MILD CUEING OF SALMON IN CALIFORNIA 5 



hardening." Unchilled sides absorb too much of the curing brine 

 and the salt penetrates too deeply at first, so that the flesh is over- 

 salty and improperly cured. 



By chilling or casehardening, the inner flesh is cured more slowly 

 and remains more moist. Another object in chilling is to hold the 

 fish oil in the sides. Fish a day out of water or exposed to warm air 

 start to ooze oil, but proper chilling will stop this. If not properly 

 chilled the oil continues to exude from the fish in the curing process, 

 so that when the tierce is opened for repacking an eighth of an inch 

 of oil floats on the brine. Naturally the buyer wants this oil in the 

 fish, not in the brine. The chilling tank also serves to "draw the 

 blood " from the veins of the sides, so that they do not show as dark 

 markings. When insufficiently chilled, the blood refills the surface 

 veins while the sides are curing in the barrel. 



For proper chilling the sicles should remain in the tank from 2 

 to 4 hours, but frequently they are not given over a half hour, which 

 is not long enough for the best results. The brine of the tank should 

 be iced to 30 or 40*^ F. The iced brine should have a salinity of 60 

 to TO per cent (tested with a salinometer) in order to caseharden 

 the sides, but the percentage is often far below 60, 40 per cent fre- 

 quently being used, and much of the benefit of the process is thereby 

 lost. A mistaken standard for judging the salinity is to dissolve 

 enough salt so that the sides will float well, but 40 per cent is suffi- 

 cient for good floating. The brine in the tank is changed every day 

 or two (or every 10 to 15 tierces) as it becomes fouled with oil. If 

 fresh fish is used and properl}'' chilled, the amount of oil lost in the 

 tank is greatly reduced. Ocean water is often used in making up 

 the tank brine when clean salt water can be had, but fresh water is 

 used in the curing brine or "pickle." 



DRAINING 



As the sides are taken from the chilling tank they are tempo- 

 rarily stacked, skin down, on a long two-wheeled cart or portable 

 table that serves the double purpose of easily transporting the fish 

 to any desired place in the room and draining off the excess water, 

 as the boards are spaced to leave large cracks. No extra time is 

 required for draining, the few minutes while loading, moving, and 

 unloading being sufficient. 



Columloia River packers use a smaller cart holding just a tierce 

 of sides piled 7 along the cart and 3 across one end, so that there 

 are 10 sides to a layer. This is a great convenience in keeping the 

 count straight either at salting or repacking time, for counting 

 the sides singly as thej'^ go into the barrel leads to many mistakes, 

 with extra work and confusion. In California the count of sides is 

 nearly always made only at the repack. 



SALTING 



In the customary California method sides are taken, one at a 

 time, from the long drain cart and dropped, skin down, in a large 

 portable box full of dry salt. Handfuls of salt are then thrown over 

 the exposed flesh and the side removed for packing in the tierce. 



