50 BULLETIN 98, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
TABLE 22.—Distribution of salt in uncut fish. 
| 
Salt 
(water 
Contained in— Water. | Fat. | Salt. and fat Loss. 
free | 
| basis). | 
Per cent. | Per cent. Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. 
Slime os pare ees Seite. at es PEE ae He ae 63. 70 14. 62 | 4.05 AR Or eer tare 
#lesh Be eee IEE Na Vin ae A St OE So 70. 76 3.56 1.79 6. 90 See oo ee 
‘Before sicaming 5 Se. ee ee a 56. 03 21.98 | 4/26 | 30-37 os eee 
2. 15 | 10.00 9.37 
After steaming 10 minutes.................:..... 50. 41 28. 09 | 
The skin contained four times the amuunu of fat or oil, and nearly 
two and one-half times the quantity of salt found in the flesh. The 
fact that one-half the amount of salt present in the skin was lost 
during the steaming process explains the removal of the large per- 
centage of the salt contained in the fish shown in Table 19. 
PERCENTAGE OF SALT IN © ‘INES. 
To obtain an idea of the length of time necessary for fish to remain 
in pickle to attain the proper salt flavor, a number of samples from 
the foregoing experiments (Table 21) were submitted to an impartial 
jury with no knowledge of the way the products had been prepared. 
Of the uneviscerated fish, the pack composed of fish which had been 
three hours in pickle was judged the best, while in the case of the 
eviscerated fish, the majority favored the packs which had been in 
pickle for from one to two hours. 
Of the packs which were regarded favorably, the uneviscerated 
fish contained 3.22 per cent of salt, and the eviscerated fish 2.27 and 
2.87 per cent. This discrepancy may be explained by the fact that 
the viscera of uncut fish which have been held in pickle or salt contain 
a higher percentage of salt than does the flesh which was the part 
tested. 
While the question of the best flavor is a matter of individual taste 
for which no hard and fast rule may be made, an average of 3 per 
cent of salt may be considered the most satisfactory. At all events, 
an amount varying from 2.5 to 3.5 per cent in the finished product 
would prove satisfactory to the majority of people. It would seem 
wise to undersalt rather than oversalt the fish. 
FLAKING THE FISH. 
The purpose of flaking is to distribute the fish evenly on flakes, or 
wire-meshed rectangular frames, so that the drying medium can 
reach them all uniformly when the flakes are taken into the drying 
room. This purpose seemed to have been entirely forgotten in the 
many instances where the fish were found piled high up on the 
flakes, that thereby became containers of fish rather than drying 
