CHAPTER 17 



The Principles of Fish Salting— the Salting of Cod 

 and Other Ground Fish 



The Preservative Action of Salt 



Salting was used for keeping meat and fish in prehistoric times, and is thus one 

 of the oldest methods of food preservation. However, no one knows exactly when 

 salt was first used as a preservative for fish since the earliest records show that 

 it was in well-established use as a preservative, both alone and in combination with 

 smoking and drying. 



Salting causes certain changes in flavor, which are undesirable to many people. 

 Freezing, on the other hand, if carried out rapidly and at a sufficiently low tem- 

 perature, has little eflFect on the characteristic flavor and texture of most fish. For 

 these reasons a decreasing quantity of fish is being salted in countries which have 

 ample refrigeration facilities. This is especially true in the United States, where 

 fish salting is no longer of major importance, having been surpassed by both 

 freezing and canning. 



In almost all processes of fish preservation salt is used either as a condiment, 

 or an auxiliary preservative. But, strictly speaking, "salting" is that process of 

 preservation in which salt is the chief preservative used. In curing fish by smoking 

 they are always more or less salted. Although lightly smoked fish are sometimes 

 heavily salted, they are considered to be smoked because of their characteristic 

 smoky flavor. 



The principles of the preservation of fish and other products by canning in 

 hermetically sealed cans and jars are fairly well understood by the majority of 

 packers, undoubtedly because this process was discovered and perfected by 

 scientists. Many canning factories employ chemists to superintend the manufacture 

 of their products. But even among the well-educated owners of large fish-salting 

 establishments an understanding of the chemistry and physics of fish salting 

 seems to be totally lacking. The methods employed today in the fish-salting plants 

 were in use hundreds of years ago and have not been modified in any important 

 detail. The application of scientific principles to the handling and curing of meat 

 has accomplished marvels in the meat-packing industry; but, partly because of 

 the lack of organization and partly because of prejudice, the fish salters have not 

 taken advantage of the discoveries of modern science. Several researches concern- 

 ing the principles of fish salting have been carried out, the results of which are of 

 tremendous value to the fish salters. These investigations show that slight changes 

 in the present methods of salting will effect great improvements in the quality 

 of the salted product. 



Salt does not possess antiseptic properties in the ordinary sense of the word. 

 Nearly all bacteria require some salt for their growth and most of them grow far 



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