424 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FJSII AND FISHERIES. [4j 



salt in special vessels, as soon as tliey liavc been brought on shore, a 

 second time after the fish have been cleaned, and again prior lo their 

 being pat into the kegs. The Dutch roll the herring in salt, in dishes 

 specially made for the purpose, as soon as they have been cleaned, and 

 only a few hundreds at a time, so tlie work can be done carefully. For 

 sprinkling, the Scotch use Lisbon or coarse Liverpool salt, or a mixture 

 of both, while the Dutcli use fine Lisbon or St. Ives salt, one ton of salt 

 to every eleven tons of herring. In Xorway no salt touches the herring 

 untd they are put in the kegs. For this purpose we use, it is true, more 

 salt than either the Scotch or the Dutch, but a great portion of it had 

 better be used for sprinkling. 



Cleaning. — Cleaning was first introduced in Holland towards the 

 end of the fourteenth century, and its introduction is generally ascribed 

 to an extensive herring dealer, Wilhclm Beuckels, who died in 1307. 

 This process must bo considered as one of the greatest im})rov(Mnents in 

 preparing herring. Although .the visit which the Emperor Charles V 

 paid to Beuckels's grave at Biervliet, in 1556, in order to honor his 

 memory, was more calculated to Hatter the national vanity of the Dutch 

 than to thank Beuckels, even in his grave, for the great pleasure and 

 enjoyment (as an old author naively relates) which he had given his 

 Imperial Majestj' by his method of preparing herring, Beuckels, never- 

 theless, deserves the gratitude of later generations. 



Every herring which is to be smoked should be cleaned before it is 

 salted. The object of the cleaning is : 



1. To get the blood out of the lierring, which is done by removing 

 the gills, the throat, and the heart ; 



2. To remove those parts which, before the salt penetrates them, are 

 most liable to decomi)osition, or which contain matter which is already 

 in a state of decomposition (the stomach and entrails); and finally, 



3. To give the brine as free an access as possible. 



The Scotch remove the gills, the throat, the pectoral fins, the liver, 

 heart, stomach, and sometimes the ctecum, if the herring are to be ex- 

 ported to the West Indies or to other countries outside of Europe. The 

 Dutch do not remove the ca.M.'um, ])artly for the sake of appearance, 

 partly because nuiny people thiidc that it imparts a particularly i)leasant 

 flavor to the herring. In Labrador and Canada the entire belly of the 

 large herring in summer is cut open, and is cleaned before they are 

 salted. With our summer herring we generally remove only the throat, 

 the pectoral fins, and tlie heart, and with our spring herring in former 

 times also the gills. By our method we reach only the first of the above 

 mentioned objects, namely, to let the blood flow out, and this only 

 partly. The parts which are most liable to decomposition are left in the 

 fish. Many people do not clean the herring, but salt them as they are, 

 or clean them only after they have lain in salt for some time, more for 

 the sake of ai)pearance than for any practical use. A common way of 

 ascertaining how far the herring has become a prey to corruption is to 



