THE ART AND MYSTERY OF CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING ALL KINDS OF MEATS, GAME, AND FISH TEXT

paper and smoke it, point downwards, for a week; then take it down, rub it for half-an-hour with olive oil, and smoke it again for a week. This done, rub it again with the oil and hang it in a quick current of air for twenty-four hours, and as soon as it is dry enough to retain it, coat it securely with the gelatine composition, and keep it three months, and longer the better. Ultimately, it must be roasted, and slices cut out when cold to be broiled. It is an exceedingly beautiful treat. THE NUTRIMENT IN FISH. “This is a subject on which I have made some experiments, the results of which go far to prove that there is much nourishment in fish――little less than in butcher’s meat, weight for weight; and in effect it may be more nourishing, considering how, from its softer fibre, fish is more easily digested. Moreover, there is I find, in fish――in sea-fish――a substance which does not exist in the flesh of land animals, viz. iodine, a substance which may have a beneficial effect on the health, and tend to prevent the production of scrofulous and tubercular disease――the latter in the form of pulmonary consumption, one of the most cruel and fatal with which civilised society, and the highly educated and refined are afflicted. Comparative trials prove that, in the majority of fish the proportion of solid matter――that is, the matter which remains after perfect desication or the expulsion of the aqueous part, is little inferior to that of the several kinds of butcher’s meat, game, or poultry. And if we give our attention to classes of people, classed as to the quality of food they principally subsist on, we find that the ichthyophagous class are especially strong, healthy, and prolific. In no other class than that of fishers do we see larger families, handsomer women, or more robust men, or a greater exemption from the maladies just alluded to.”――_Dr. Davy._ WELSH DRIED SALMON. A great deal of the Welsh salmon is “poached,” or taken surreptitiously, in the long dark nights, by means of lanterns and “spearing,” when the fish, attracted by the light, come to the water’s edge. The salmon is often lank and out of season, and consequently of inferior quality, yet some of it is tolerable and inquired for at the shops by gentlemen, who having resided some time in Wales, and, as it often happens, prejudiced in favour of home productions. However, if it possesses any admired flavour it arises, not so much from the method of curing it, as from the fuel it is smoked with, and which the poachers can easily procure, to wit, dried fern, and young gorse, besides short grass turfs which grow on commons and on the mountain sides, and which is pared off the land very thin, and dried in the sunny weather. They dry and smoke the salmon in some remote part of their cottage, or hut, and hence its dark and dirty appearance, and there it remains until traders intending it for the Chester and Bristol markets come and purchase it. I conclude it pays the curers pretty well for their trouble, since it costs them nothing. Take a fresh salmon, sixteen to twenty pounds weight, split it open at the belly, beginning at about eight inches from where the tail sets on, and cutting through to the bone up to the nose, remove the gills and all the refuse, wipe well out, and quite dry. Mix an ounce of ground white pepper with a pound of coarse sugar, and rub all the inside with it, particularly at the bone, for fifteen minutes or more; then bring the sides together, lay it on a dish, and rub the remainder of the mixture all over the outside of the fish, the back fins and thick part of the shoulders. So let it lie, the thin side uppermost, until next day in a cool room. Then rub again all over with the liquor produced, and let it lie twenty-four hours longer, the thick side uppermost. Now hang it up by the tail until dripping ceases, lay it again on a clean dish, strew fine salt well over the inside, bring the sides together, and rub the outside well with fine salt, leaving the fish covered to the thickness of half-a-crown with pounded rock salt, a thin stratum of which must be under the salmon. Each day the runnings must be thrown away――for observe it is hot weather when fresh salmon is cured――and more salt applied. In five days from the commencement it will be safely cured, provided that the thick part of the back and shoulders have been well supplied with the salt heaped under, around, and above those parts. Then take up the fish, brush off the salt, wipe dry, prop the sides open with splints of wood, and hang it up by the tail in a current of air. Next day hang it up by the _head_ for twelve hours, and