THE SMOKED-HERRING INDUSTRY. 473 



4. THE SMOKED-HERRING INDUSTRY. 



a. HARD HERRING. 

 1. ORIGIN OF THE SMOKED-HERRING INDUSTRY. 



Nothing is definitely known of the man who smoked the first fish ; in fact, so meager are the 

 records that we cannot state with certainty either the country or the century in which he lived, 

 and the origin of the method now so common throughout the world must forever remain a mystery. 

 A recent writer, in referring to the herring fisheries of Norway, accounts for their small commercial 

 importance prior to the fifteenth century by saying that the people were ignorant of the art of 

 pickling and contented themselves with either smoking their fish or drying them in the air. The 

 method of pickling fish in brine is thought to have originated in the fourteenth century, and 

 smoking was practiced at even an earlier date. There seems little doubt that the preservative 

 qualities of smoke were discovered independently in different countries, and not alone by civilized 

 nations, but by savages as well. According to Webster, the word barbecue was coined by the 

 Indians of Guiana to denote the frame on which the flesh of beasts and fish was roasted or smoked, 

 showing that this people must have been familiar with some method of smoking. The different 

 tribes of Central and Southern Africa are said to cure flesh by means of smoke. All civilized 

 nations smoke fish and meats either to be stored away for future use or to give them the character- 

 istic smoky flavor. 



The methods of smoking vary endlessly, though the principle is everywhere the same. In 

 some countries the smoky products are so black and hard as to disgust a person of ordinary 

 taste, while in others such care is taken in the preparation and such a delicate flavor is imparted 

 to the products that they are in great favor with the epicures. Thus, though a comparatively 

 simple process, great care must be exercised in smoking in order that the desired results may be 

 secured ; for two commercial products so wholly unlike as to command different prices, to sell under 

 different names, and to be consumed by entirely different classes, may be made by the same 

 person from similar individuals of the same species. The hard or red herring and the bloater 

 products totally unlike in flavor and in keeping qualities are both made from our common herring 

 (Clupea harenyus). 



Many kinds of fish are smoked, though some species are more desirable for this purpose than 

 others. The principal requisite is that the fish should be fat and oily, as species of firm, coarse 

 flesh when smoked are usually hard and poorly flavored. The various herrings are perhaps more 

 generally smoked throughout the world than fishes of any other family, and next in importance 

 come the mackerel. Salmon and haddock are also extensively smoked in different countries. 

 Some fishes, however, though frequently smoked in one country, may, either from their restricted 

 geographical range or the lack of information as to their value, be nearly or quite neglected by the 

 inhabitants of other regions. Thus the "finnan haddie" trade was for some time peculiar to 

 Scotland; smoked halibut and whitefish are prepared only in America; and codfish bellies 

 (rogerump], as we are informed, are smoked only by the Norwegians. 



Fish have probably been smoked in America for many centuries, and the first European 

 colonists being familiar with the method of smoking at home, doubtless found it a very convenient 

 way of curing fish on their arrival in this country when salt was not easily obtained. But the 

 limited commercial demand naturally rendered the business of little importance, and for many 



