HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 139 



boxes, which boxes have a cover put on tbem perforated with a couple 

 of holes. The box contaiuiug only the fish is then plunged into a bath 

 of pickle, whore it remains uutil it fills itself, then the box, now full of 

 fish and pickle, goes through a second cooking. When all hot, filled 

 with steam, the two minute holes are closed with solder, a label is put 

 on, and the moss-bunker, now metamorphosed into "ocean trout," instead 

 of being turned into oil or being employed as a top-dressing for sterile 

 soil, makes quite a delectable food, and doubtless to-day the advance 

 of civilization in the United States is shown iu remote portions of the 

 country by cairns made up entirely of empty tin boxes once filled with 

 edible moss-bunker. 



Goodale^s ^^ Extract of JishJ^ 



102. The Hon. S. L. Goodale, of Saco, Me. (secretary of the Maine 

 Board of Agriculture from 185(3-1873), has invented a process by which 

 the juices of the flesh of fish are extracted to form an article of food 

 which promises to be of much commercial value. He writes : "Sometime 

 since the idea was conceived by me and reduced to practice of concen- 

 trating the juices of the flesh offish into a food extract. The attempts 

 were successful and the product satisfactory, bearing close resemblance 

 to Liebig's extractum carnis, and possessing a, like percentage of saline 

 constituents and extractive matter, soluble in alcohol. My results thus 

 far indicate that the more abundantly occurring Glupeidce appear to be 

 much better adapted to this use than any other fish yet tested, especially 

 tlie menhadeu and the herring, the latter having a more distinctively 

 fish flavor, the former more nearly a simply rich -cooked meat flavor. 

 The alewife I have not yet proved, but anticipate excellent results from 

 its em[)loyment. 



"During the two seasons past I have worked a few barrels of men- 

 haden at a time, at intervals of a fortnight or more, to see if the juices 

 varied in flavor or richness. My apparatus is imperfect, and although 

 the extract must ha, judging from my former experience with beef 

 extract, inferior in flavor to what it would be if prepared with a vacuum 

 pan and all suitable conveniences, it is good enough to elicit many 

 commendations. jSTo one needs less than yourself to be told how great 

 are the possibilities for this new project. From each barrel of menhaden, 

 as taken, I get three pounds of extract when flesh alone is used and four 

 pounds if the spine is retained in dressing. And my rejections yield 

 just as much oil and scrap as any manufacturers get who treat them 

 for this alone. The skins may be used to make glue. I remove them 

 by scalding quickly, in either mode of dressing. The details of manu- 

 facture are fully worked out. 



Considering the large amount of fish annually taken and hitherto 

 treated for oil and scraj) alone, the juices of which have been allowed to 

 run back into the ocean as a worthless by-product, I cannot avoid the 



