50 



THE SALTING OF FISH. 



cleaned, and after being iced for two hours were salted. There was, 

 of course, the error caused by the difference in temperatures of differ- 

 ent days. However, since at no time was the atmospheric tempera- 

 ture above 80° F., little decomposition took place in the two hours. 



Since fish spoil so quickly during hot weather, an attempt was made 

 to find out how fresh they must be in order successfully to salt them 

 at various temperatures. This should show whether the cause of 

 spoilage during salting in hot weather was through the use of stale 

 fish. 



Insufficient work has been accomplished to obtain any very definite 

 data concerning the necessary freshness of fish for salting. Unfortu- 

 nately, the work was carried out at too high temperatures, and all of 

 the stale lots of fish spoiled. 



METHOD, 



Eightv pounds of glut herring {Pomolohus fp.stiv'ali.s) were ob- 

 tained after they had been out of the water for four hours. During 

 this time they had been kept at approximately 60° ¥. They were 

 divided into fiAe lots and kept at 04° F. One lot was immediately 

 cleaned, washed, and dry salted according to the usual method. 

 After IG hours a second lot was cleaned, washed, and salted; and 

 after 24 hours a third lot was cleaned, washed, and salted. The first 

 three lots were cleaned by beheading and eviscerating the fish, with- 

 out removing the milt and roe. After 33 hours the two remaining 

 lots were cleaned and salted. One of these lots was cleaned in the 

 same manner as that of the first three. The other w^as cleaned more 

 perfectly. The milt and roe were taken out, and the blood was 

 scraped out from under the backbone. These fish were given an 

 extra washing. 



The five lots of fish were allowed to stand 15 days (from day of 

 catch) before the analyses Avere made. For this reason the auiounts 

 of amino acids found were higher than in comparative lots which 

 were analyzed at the end of nine days. The total amounts of amino- 

 acid niti'ogen formed were computecl as before. The results are given 

 in Table 14. 



Table 14. — DKVELOT'AfKNT of Amtno-Actd NiTRonEN tn Fresh and Stale Ftsh 



AT 64° F.« 



a In this experiment the fish were dry salted for 15 days with 2,200 grams of chemically pure sodium 

 chloride. 



