PRESERVATION OP FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
475 
The style of the smokehouse depends ou the particular product for which it is 
intended. The large houses used for smoking herring, halibut, and Finnau haddie 
are described in the paragraphs relating to the preparation of those respective 
products. The houses for smoking sturgeon, lake herring, eels, etc., are generally 
much smaller. Three or four smoking chambers are usually ranged side by side and 
are commonly built of brick with 8-iuch walls with a ceiling of tin or zinc. The 
height ranges from 6 to 14 feet, inside measurement, the width 34 to 5 feet, and 
the depth or length G to 12 feet. In most cases i)rovision is made for smoking 
only three rows of fish, the lowest of which is from 3^ to 0.^ feet above the floor, 
and the others at intervals of 13 to 18 inches above that, the uppermost one being 
from 8 to 18 inches below the ceiling, so that the fish will be removed somewhat 
from the body of hot air which accumulates at the top. lu the ceiling there are 
eight or ten small holes, an inch or so in diameter, leading to the fine or chimney. 
Most of the houses are of the larger size above given, and when smaller sizes are 
used it is sometimes necessary to protect the fish from the lieat, or they are liable to 
become too hot. This may be done by placing two small stands of bricks, about 14 
inches high, on the floor and building the fire between these, and when necessary to 
protect the fish from the heat a metallic pan is placed over tlie fire, the ends resting 
on the brick piles. In places where the smoking is of small extent the houses are 
generally cheaply constructed, and some curers do their smoking in an old dry-goods 
box, the top of which is covered with boards, mats, or sacking. The fish are placed 
on sticks, and these are placed crosswise inside the box. This is suitable only for 
hot-smoking, and to adapt the box to cold-smoking the smoke is admitted to the box 
at its lower end through a trough or channel of boards. Years ago the old-fashioned 
open kitchen chimneys were used for hot-smoking by arranging the sticks of fish 3 
or 4 feet above the fireplace. This form of chimney is being gradually discarded, but 
a few are still used in smoking fish for home consumption. 
The hogshead smokehouses used in a few localities for hot-smoking sturgeon, 
eels, herring, etc., are quickly and cheaply constructed and well adapted to the pur- 
pose. An old sugar or molasses hogshead, with the head removed, is i>laced on end on 
the ground, 2 or 3 bushels of earth being first removed so as to form a pit for the 
fire. For convenience in placing the fuel and in making the fire, 12 or 14 inches of the 
lower end of one or two of the staves are removed. Across the top of the hogshead 
in the middle is an iron rod or a piece of old gas-pipe, on which rests one end of the 
smokesticks containing the fish, the other end of the sticks resting on the chime of the 
hogshead. After the fires are built and the fish placed in the hogshead, the latter is 
covered with old sacking, such as discarded salt sacks, to confine the smoke. The 
capacity of each of these hogshead smokehouses is 200 pounds of fish at one time. 
They are intended especially for hot-smoking, and a mixture of oak and hickory wood 
is used for fuel. Usually two or three hogsheads are ranged side by side, and for pro- 
tection against the weather they should be inclosed within a shed or house. 
The foreign smokehouses are quite similar to our own. The following is a descrip- 
tion of two, the first being situated at Masnedsund, and the other on the island of 
Bornholm, in Denmark : 
The oveu, with the fireplace below, is 6 feet broad, 5^ feet high, and 3 feet deep. In front there 
are iron doors. There is room in the oven for three rows of poles; the distance from the fire to the 
lowest row is 34 feet, and the distance between the rows 14 inches. At the top the oven can he closed 
by a lid, which opens outside, toward the hack wall of the chimney. The chimney projects about a 
