488 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
also ou Billiugsgate market in London and on the tables in the hotels, a bloater very slightly salted, 
and smoked so slightly that there was no discoloration at all of the herring. This bloater so 
l^repared is a most delicious hsh. It is prepared in this way for immediate use in the nearest cities, 
towns, and country places, and will only keep some three or four days. Other classes of bloaters, 
intended for consumption at greater distances and therefore designed to keep longer, are more highly 
salted, smoked in various grades. The bloaters we saw were fairly fat, but very fat herring will not 
do for bloaters. Bloaters are salted in heaps on the stone floors of the warehouses — some for a few 
hours, some for one or two days or more. They are never so highly smoked as the mildest red herring. 
There is no difflculty in manufacturing bloaters. All that is required is intelligence, good judgment, 
<juick observation, and honesty of purjiose, together with a knowledge of the tastes of the consumers; 
and also whether the fish is required for immediate use near by or for exportation to places at a 
distance. The gentleman who gave us so much information said that first of all he required to know 
exactly the kind of bloater required and that he then did his best to supply the article. When 
the herring have been quite sufflciently salted, they are washed clean on the outside, but are not 
opened, gibbed, or gutted. They are then strung ou rods and hung up to drip and dry, and then 
smoked. The fuel preferred in Britain for smoking puri)oses is the sawdust or the waste from the 
turning lathe of birch, although oak and elm are sometimes used. All agreed that the birch made 
the sweetest smoke. The white Vdoaters put up for immediate use are jiacked in neat light boxes, 
containing 50 herrings each. Those more highly salted and smoked are put up in larger packages. 
'I'he bloaters we saw were considerably smaller than our own herring; they are deep from back to 
belly, and are an excellent fish. Too much attention can not be given to the selection of the herring 
used for bloaters and to the respective curing processes. The excellence of any particular curer's 
bloaters does not arise from any special mode of curing, but from special care and attention and that 
practical knowledge which close observation and experience alone can confer. At the hotel bloaters 
were opened and split from the belly to the backbone, the gills and viscera taken out, and the herring, 
without being washed, cooked with the milt and the roe. The roe furnishes pleasant eating. 
In the case of bloaters for immediate use, the herring may be put, immediately after being lauded 
and selected, into a strong pickle from six to eight hours. They are then put ou the spits and washed by 
dipping in large tubs of salt water or very weak brine, and then hung up in the smokehouse. The 
fires should have been burning previously, therefore emitting only a light smoke. A few hours— six 
to ton — in the smoke room will suffice. They should be cooled ofl’ before being packed for the market. 
The bloater business in Britain is simply enormous and uses up an immense amount of herrings, 
thus greatly benefiting the fishermen and the curers, who realize at once on this branch of the herring 
industry, while the public are supplied with herring in an agreeable and popular form. 
KIPPERED HERRING. 
Comparatively few kippered lierriug are prepared in tbe IJnited States, the 
round bloaters being so much more popular. The kippered herring are split along the 
back from tlie head to the tail, like mackerel, eviscerated, washed, and salted in a 
manner similar to that applied to bloaters, except that they are not kept in the pickle 
so long. They are next hung up to dry for a few hours, then smoked for 6 or 8 hours 
at a temperature of 80° or 85°, each fish being suspended by the napes to keep its 
abdomen open. With the exception of splitting, the cure is similar to that of bloaters. 
They sell for about $2 per 100, but the trade is of very limited extent. 
The Canadian delegates previously referred to reported as follows regarding the 
kippered-herring industry of Great Britain : 
There is a very large business done in kippered herring in Britain. Herring put up in this way 
are in great demand everywhere and are preferred by many to the bloater. The very best herring are 
required for the kippering process. The herring of the west coast of Scotland are in great request 
for this purpose. The fish used for kippers should be had as soon as possible after they are taken out 
of the water. They are then carefully selected as to size and quality. Where we saw them at work 
an active girl stood at a bench laying the herring on its side with the back toward her ; with two cuts 
of a sharp knife she split it from mouth to tail, and with a third motion of the knife she scraped out 
the stomach and gut and any loose blood inside the fish. She did her work with great rapidity. The 
herring were then placed carefully into vats of jiickle, where, being for immediate use, they remained 