after that remove it to your chimney, where, suspended with the head downwards, you may smoke it with beech chips two parts, oak sawdust two parts, and fern or grass turfs two parts, for two weeks, keeping the sides wide open with splints of wood. As soon as the salmon is taken out of smoke, and while it may be a little warm and pliable, lay some well dried oat straw in the inside, bring the sides together and tie round with string. In two months you will have prime dried salmon for broiling in steaks, cut three quarters of an inch thick, and will keep good many months. FINE DUTCH SALMON. This article is in great esteem with the Jews. Prepare the fish as per our own directions for “superior kippered salmon,” having taken out the backbone, &c. &c. Now, for a fish of sixteen to twenty pounds weight, take Bay salt in fine powder 1½ lb. Saltpetre 1 oz. Chillies, bruised ½ oz. Garlic, minced fine ¼ oz. mix them well, and rub the skin side of the fish all over, using a large handful. Lay your fish flat on a good layer of common salt――rock is far preferable――in your tub, strew bay leaves on it, cover well with your mixture, and put your boards on the fish, weighting them down with accuracy. Remove them once a day for the purpose of applying more of the seasoning, and put fresh bay leaves on the third morning. On the fifth morning take the salmon out of the pickle tub, stretch it open at the back by wooden splints, rinse it quickly through salt and water, and proceed as in the next receipt, in every respect, until the process is completed. SUPERIOR KIPPERED SALMON. Choose a short, thick fish with a small head, a bright eye, and of twenty pounds weight, although salmon cannot be too large for splitting, and just fresh from the ice they come packed in. Immediately it is brought home――in hot weather observe――commence your operations. Lay the fish on a table with its back towards you, and, beginning at the nose, draw a sharp knife clean down at one stroke to within two inches of where the tail begins. This must be accomplished so that the backbone is left quite bare under the knife; thus one, the under, side of the fish will be thicker than the upper side. Then take out the roe and liver, which may be beautifully preserved as by various receipts in this treatise, and removing the gills and garbage, wipe out the fish well, and having previously with a pen-knife severed a tissue that runs along the whole length of the bone, and hides much coagulated blood. _Pure water_ must not be allowed, but salt and water may be used to assist in cleaning out the fish――that is, cloths dipped in salt and water. In the next place we must have the backbone detached, to effect which “nicely,” you will need a pen-knife with a strong blade, or one of those used by shoemakers for “paring,” and which are the smallest used by them. Commencing about eight inches from the root of the tail, the knife must be run up by the side of the bone to the head, and then beginning again at the same start, you must pass the knife on the lower side of the bone, and so meeting with the point of the instrument the incision made by the first cutting, thus the bone may be got out, and afterwards the meat so pared down as to appear as though the fish never had a backbone. The necessity for thus taking out the bone is, that handsome slices may be cut from the thick side for broiling. Now, when thus far advanced, make a layer of finely beaten rock salt, or bay salt, at the bottom of your pickling tub, and on that lay the salmon, its scaly side downwards, and with a fine bread-grater cover the whole inside of the fish with finely rendered loaf-sugar, to the thickness of a crown-piece, and put plenty of bay leaves upon that, place your flattening boards nicely on the fish, and weigh them down effectively. These must of course be displaced once a day to supply more sugar to the fish. On the third morning put fresh bay leaves, with a pound more salt, and an ounce and a half of sal prunelle, and replace the boards. Look to it every morning and evening, keeping it well supplied with fine salt and sal prunelle, but using no more sugar. On the fourth day sprinkle lightly over it finely ground white pepper, and renew the leaves. Next day dismiss the boards, bring the thin side over upon the other, and, scattering salt over it, leave it till the next day. Then rinse it quickly through salt and water, and hang it up to drip; wipe it dry, stretch out the sides by pieces of light lath placed across the back, and suspend it in a free current of dry air; examine it occasionally, and if the red side begins to feel clammy or sticky, place it before a fire until the “face” becomes somewhat dry and hardened, then expose it again to the air current, and