606 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
recently published menu“ of the café luncheon of the Waldorf-Astoria, 
New York, for April 16, 1902, contains the item, ‘‘Carp, Rhine Wine 
sauce” at 65 and 40 cents. 
It is not maintained, however, that the attempt should be made to 
put carp on an equal footing with our admittedly finer fishes. It is 
merely desired to show that if the prejudice at present prevailing 
against it as a food fish could be removed it would be much more 
extensively used than at present. Even now hundreds of tons of carp 
are being consumed yearly in the larger cities of this country, though 
the demand can still not be considered equal to the possible supply. 
The amount of these fish now used will be considered under the sub- 
ject of the carp fisheries (p. 617). The sale is at present mostly limited 
to the poorer classes in the cities, and especially to the Jewish people. 
For this trade it is necessary that the fish be shipped ‘‘in the round,” 
and those that have previously been cleaned will not be accepted. 
Several methods of specially preparing carp have been tried to some 
extent in this country, but none of them has as yet been attempted on 
a large scale. I was told that canning carp had been tried in Cleve- 
land, but was unable to get any definite information on the subject. 
If the dogfish of our coasts, a species of shark, can be put up success- 
fully in this form, as is now maintained, it seems that as much might 
be expected of the carp. The greatest difficulty would be, in both 
cases, in overcoming popular prejudice and in establishing a market 
for the product. 
A few firms along Lake Erie have been smoking a considerable 
quantity of carp, which has, however, never had a wide market, but 
has been disposed of locally. For this purpose the larger fish are 
used, weighing usually 12 to 15 pounds. Witha sharp knife the skin 
and scales are cut off in broad strips (about three to a side), the cuts 
not going so deep, however, but that the imprints of the scales still 
show on the flesh. The head, viscera, and fins are all cut away, and 
the fish is then cut up into transverse sections or ‘*‘ steaks” some 2 or 
3 inches in thickness. This last process is readily accomplished by 
means of a sharp knife fixed in a long-handled lever, as is shown in 
figure 4, plate m (the operator to the left). Two skilled operators can 
prepare a large number of fish in this manner ina comparatively short 
time. The steaks are strung on long iron rods and are smoked in the 
ordinary way. I was told that this product was sold as smoked carp 
and retailed at about 15 cents per pound. The claim was made that 
‘‘except for the bones it could not be told from smoked sturgeon,” and 
that I myself tried I found to be very palatable. Ata retail market 
in Sandusky I actually found smoked carp on sale at 18 cents per pound 
under the name of smoked sturgeon. The larger fish are not readily 
aThismenu has been reproduced in Transactions American Fisheries Society, Thirty-second Annual 
Meeting, 1903, p. 123, and in the Report of the [Illinois] State Board of Fish Commissioners, 1900-1902. 
