26 PISHEEIES OF ALASKA, 1908. 



MILD CURING. 



The business of mild curing king salmon was much overdone on 

 this coast in 1907. Thinking that the heavy demand and high prices 

 of 1906 would continue indefinitely, the packers put up large quan- 

 tities, including quite small fish, and even the white-meated, which 

 had been cured but sparingly before. The practice has been to sell 

 the largest and finest red-meated fish in Europe, reserving the 

 smaller red-meated fish for smokers in the eastern part of this country. 

 Last winter, however, one of the packers, fmding himself with too 

 large a supply on hand, offered some of his best goods to the eastern 

 smokers, who thereafter refused to consider the small red-meated 

 fish or the white-meated ones, and the packers were thus left with a 

 large quantity of unsalable goods on their hands. The high prices 

 had also driven some of the smokers to return to the use of hard- 

 cured kings, which were selling at a nmch lower figure than the mild 

 cured. The demand in Europe for the better grade of mild-cured 

 fish, especially in Germany, which was then under a financial and 

 business depression, also fell off very materially. In consequence 

 the year opened with much discouragement, and while there was 

 some improvement as the season advanced, the industry at no time 

 attained the dimensions of the season of 1907. Warned by last 

 season's experience, the packers cured but few small red-meated 

 or white-meated fish. In 1907 one packer mild-cured a quantity 

 of coho, dog, and humpback salmon, but he found so much difficulty 

 in disposing of the product that he abandoned further efforts in this 

 line. 



In mild curing the fish are split down the middle, the head, tail, 

 and all fins except the pectorals removed, and the backbone cut out. 

 The fish is then in two halves. Each of these halves, or sections, is 

 then scored on the outside eight or nine times with the knife. The 

 inner side of each section is then carefully scraped clear of blood and 

 membrane with a knife, while the outside is thoroughly cleaned with 

 a scrubbing brush. The sections are then laid carefully, inner side 

 up, into a tierce partly filled with fresh water and cracked ice, in 

 which they remain for an hour cooling off. Formerly the fish were 

 put into brine, but it has been found that ice water answers the pur- 

 pose much better. After being thoroughly cooled the sections are 

 salted down in the tierces, each one being laid with its tail toward 

 the center. Usually about 50 whole fish are required to fill a tierce, 

 but one fisherman brought in several tierces this summer which ran 



27 to the tierce, a most unusual size. In dressing the fish, slightly 

 over one-fourth is lost. The fish are but lightly salted, and owing 

 to this must be kept in cold storage until used. As stated above, 

 the principal consumers of these fish are the smokers, who take 



