PRESERVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
407 
placed in a dry warehouse awaiting a market. Before being shipped they are spread 
out on the gravel during one midday to extract any dampness they may have con- 
tracted in the warehouse. 
For the purpose of comparison with our own methods the following notes on the 
methods of curing codfish in the principal European countries are presented, the notes 
being abridged by Adolph Nielsen from volume iii of Norsk Fiskeritidende, Bergen, 
January and April, 1884: 
NORWEGIAN METHOD. 
As a rale the greater part of the codtish caught at Lofodeu is left in salt from three weeks 
to two mouths, all according to how the fishery turns out, and how quick the vessels iiurehasiug 
fish can succeed in getting a full cargo. After the fish are taken from the .salt they are generally 
washed out at the beaches, close to the drying places, which, as a rule, consist of smooth and low 
rock, in the vicinity of the seaboard. In washing the fish woolen mittens are worn on the hands. 
After being carefully washed and the black membrane removed from the napes, the fish is put in 
small sloping heaps on the rocks for twenty-four hours, in order to allow the water to run off. In 
each heap are put from 6 to 8 fish, the undermost with the skin side turned down, the rest with the 
skin side up. As soon as the weather allows the fish to he spread, after being in the heaps twenty-four 
hours, it is carried up to the drying place and spread out, face up If the weather is fair and safe, the 
fish is left out the first night, but the skin side is in that ease turned up toward evening. Next morning 
the fish is again turned, face np. After being left out the second day it is gathered together toward 
eveuiugand put in heaps, 30 or 50 fish in each. The next moridng it is spread again, and in the evening 
is put in a little larger heaps. When the fish has been spread two or three times it is stretched well, 
especially in the abdomen, before being put in heaps, in order to remove all the wrinkles and give the 
fish a smooth appearance. This work is considered to be of much importance in regard not only 
to appearance but also to the durability of the fish, because the dampness always gathers in those 
wrinkles and is very difficult to get removed entirely if not done away with in time. It is slow work, 
but they consider it better to devote one day to this than to go through it in .a hurry in the evening when 
the fish are gathered in heaps for the night. Every time the fish are gathered in the evening in heaps 
these are made larger. After the fish has been spread three or four times, or when it is dry enough to 
stand pressing (which is noticed on the abdomen of the fish that crack when the fish is bent), it is put 
into the first pile for pressing. These piles are built round, and a small round peaked roof or cover of 
wood, about a foot larger in diameter than the pile of fish, is made to cover the piles with. On these 
roofs weights of stones are applied. These piles or pressing piles, as they generally are named, are 
built from 3 to 3^ feet high, the first time. 
After the fish has remained in those piles from five to eight days, according as the fish was more 
or less dry when it was put in piles, it is piled over into another and larger pile in tliis wajq that the 
undermost fish in this first pile is jilaced uppermost in the second, in which again the fish is left the 
same length of time as in the first one. If the weather after that time is suitable, the fish in these 
piles is spread every second day to dry, and for every time it is spread it is set in larger piles. If the 
weather is not suitable for spreading the fish, it is as often as possible piled over into new piles, 
in order to accelerate the cure and prevent the fish from afterwards turning slimy. The fish is not 
reckoned to be properly dry until it keeps itself dry underneath the dorsal fins, or is capable of 
withstanding the pressure of the thumb without leaving marks in the thick of the flesh. After the fish 
has been put in pressing piles and has been spread out for drying four to five times, it will, under 
fair circumstances, be reckoned to be properly cured. The usual time, under favorable conditions, 
taken to cure fish in Norway is about six weeks. 
FRENCH METHOD. 
The fish which is brought to France is for the greater part bank fish, caught on the banks of 
Newfoundland and on the coast of Ireland. With the exception of the fish cureil in St. Pierre and 
Miquelon, all this fish is cured in France, and the greater jiart of it in Bordeaux. To this port it is 
lirought salted in bulk, in compartments in the vessel’s hold, and cured as the orders arrive for 
certain quantities of fish. In splitting the fish the French cut the backbone a little farther from the 
tail than most nations do, and for this reason an iron spoon made for the purpose is used for removing 
the blood in the remaining part of the backbone. The fish is always washed well before it is put in 
