28 COD AND OTHER SALT FISH FOR THE MARKET. 



In order to determine whether the kind of salt used had an influ- 

 ence on spoilage, 14 kegs of 100 pounds each were packed in the usual 

 manner, using seven different brands of salt. One keg of each kind 

 of pickle was taken out on the twelfth day and the second keg on the 

 twenty-second day. The work was done in the factory by the factory 

 employees, and the conditions were the same as for the regular 

 packed fish except for the salt used. The fish were kenched one day. 

 each lot in its own pile, and weights placed on top in order to secure 

 approximately the same conditions found in larger piles of fish. 

 Each fish was labeled and kept in its proper place on the flake. The 

 skinning of the different lots, making into cakes, and packing were 

 done separately. Each lot received exactly the same treatment. 

 They were shipped from Gloucester, Mass., to Lafayette, Ind., by 

 freight, early in September, while the season was quite warm, and 

 then kept under ordinary grocery conditions. The fish (sixteen 

 tablets from each lot) were examined at intervals of thirty, forty> 

 five, sixty, and seventy-five days. At the end of thirty days thee 

 was no spoilage, only faint traces of red being discernible on ||, 

 few tablets. After forty-five days the spoilage amounted to from 

 12 to 16 per cent in the different lots. In most cases, however, the 

 reddening amounted to only a trace. At the end of sixty days the 

 spoilage amounted to from 50 to 60 per cent, and after seventy-five 

 days to 75 per cent. After the forty-five day period the brown mold 

 made its appearance and was a conspicuous factor in the spoilage. 

 Tablets which did not show reddening exhibited a considerable 

 amount of mold or freckling. 



There was no clear-cut difference in the spoilage of the various 

 lots of a sufficiently constant nature to enable one to say that one salt 

 was considerably better than another. The refined salt lots showed 

 reddening as well as the solar sea salts, thus indicating a general 

 infection from some other source. These cakes were all very wet, 

 containing from 48 to 51 per cent of water, and it was evident that 

 they would not be affected much by humidity in the atmosphere. 

 The packages which were opened and rewrapped spoiled more 

 quickly than those which had not been opened. Packages from 

 another lot which were not opened until the sixtieth day showed as 

 little spoilage as those opened on the thirtieth day, then rewrapped 

 and again examined on the forty-fifth day. 



Whole fish were also saved from each lot. The five fish from the 

 bottom of each kench were kept together, and six were taken from 

 the remainder of the kench. The fish in contact with the rack all 

 reddened, about 75 per cent within thirty days and the remainder 

 inside of forty-five days. The fish not in contact with the rack did 

 not redden, with the exception of some of those pickled with the sea 

 salt, but did freckle in about sixty days. These fish dried more 



