raw packing are in almost perfect 
physical condition. Little other than water having been removed 
from them, appearance, flavor, and food value are conserved to the 
fullest extent. 
The yield in cases per ton of fish handled is greater with this 
process than with any of the others. : 
DISADVANTAGES 
The time required to prepare fish for canning when packed raw is 
much greater than for any other process. This is a distinct disad- 
vantage, as large units of relatively expensive drying machinery are 
needed to handle the fish. 
Fish to be packed raw must be canned within a reasonable length 
of time after being caught. They can not be prepared and then kept 
two or three days until it is convenient to can them. 
During drying the fish are heated to and kept for a considerable 
period at a temperature favorable for bacterial and autolytic activity. 
The changes brought about in fresh fish by the acceleration of such 
activity are not objectionable; in fact, they are not noticeable. 
They might be, however, if fish that are a little stale are used. At 
times fish that have been out of the water for some time and are not 
in the best of condition are received at the cannery. Nevertheless, 
they are still in fair condition for canning and will give a good product 
if prepared quickly. In any of the processes where the fish are 
40619°—27—4 
