CURING. 13 



odor. Reddening of fish may occur but it is much less frequent than 

 souring. The spoilage more often occurs in the fish which have been 

 repacked than in those handled only once. The fish are usually 

 washed by pitching them into tanks of water, though sometimes they 

 are scrubbed with brushes. They are then put into butts in the stor- 

 age houses. 



If the fish are brought in iced they are transferred from the boat 

 to the wharf by means of a basket rather than by the pew. Two 

 men, with rope and pulley, hoist the basket from the hold and a 

 third man swings it out onto the dock. The fish are sorted and 

 weighed in the same manner as the salt fish and are then passed on 

 to the different dressing gangs. The first man in the dressing gang 

 seizes the body of the fish in one hand and the head in the other, 

 places the back of the neck in a notch in the dressing tub, and by a 

 backward and twisting movement breaks off the head. The fish is 

 then passed on to a splitter to complete the work of splitting and 

 to remove the forward portion of the backbone, the same as when the 

 work is done on board the boat. The fish are then washed and placed 

 in the butt the same as salt fish, the important difference being in the 

 quantity of salt used. Fresh fish require about 8 bushels of salt to 

 the hogshead, and the fish are piled nearly 2 feet above the top of the 

 butt in order to allow for settling. 



CURING. 



The curing of salt fish depends upon drying, and this is accom- 

 plished in three ways by the use of salt, by pressure, and by 

 exposure to the air, either in the open air or in a drier. In this 

 country all three agents are employed, as it is not possible to dry the 

 fish in the air alone, as is done in certain parts of Norway. 



Salt acts as a drier as well as a preservative, as it abstracts 

 moisture wherever it comes in contact with the tissue, whether this 

 be in the kench in the boat or in the butt at the factory. In the 

 strictly full-pickle fish (that is, fresh fish placed in the butt) the 

 maximum effect of drying by means of salt is accomplished. All 

 the water abstracted in making pickle is so much drying. Kenching 

 and air drying are necessary to complete the operation, though the 

 amount of water abstracted by the latter operations is not so great 

 as is generally supposed. In the " kench cure " there is a combination 

 of salting and pressure. The water abstracted by the action of the 

 salt is less and more dependence is placed on the repeated kenching 

 of the fish, which insures uniform and heavy pressure on all, thus 

 forcing out considerable quantities of water. The kench cure was 

 formerly employed more than at present. There are some who main- 

 tain that it gives better quality to the fish, but if such is the case it 

 must be due to some other cause than introducing salt and taking out 



