THE SCOTCH METHODS OF SMOKING HADDOCKS. 271 
the smoking begins. Smokies are somewhat in disrepute because fish 
of poor or doubtful quality are sometimes so prepared; but when 
fresh fish are treated in this way they are very palatable. When the 
fish come from the kiln they are cooked as well as smoked, and are 
ready for immediate consumption. 
Still another method of preparing smoked haddocks i is pursued at 
Aberdeen and doubtless at other places on the north coast of Scotland. 
The fish are beheaded, split down the abdomen, and spread open by a 
single cut along the backbone extending out on the caudal peduncle, 
but there is no supplementary cut back of the vertebre, as in the fin- 
don haddocks. The fish are salted for about twenty minutes in brine 
that will float a potato, and then very lightly smoked. Such fish are 
known as ‘‘pale smoked haddocks,” and are, of course, intended for 
immediate consumption. 
Haddock are prepared as ‘‘findons” at a number of places on our 
east coast. They meet with a ready sale and are justly regarded as 
among the most delicious of fishery food products. The trade therein 
should be largely increased at the expense of the trade in haddocks 
that are too often improperly designated ‘* fresh.” The methods of 
preparing findon haddock and other kinds of smoked haddock are appli- 
cable to small cod, hake, pollock, and otber gadoid fishes, all of which 
may be made into wholesome smoked fish. The smoking and light 
salting to which they would be subjected would overcome the ‘lat 
taste of such fish when eaten fresh. The smoking of the ground fishes 
generally would greatly promote the fishing industry in many of the 
towns of the eastern seaboard by opening new markets, by making 
possible the utilization of fishes for which there is only limited local 
demand in the fresh condition, and by preventing gluts which now so 
often occur. 
Following is an instance of the losses resulting to the fishermen 
through inability to dispose of a large catch through the absence of a 
market for fresh fish. On May 10, 1901, the traps on the north side 
of Marthas Vineyard, Mass., were filled with pollock. The fishermen 
reported that more pollock were caught on that day than in the sa hen 
twenty-five years combined. It was estimated that not less than 25,000 
fish were in the nets. Four or five thousand were shipped, oa the 
market was flat and the shipments did not pay expenses; the other fish 
were thrown away. It is reasonably certain that if the fishermen had 
been provided with facilities for smoking or otherwise curing these 
fish they could eventually have disposed of them at a fair profit, espe- 
cially if previous shipments of lightly smoked pollock had prepared 
the way for the larger catch. 
