308 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



forms what is properly called " balyk," that is, fish of 

 excellence, balyk implying refined or prepared fish. The 

 parts of the fish removed, are salted in the ordinary 

 manner and employed as food by the fishermen and 

 working classes ; but the coats of the stomach, which 

 are very fat, are sometimes prepared like balyk and 

 called tiochka. The backs of the sturgeons (A. Gulden* 

 stadtii), are left entire, each forming a balyk, but 

 those of the large huso are divided lengthwise and 

 crosswise, in many parts, to form balyks ; for they 

 would else be too large and too thick for the salt to 

 penetrate. The backs are then placed in troughs, or 

 wooden reservoirs, well covered with salt, care being 

 taken that one balyk is separated from another, and 

 does not touch the wood, or it would infallibly be 

 spoiled or tainted. They are left in the salt for nine 

 or ten days, or for fifteen, if the weather is hot, and 

 the pieces large. To the salt, saltpetre is added, in 

 the proportion of 2 lbs. to 1,500 lbs. of balyk, to give 

 it a red colour. There is also added the best kind of 

 pepper, cloves, and bay leaf. When it is thought the 

 fish is sufficiently penetrated with salt, it is removed 

 from the troughs, and is steeped for two days in fresh 

 water, or in the water of the sea of Azov, which is 

 preferred. When the steeping has removed the surplus 

 of salt, the fish is suspended in the air to mature, and 

 Temains exposed to the direct rays of the sun ; after 

 which it is hung in sheds open at, the sides, so that 

 the air may freely reach the rows of fish hung to dry. 

 Here it is kept for a month or six weeks. When 

 it is ripe, or properly cured, it will be found covered 

 with a sort of mould, if this does not form it is an 

 indication that the fish is too salt. Notwithstanding 

 a,ll the care given to the preparation, the balyks will 

 not all cure equally well ; and there are those who at a 

 glance, from experience, will detect which are the best 

 by their deeper colour. 



Good balyk, such as is prepared near the embouchures 

 of the Don and some parts of the littoral of the sea of 



