PKESERVATION OP FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
399 
now amounting to over 5,000,000 pounds, at an average value of about 3i cents per 
pound, most of the catch being marie by vessels sailing from San Francisco and oper- 
ating in Bering Sea or at tishing stations on the islands bordering that sea. The 
methods pursued in the curing are not dissimilar to those in vogue on the JSTew England 
coast. A small percentage are marketed hard-dried with the skin on and the bones left 
in, being tied up in bundles of 75 to 100 pounds; but most of them are prepared as 
boneless lish after their receipt at San Francisco. The product is marketed through- 
out the Pacific coast and exported to Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Orient. 
According to Mr. Wilcox, Pacific coast boneless codfish has been most favorably 
received in Australia, where it has nearly driven the haixl-cured stockfish of northern 
Europe from the market. Large quantities of dried codfish from Hew England are 
ship})ed to the Pacific coast, especially to San Francisco. 
REDDENING OF SALTED CODFISH. 
Considerable trouble and loss have resulted to the dried codfish trade from the 
tendency of the prepared fish to turn red some time after it has been dried. It is 
especially noticeable with fish that have remained in the hold of the vessel for a long- 
time, and occurs but to a limited extent with fish brought in on ice and then cured. 
It is attributed to various causes, among which are the removal of the gluten by 
pressure and the oil becoming partly rancid through age, but the most generally 
accepted theory is that it is due to vegetable organisms in the salt, esjiecially in that 
produced by the evaporation of sea water by solar heat. 
At the instance of the United States Fish Commission, in 1878, Prof. W. G. Fal low, 
of Harvard University, made an investigation of the cause of this color and the means 
of remedying it. He attributed the trouble to a minute plant [CAaihroeijstis roseo- 
l)ersicina), consisting of minute cells filled with red coloring matter. This plant was 
found on the floors and walls of the packing houses, and also in the holds of some of the 
vessels. It exists to a considerable extent in Cadiz salt, but not in Trapani salt, aud 
when the latter is used the discoloration is not so likely to result. Consequently 
Trapani salt has almost entirely superseded the use of Cadiz salt in curing codfish. 
But even when Trapani salt is used the fish is likely to turn red, and in order to 
destroy the organisms the buildings are usually whitewashed inside as well as outside 
at least once a year. To overcome this difficulty it has been recommended that 
boracic acid be added to the pickle in the proportion of not less than .3 per cent of the 
water used. 
With the view to counteract this reddish tendency in cured fish, a method was 
patented* in 1883 by E. S. Jennings, of Baltimore, Md., by which the salted fish is 
subjected to the action of sujierheated steam or hot air to destroy the organic life in 
the salt with which the fish have been cured. He employed an endless woven-wire 
apron hung on rollers and having within it a narrow box or pipe with a perforated 
top. Into this box or pipe air or steam heated to a temperature of 400° or 450° F. is 
forced and discharged from it against the fish placed on the endless apron, the apron 
being revolved at such speed as will expose each fish to the action of the heat for 
about two seconds. It is claimed that by this method the exterior of the fish is 
heated sufficiently to destroy the germs without injuring the appearance or qualities 
of the fish, but the i)rocess has never been adopted by the. trade. 
* See Letters Patent No. 273074, dated February 27, 1883. 
