PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
395 
coast the dii’ectioii of the wind has considerable indnence on the drying. AVinds from 
the northwest or southeast are usually dry and good for curing tish, but under the 
inlluence of southwest winds the fish are liable to burn, and when northeast winds 
prevail it is extremely diflicult to dry the fish. 
Much difference exists in the extent to which the fish are dried. Home are dried 
for oidy a few hours aud others for a week or more, depending on the market for 
which they are intended. Some markets desire fish from which 50 per cent of moisture 
has been eliminated; others 60 per cent, and others 70 per cent, and since a larger 
per cent of moisture removed represents a greater increase in labor and decrease in 
weight of product, a curer endeavors to avoid drying them any more than necessary. 
Those to be used in preparing boneless fish are dried very slightly, 8 or 10 hours of 
good sunning being sufficient, while the export fish must be dried for a week or 10 
days. Every evening the fish are placed, flesh side down, on the flakes, in small heaps 
of 15 or 20, and a cover of wood, known as the flake box, is placed over each heap to 
prevent injury from dampness or rain. This cover consists of a rectangular box with 
a peaked roof and is generally about 38 inches long, 22 inches wide, and 14 inches 
high, the whole being made of three-fourths inch rough boards. When the air is moist, 
the fish are not siiread out, but if the weather renders it necessary to keep the fish 
piled up for several days, they are occasionally rearranged. 
When preparing fish for export, after they have been on the flakes two or three 
days they are placed in kenches under cover to “sweat,” where they remain for two 
or three days, when they are again spread on the flakes for a day or two. In some 
instances the fish are then dry enough for shipping, but usually it is necessary to 
sweat them once more and again dry them for a day or so. The export fish are 
usually dried sufficiently hard to withstand the pressure of the thumb in the thick 
part of the flesh without retaining the impression, Duiflng moist weather these fish 
are likely to sweat and become soft; it is then necessary to “throw them,” scattering 
them over the flakes for a day or so. 
Most of the export fish are what are known technically as “kench-cured.” This 
differs from the above only in that the salted fish on removal from the vessel’s hold 
are not placed in butts, but in kenches, skin down, in the warehouse, whence they are 
removed as required, washed to remove slime, uudissolved salt, etc., and dried on the 
flakes for three or four days in the manner last described. They are next repiled and 
sweated for two or three days, when they are dried again for a day or two, repiled 
and sweated for two or three days, and again dried for a day or two, when they 
are ready for shipment. These fish are slack-salted, but well dried, whereas fish for 
the domestic trade are generally heavily salted, but only slightly dried. Hake and 
haddock are rarely kench-cured, but the latter are not often exported from the United 
States, although there is a steadily increasing exportation of them from Nova Scotia 
to southern Brazil and to Cuba, 
In case the fish are fresh when received at the curing-houses, they are at once 
beheaded, eviscerated, split, and washed in the manner described for vessels fishing 
on the Grand Banks. They are immediately placed in butts, with the flesh side ui) and 
with about 7 bushels of salt to 1,000 iiounds of fish scattered among them. The fish 
are piled in each butt until they extend a foot or two above the surface. On the 
second or third day, after they have settled somewhat, a half bushel of salt is placed 
on top. No pickle is added, as in case of Grand Banks fish, since the green fish will 
