420 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
It appears that there are two ways of hoiliug heche de raer, equally good. The first is to take 
them out when boiled about a minute, or as soon as they shrink and feel hard; the other method is 
to Ijoil them for 10 to 15 minutes ; but in boiling either way the slugs ought, if properly cooked, to dry 
like a boiled egg immediately on being taken out of the pot. Beche de mer dried in the sun fetches 
a higher price than that dried over a wood fire. But this method would not answer in curing a ship’s 
cargo, as they take fully 20 days to dry, whereas by smoking them they are well cured in 4 days. 
Much skill is required in drying btche de mer, as well as in boiling it, as too much heat will cause 
it to blister and get porous like sponge, whereas too little heat again will make it spoil and get putrid 
within 24 hours after being boiled. There is, likewise, great care and method requisite in conducting 
the gutting, for if this be not properly attended to by keeping the fish in warm water and from 
exposure to the sun it will, when raw, soon subside into a blubbery mass and become putrid in a few 
hours after being caught. 
DRYING FISH BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS. 
A number of devices have been invented for drying fish by artificial means, by 
the use of heat, dry air, absorption pads, etc., but none have come into practical use 
on a large scale. In 1878 there was introduced a drier,* consisting of one or more 
horizontally revolving wheel-like tables, having two outer rings with a bottom of 
network on which to place the fish and a corresponding covering of network to overlie 
and retain the fish during the rotation of the table. The tables are in sectional form 
to admit of the fish being removed from any portion without disturbing that in any 
other portion; the whole is supported by converging arms radiating from a vertical 
spindle. After the fish are placed within the network frame the structure is rotated 
at a speed to be regulated by circumstances, thus creating a current of air, causing a 
rapid drying of the fish. 
A system modeled somewhat on that used in fruit-driers was introduced in 1877.t 
The fish are dressed and placed in a tight vessel on a false perforated bottom a few 
inches above the real bottom. Steam is admitted and the fish cooked until freed from 
the bones. The flesh is then spread on hurdles, which are introduced successively 
into a chamber, into the lowest part of which is admitted a current of air heated to 
about 200°. After the first has been exposed to this temperature about 10 minutes, 
it is moved up about 4 inches and a second introduced, and so on successively until 
there are 10 or 12 hurdles in the chamber, and thereafter as each additional hurdle 
is iilaced at the bottom the top one is removed. 
During this operation the moisture evaporating from the fish forms a vapor which 
fills the drying chamber, thus keeping the fish in a humid atmosphere and preventing 
it from becoming suddenly dry and hard on its surface, and the texture is kept loose 
to allow the water to evaporate freely. 
This process did not prove a success, and in 1880 Mr. Alden, the patentee of the 
above, introduced an improved method, as follows: 
Take fresh fish and remove the heads, tails, fins, entrails, and skins, and also the larger hones, 
leaving the clear fresh fish meat, which should he cut iu pieces of suitable size, thoroughly cleansed 
in pore cold water, and then placed in an evaporating pan placed upon and surrounded hy a heating- 
coil or a steam jacket, and having one or more movable blades revolving around on the inside of the 
pan, so arranged that when in motion the blades will operate upon the principle of the plow, so as to 
avoid shovingthe mass while throwing a furrow in such manner that the fresh fish meat is prevented 
from adhering to the bottom or the sides of the pan, and is kept constantly in a revolving motion, so 
as to admit free access of the drying atmosphere for rapidly removing the vaporized moisture, in aid 
See United States Letters Patent, No. 207913. 
See Letters Patent, No. 186893. 
