BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
I 14 
After thoroughly washing the mussel shells in the cleaning apparatus already 
described, the mussels are placed in a steam chest for about ten minutes, or until the 
shells have opened. They are then shucked, the liquor and meats being preserved in 
separate vessels. Care should be taken to see that the horny filament or “beard” is 
removed from the base of the foot. For each quart of natural liquor there is added 
1 pint of vinegar, l / 2 ounce of allspice, ]/ 2 ounce of cinnamon, X ounce of cloves, % ounce 
of salt, and 1 small red pepper. The mixture is allowed to simmer upon the stove for 
fifteen minutes and is then poured over the meats. After standing about twenty-four 
hours the meats are removed from the spiced liquor and are neatly packed in bottles 
or fruit jars. The liquor after being filtered through a fine-meshed cloth, to remove 
the undissolved spices and sediment that is formed, is heated to boiling and poured 
over the meats until the jars are brimming full. The jars are sealed air tight and placed 
in a steam chest, where they are subjected to 5 pounds steam pressure for fifteen 
minutes. 
After this treatment they will remain in a good state of preservation for about two 
years. If the pickled mussels are desired for immediate consumption, it is not necessary 
to seal them up in jars. They may be kept a week or more in open tubs without dete- 
riorating. If kept much longer than this, they gradually turn dark and fall to pieces. 
A New York dealer told me that he was able to sell pickled mussels in the tub at 35 
cents per gallon, but this gave him very little profit. 
DRYING. 
The preservation of mussels by means of desiccation is a problem to which I 
have devoted considerable attention. So far the efforts have been hardly successful 
enough to make mention of them in this report. A few words concerning the difficulties 
involved in the process, however, and some observations may be of value. The prob- 
lem to solve in drying mussels for food is to regulate the process, so that the flavor of 
the meats is not impaired nor the appetizing odor lost. 
The plan originally employed was to clean the mussels, steam and shuck them by 
the method already described, and transfer the meats to an artificial dryer, which con- 
sisted of a large chamber, 3 by 5 by 6 feet, tapering off at the top into a flue. Two 
drawers with galvanized wire bottoms extended into this chamber. A current of air 
was forced by means of a 24-inch fan over a hot radiator into the bottom of the cham- 
ber, from whence it passed upward through the meshed drawer bottoms and over the 
substance to be dried. The temperature of the air as it passed over the drying flesh 
was 50° C., or 122 0 F. Material subjected to this treatment dries very rapidly, even in 
the very humid atmosphere of Woods Hole, Mass. In from seven to twelve hours 
mussel flesh treated thus will lose 70 per cent of its weight. The accompanying table 
of 12 experiments indicates that after seven hours’ drying most of the water which it 
is possible to extract by this method has been removed. 
