44 THE SALTING OF EISH. 



trouble would be encountered in salting any fish if care would be 

 taken to scrape the blood away from the backbone and then wash 

 all the blood out of the fish. 



These and other similar observations showed the importance of 

 the mode of cleaning as a factor in fish salting. A series of experi- 

 ments was, therefore, carried out for the purpose of learning which 

 method of preparing fish for salting was the best. 



COMMERCIAL MKTHODS OF CLKANING. 



Uncut -fish. — Large quantities of herring and alewives are annually 

 salted round, or Avithout cutting. Some of these are washed, but 

 other fish salters do not wash their round fish. 



Pif'inng. — When hei-ring are salted by the Scotch method, they are 

 pipped or gibbcd. This involves the cutting of the fish at the throat 

 so that the gills and viscera are all removed, with the exception of 

 the milt and roe. The head is not cut olf. Wlien fish are cut in this 

 way it is difficult to remove the blood contained in the abdominal 

 cavity. 



Beheading. — ^" Headless roe " fish are prepared by partially cutting 

 off the head of a roe fish, usually river herring; then the head is 

 pulled off in such a way that the viscera, with the exception of the 

 roe, {^re pulled out. Little blood may be washed out from fish 

 cleaned in this manner. In some cases this procedure is altered by 

 cutting the fish down the belly in addition to beheading. 



Cutting. — The greater proportion of the river herring' are salted 

 after the heads and bellies have been cut off. In most cases this is 

 done by the cutter in one operation. 



Cutting and scraqnng. — In some vicinities small quantities of river 

 herring are salted after being cleaned perfectly. The heads and 

 bellies are cut off, and then the abdominal cavity is scraped until all 

 the blood under the backbone and all the membranes are removed. 

 Fish cleaned in this way are usually consumed locally. 



Splitting. — Larger fish, such as the mackerel, cod, haddock, cusk, 

 and the like, are usually eviscerated and split. This is considered 

 essential for proper salting. 



EFFECT OF CM^ANING ON I'lJOTElN DECOMPOSITION. 



The work on cleaning was done on the river herring. Two hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds of river herring were purchased from a local 

 Albemarle Sound fisherman. These fish were iced as soon as they 

 were received from the boat, which was about two hours after their 

 capture. The fish were divided into 8 lots: 2 lots of 1,000 grams 

 each were salted round ; 2 other lots were pipped ; 2 lots were cleaned 

 by cutting off the heads, cutting the fish tne length of the belly, and 

 removing the entrails, with the exception of the milt and roe ; and 2 

 lots were cleaned by cutting and scraping. The heads and viscera 

 were removed, including the milt and roe. These fish were then well 

 washed, and blood and membranes were scraped out of the abdomi- 

 nal cavity. Great care was taken in this case to remove all visible 



