PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
489 
for 35 minutes, and were then carefully taken out and placed in baskets to drip. They were then 
spitted on tine rods containing from 12 to 20 herrings each, and hung up in the smokehouse and 
smoked for a few hours — five or six — then cooled olf and packed up in small boxes and dispatched to 
London hy train before midnight of the day on which the fish were caught. When the lish are 
intended to be kept longer more salt and more smoke are axiplied. Where circumstances are favorable 
kippering may be carried on to advantage either on a larger or smaller scale. Herring put up in this 
way are most delicious They cost a trille more, because of the extra labor and the greater care requi- 
site in handling them. The same materials are used for smoking kixiiiers as are used for smoking 
bloaters and the same conditions apply, only that kixiiiers, presenting a. larger surface to the smoke 
as they do, do not require to be so long exxiosed to the smoke. As in the case of bloaters and red 
herring, the tastes of tlie consumers must he ascertained and the curing as to salt and smoke regulated 
accordingly. The manufacture of kipxiers is greatly ou the increase in Britain. It is an imxiortaut 
branch of the herring industry and utilizes a large xiroportion of the British catch of herrings. 
SMOKED ALEWIVES OR RIVER HERRING. 
Eiver herring or alewives are smoked in a number of localities, but principally in 
Maryland and Virginia, and to a less extent along the Delaware and Hudson rivers 
and in the waters of North and South Carolina. In New England smoked alewives are 
prepared at Taunton and at Boston, as well as on the Connecticut Eiver; but most of 
the supxxly of these fish in the New England States is from New Brunswick. The 
trade is mainly during the spring and early summer ii;onths, more particularly in 
iVxiril, May, and June, when there are few other smoked lish ou the market. The 
business is not concentrated, but is participated in by many small smokers located at 
numerous points on the Atlantic seaboard. For this reason it is difficult to estimate 
the cpiantity smoked annually with any great degree of accuracy, but it is probably 
not far from 5,000,000, their wholesale value being about ■'1^90,000. 
In iireparing these fish iu the Chesapeake region they are washed in vats and 
scaled with a knife as soon as practicable after removal from the water. They are 
next immersed over night iu strong brine, containiug 12 to 14 iiounds of Liverpool 
salt to each 100 pounds of lish, with some dry salt on top to strengthen the weak 
pickle that rises to the surface. The following morning the round lish are strung on 
smoke-sticks, the stick being usually entered at the left gill-opening of each fish and 
out at the mouth, as in case of hard herring or bloaters on the New England coast. 
The strings of fish atfached to the stick are then dipped in fresh water to rinse them 
off, and after draining and drying for a few hours are suspended in the smokehouse 
about (1 or 8 feet above the fire, and exposed to a dense but cool smoke made of pine 
shavings or similar material for about 2 or 3 days. Care must be taken to prevent the 
fire from becoming too hot, thus causing the fish to crack at the lower end or possibly 
to fall from the sticks to the floor. Prepared iu this manner the river herring will 
usually keej) in good condition in the Chesapeake region for 30 days during the spring 
and for a somewhat less period iu the summer. As the fish are not eviscerated before 
smoking the decrease in weight is small, 100 pounds of round fish yielding about 85 
pounds smoked. The wholesale price is about 20 or 22 cents per dozen, according to 
the size and condition. 
In Washington, Baltimore, and one or two other places the river herring are pre- 
pared in the following manner: 
The fresh herring are scaled with a knife, gibhed like the pickled herring of Scotland, washed, 
and pickled for 3 hours in brine, about 20 XJonuds of Liverxiool salt being n,sed for each 100 
pounds of fish. On removal from the pickle they are strung on small iron rods, the rod passing 
