516 



XJ. S. BUREAU OF FIS-HERIES 



halibut, salmon, cod, striped bass, etc., that are sold by having slices 

 cut off to suit the convenience of the purchaser. In such cases the 

 edible portion comprises most of the part purchased, the only loss 

 being a section of the backbone and attached smaller bones. 



To give an idea of the percentage of the edible portion that maj^ be 

 obtained from the whole fish as originally caught or the di-essed fish 

 as bought in the market as compared with similar meat products, 

 Table 9 is given. 



It is apparent that there is usually more loss m preparing fish for the 

 table than is the case with meat. Of course, the reason is obvious — 

 namely, that a quarter of beef or leg of mutton, for instance, consists 

 of relatively large pieces from which portions for individual families 

 can be removed with minimum loss. Furthermore, most animal food 

 products as placed on the market represent but a fraction of the 

 original live weight of the animal. Fish have a good deal of waste in 

 the form of head, entrails, tail, fins, etc., removed before they can be 

 cooked and put on the table. 



Referring now to preserved fish products, natm^ally the waste is 

 very much less than in fresh fish, as they have already been treated 

 in much the same way as when being prepared for the table. This 

 is true in the case of boneless codfish, in which there is no waste what- 

 ever, and to a slightly less extent with canned salmon, where the only 

 waste would be the skin and bone, which two items constitute a small 

 percentage of the total contents of the can. In the case of canned 

 shrimp, oysters, sardines, tuna, etc., there is no waste. 



EFFECT OF COOKING ON THE COMPOSITION OF FISH 



Naturally, it makes a great deal of difference whether the fish are 

 cooked by baking or frying, where the main loss is moisture, or by 

 boiling, where another element comes in — namely, the dissolving of 

 soluble substances from the fish flesh by the hot water. Table 10 

 is based upon some work done in Europe and some done by Atwater. 

 (Atwater and Bryant, 1899.) 



1 These results are calculated on the dry basis and are approximately three times as high as they would 

 be if calculated on the moist basis. 



As one might expect, it is evident that the changes which occur in 

 the composition offish during cooking are not very noticeable, con- 



