58 BULLETIN 908, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
very fat fish and for fear of scorching the product. The degree of 
heat which may be employed in drying is therefore limited; otherwise 
it would be possible to overcome the difficulty of drying on exces- 
sively humid days by raising the temperature of the drying medium 
suiiciently to obtain the desired results regardless of the humidity. 
Air should. be taken from a source that will not carry particles of 
dirt to cause contamination of the fish. 
It is believed that a great deal of the difficulty experienced in 
packing the three-quarter mustard sardines is due to insufficient 
drying. Fish that are packed too wet or too ‘‘green”’ become soft 
upon standing, and the mustard sauce often becomes discolored. If 
the cans should happen to be packed too full, resulting in a ‘‘fat can,” 
they are likely to be rejected, particularly if on openmg (cutting) 
the contents are found in the condition described. 
All fish for mustard sardines should be cut and eviscerated. The 
fact that fish of this size are packed in a sauce contaming from 85 
to 90 per cent of water makes it necessary to dry them a great deal 
more than fish packed in oil. In some cases it is the practice to 
allow mustard size fish to stand overnight, after a preliminary drying, 
and complete the operation just before packing. 
lt is also well to have no more than a sufficient number of racks 
of fish out of the drier on the packing room floor, as the fish after 
being dried, particularly on a rainy day, absorb enough water to 
make their handlmg very difficult. It is practically impossible to 
prevent breaking of the skin of fish when handlmg them after they 
have absorbed water on standing. 
The fish should be separated according to their size, so that the 
smaller fish need not remain in the driers as long as the larger ones. 
Probably 90 per cent or more of the Maime sardines are packed 
from- fish which have been steam cooked. Attention, therefore, to 
drying and its better control will have a marked effect on the quality 
of the product. 
Much still remains to be done in studying the conditions of drying 
sardines as packed in this region. Investigations might profitably 
be undertaken with the object of establishing, for example, the proper 
time of drying, the maximum temperature, and the requisite volume 
of air (in the tunnel type of drier) under varying degrees of humidity. 
PACKING THE FISH. 
The packing of sardines differs from that of most food products 
put up in cans, in that it is necessary to arrange the small fish care- 
fully to insure an attractive looking finished product. No other 
foodstuff requires the same skill or technique in the matter of being 
placed in their containers. From the selling point of view it is most 
important that sardines be properly packed. 
