PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
505 
about 20 cents per iiouud, while at Buifalo and other Great Lakes iioints the price is 
usually 14 to 15 cents per pound. When eels have been pickled 6 or 8 hours they 
ordinarily keep 10 or 12 days; but when the salting has been only 2 hours, as is usual 
at New York, they are liable to mold after 5 or 6 days. Smoked eels keep a shorter 
length of time than almost any other smoked fish. 
Eels are sometimes skinned before being smoked, the process being the same as 
above described, except that less salting and smoking is required, and it is also very 
difficult to keep them from falling down off the rods in the smokehouse. 
The trade in smoked eels in New York is probably not 30 per cent of what it was 
15 or 20 years ago, but along the Great Lakes it appears to be increasing. The annual 
product in the entire country is probably about 150,000 pounds, worth $27,000, There 
is some demand for smoked eels in cans, which is met by two fish-canning establish- 
ments in New York City. The smaller eels are used for this purpose, and they are 
smoked somewhat more than those sold to the delicatessen trade. 
The following method of smoking eels prevails to some extent in northern Europe, 
especially in Germany: 
The head, skin, tail, and viscera are removed, and the eel is split open the entire length, and the 
backbone and many of the smaller bones attached to it removed. It is then laid in strong salt brine, 
where it remains for 6 hours, and is then wiped dry with a linen towel and is covered with the follow- 
ing’ prejiaration, which has been pounded in a porcelain mortar: One large anchovy, 1 ounce of fine 
salt, 8 ounces of powdered sugar, 1 ounce of saltpeter, and sufficient butter to make a paste of the 
ingredients. The eel, thoroughly cured with this preparation, is rolled up tightly in the form of a 
disk, beginning at the tail end, tied with a cord to hold it in position, and sewed up in a linen cloth, 
which covers the disk and allows the end to project. These disks are next suspended in an ordinary 
chimney smokehouse and subjected to a strong smoke for 5 or 6 days, then allowed to cool and become 
firm, when they are ready for the table. 
SMOKED MACKEREL. 
There is a small business in smoking both fresh and salt mackerel in New York 
City and a few other jioints on the Atlantic seaboard, the output amounting to prob- 
ably 8,000 pounds of the former and 35,000 pounds of the latter. The fresh mackerel 
are cured in very nearly the same way as lake herring, except that usually they are 
not split, being jirepared round. The fish are first struck in brine, in which they 
remain for 12 or 14 hours, then removed and opened at the vent with the point of a 
knife to let the pickle in the abdominal cavity escape. They are next put on smoke- 
sticks, drained and dried for 2 or 3 hours, and placed in the smokehouse, where they 
are subjected to a gentle smoke for 4 to 5 hours, until properly colored, when fires are 
built and the fish cooked for a couple of hours, as in case of ciscoette or lake herring. 
In preparing salt mackerel for smoking, the fish are cleaned and the dark stomach 
membrane removed, when they are soaked in fresh water for 6 to 12 hours, or in some 
localities from 15 to 24 hours, according to the size and the degree of saltiness. On 
completion of the soaking they are washed, strung on rods or smoke-sticks, drained, 
and hung in the upper part of the smokehouse and subjected to a gentle smoking for 
5 to 15 hours at a low temperature. 
No. 2 mackerel bring about 16 cents per pound and extra large smoked mackerel 
20 to 30 cents per pound, but generally it is the smaller fish that are used for this pur- 
pose. The trade in these fish is very much less than formerly, the quantity used in 
New York City being only about one-tenth of what it was from 1880 to 1885, but the 
business during that iieriod was much greater than theretofore, resulting from the 
salted mackerel being received at the markets in June and July instead of a couple of 
months later, as formerly. 
