554 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
In 1875 Charles Alden introduced a process* of preserving desiccated oysters, 
clams, etc., for food in combination with vegetable or other alimentary matter. His 
jirocess is as follows : 
The clams or other shellfish are taken from the shell and the natural liquor separated from the 
meat by straining through a sieve, or hy any other convenient means. The body or meat is then 
desiccated hy evaporation to a dry condition, so that it can he pulverized or granulated hy crush- 
ing or grinding. The liquor, after separating the body or meat of the fish, is strained, to separate 
impurities, and sufficient Ijread crumbs or other farinaceous or alimentary material to absorb the whole 
of it added to the same, after which the mass is desiccated by evaporation in the same manner as the 
meat of the clams, and, when dry, is pulverized and granulated and added to the desiccated meat. 
Salt and other desired seasoning substances may he added to the compound, and the whole, after 
being thoroughly mixed, is put in suitable packages for use. 
By this process it is claimed that all the natural elements of oysters or clams 
are preserved in suitable condition for use in making soups, chowder, fritters, and 
for other culinary purposes. 
Letters patent! issued in 1877 to H. W. Buttles, of Hew York City, cover a 
process differing little from Alden’s, and consisting in crushing the flesh of shellfish 
and desiccating it with the juice, then combining the residuum with salt and certain 
farinaceous substances. The method is thus described by the patentee : 
In preparing the clams for desiccation according to this process the meat is reduced to a pulp in 
its own juice by passing the meat and juice of the freshly-opened clams through a mill constructed on 
the principle of the “heating engine” used by p.aper-makers in the preparation of paper pulp from 
rags, the clam meat, flowing in its juices, being caused to pass between a revolving cylinder armed 
with knives arranged jiarallel to its axis, and stationary knives fixed belhw it, the two sets of knives 
being so approximated as to readily cut that which passes between them, the pulp being made to 
circulate in a suitable channel from the knives back again to the opposite side thereof by means of 
the revolution of the cutting cylinder. Or the clams may he crushed and thus reduced to pulp by 
means of a wheel revolving in a circular trough, or hy means of any of the improved forms of meat- 
chopping machines known to the art. 
Having reduced the clam meat to a pulp in its own juice hy any suitable means, substantially as 
described, it is next desiccated, either hy subjecting it to strong currents of moderately-heated air 
upon revolving cylinders or disks, as in the process for desiccating eggs patented by Lamont, Quick, 
and others, or by exposing it to a moderate heat in suitable vessels placed in a receiver wherein a 
vacuum more or less perfect has been produced. In either case the clam pulp must not be subjected 
to a temperature so high that the albumin in the pulp shall be cooked or in the least coagulated 
and hardened while desiccating. 
The clam meat thus desiccated in its own juices is prepared for market and use by reducing the 
resultant hard brittle mass to an impalpable powder, and then admixing it with common salt, finely 
powdered, and with a proper proportion of pure and unadulterated, cooked and uncooked, pulverent 
farinaceous substance, derived either from cereals, such as wheat flour, or from roots, such as j)otato 
starch, a proportion of about 60 per cent of clam, 32 per cent of farinaceous material, and 8 per cent of 
salt, yielding an excellent product. Or the clam pulp, prepared substantially as above described, may 
be admixed with luead crumbs, cracker dust, or other farinaceous jireparation, before desiccation, in 
sufficient proportion to form a paste or dough, and the resultant hard, dry compound be reduced to a 
powder for use. 
Another iirocess of desiccating clams and other shellfish was introduced! 1^90 
hy S. G. Van Gilder, of Philadelphia: 
In carrying out this method the clams, oysters, or other shellfish are first removed from their 
shells .and sep.arated from their natural liquor by a draining process, accompanied by slight compres- 
sion, if necessary, to expel all the li(pior. After this separation, the meaty portion of the fish is 
* Letters Patent No. 168703, dated October 11, 187.5. 
1 Letters Patent No. 191024, dated May 22, 1877. 
j Letters Patent No. 440519, dated November 11, 1890. 
