106 BULLETIN 8, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tion of kippered herring is comparatively simple and inexpensive, and 
experimental packs made during a lull in the packing of sardines 
showed that an excellent quality can be produced on our eastern 
coast. Kippered herring is one of the best products for which the 
herring may be utilized. It is believed that there is an excellent 
opportunity to prepare this food product on a larger scale than has 
heretofore been done in this country and that it will provide a means 
for the sardine packer to utilize large fish to a better advantage than 
heretofore, thus adding to his present profits. 
RUSSIAN SARDINES. 
Tn 1870 the importation of Russian sardines into the United States 
amounted to 50,000 kegs a year, coming for the most part from 
Hamburg. The disturbed trade conditions arising at that time 
stopped the importation of this product, whereupon an attempt was 
made to supply the deficiency with a domestic article. That this _ 
enterprise was successful is shown by the fact that in the late nineties 
some 60,000 7-pound kegs, worth approximately $27,000, of Russian 
sardines were prepared annually in this country. By 1900 the 
industry had become quite important, but the next 10 years showed 
a rapid decline, until in 1913 practically none of these sardines were 
produced here. The imported article had taken the place of the 
domestic product. It is believed that many of the fish too large to 
be packed as ordinary sardines now might well be put on the market 
in the form of Russian sardines. 
Conditions are now similar to those which inspired the production 
of Russian sardines at Eastport in 1874. The foreign supply is again 
shut off, or greatly curtailed, and an unusual opportunity is presented 
to win back and hoid a market in a food product which has once been 
won and lost. : 
Stevenson has discussed the method of preparing Russian sardines 
(30), as well as methods for making somewhat similar products known 
as Matjeshering and spiced herring. 
MATIJESHERING. 
Fresh full herring, both spawners and melters, are well washed, and the gills, 
stomach, and intestines are removed in such a way as not to necessitate cutting the 
throat or abdomen, this being accomplished by pulling them through the gill flap. 
The fish are next immersed for 12 or 18 hours in a 7 per cent solution of white wine 
vinegar, from which they must be removed before the skin becomes flabby and be 
wiped dry and covered with a preparation composed of 2 pounds oi salt, 1 pound of 
powdered sugar, and a small quantity of saltpeter, this quantity being sufficient for 
75 herring. The fish are then packed in a barrel as upright as possible, in layers, with 
a sprinkling of salt over each. The following day the fish are returned with the 
original brine to the barrel, which is sealed. When there is not sufficient brine to 
fill the barrel, additional should be made of 1 part of the above mixture and 4 parts 
of water which has been boiled. 