when ready smoke it with Oak sawdust 2 parts Beech chips 2 parts Fern or grass turfs 2 parts for three days and nights, adding a little peat to your fire the last twelve hours. It should not be cut for three or four days, and then with a very sharp knife held across the fish in an oblique direction, which procures the slices much broader than if the knife were placed at right angles with the back of the salmon. The slices are usually broiled, enclosed in writing-paper. COLLARED SALMON. Take a short, thick fish about twelve pounds weight, scale it, remove the fins, cut off the head with two inches of the jowl, and the tail with six inches of the fish, these to be cured some other way. Lay the fish open at the back, take out the bone, wipe nicely and scatter sifted loaf-sugar over it; after lying six hours replenish the sugar and leave it till the next day. Next draw your knife down the middle, thus making two sides of it, which may by cured in different ways. Get a pint and a half of recently picked shrimps, examine them carefully, and pound them in a mortar with an anchovy, wiped and boned, and so much of this mixture as you think sufficient――viz. Cayenne pepper ½ oz. Mace, in fine powder ½ oz. Cloves „ 1 oz. Bay leaves „ ½ oz. Table salt 2 oz. adding a little water that has been boiled. Make a nice smooth paste, and cover the red surface of the fish with it equally; begin at the head part, and roll it up into a nice firm collar, which bind tightly with a broad tape, and sew up in strong calico or light canvas. Let it remain thus two or three days, then plunge it into a pan of boiling water, with saltpetre half an ounce, and salt one pound, to each half-gallon of water; when done enough, take it out, set it on a sieve to cool, and next day put it in your chimney with a slow fire, to dry gradually, and then smoke it with Beech chips 2 parts Fern 2 parts Oak lops 2 parts for a week. When cool take off the cloth, and hang it up in a dry air to get solid. It may then be enclosed in writing paper and sent to table, and will be greatly relished. Let the thin side be treated thus: Lay it down on the skin side, and cover it with rock or bay salt in fine powder, sifted loaf sugar half a pound, and saltpetre half an ounce; so let it lie forty-eight hours under a board of tasteless wood, weighted down. Next wipe it dry, and hang it on your tenterhooks in a free current of air twenty-four hours; mix well, Essence of cassia ½ tablespoonful Essence of cloves 1 tablespoonful Essence of mace ½ tablespoonful Essence of cayenne ½ tablespoonful Essence of bays ½ tablespoonful lay the fish down on the scaly side, and with a soft flat brush of camel’s hair, pay it well over with the mixture, and cover with oiled silk, or its best substitute, to prevent the evaporation of the essences. Repeat this brushing over three times in twenty-four hours, and roll it up from the head, binding tightly; expose it to a current of dry air, and when ready to receive it, give it a fine firm coating with gelatine composition, and keep it three months in a dry place. It may be cut in slices for broiling, or if boiled let it be put into _boiling_ water. KIPPERED MACKEREL. When in season and full of roe, is the time for this process. Take a dozen mackerel, split them down the back from the head downwards, and leaving the thin side connected for an inch with the tail; take out the roes and livers, some of which will be beautiful if otherwise cured and preserved, remove the gills and refuse, wiping clean out. Rub the insides lightly with good olive oil, and let them remain skin side downwards three hours. Boil for a quarter of an hour the following ingredients, and skim well: Rock salt or common salt 1 lb. Bay salt 1 lb. Saltpetre ¼ lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Water 1 gall. Lay your fish in an earthen pan along with Thyme 1 handful Allspice, bruised 1 oz. Twelve bay leaves, shred Pour the boiled liquor upon them at about 150 deg. Fahr., and cover close. In thirty-six hours take out the fish, wipe them dry, stretch them open by wooden splints at the backs, and hang them in a strong air current; watch the inside face of them, and if becoming clammy, place them to a fire for an hour. Smoke them of a nice chesnut brown colour with Oak lops or sawdust 2 parts. Fern or turfs 2 parts. Beech chips 2 parts. They will keep well if packed face to face with dry oiled paper between every two of them. Broil or toast them moderately. MAY FISH――A LESS EXPENSIVE METHOD. Take fifty mackerel, split and clean them, as for “kippered mackerel.” Mix Rock or common salt 2 lb. Bay salt 1 lb. Saltpetre ½ lb. Molasses 2 lb. warm these, and rub the fish well on both sides; lay them in a deep pan and let them remain until next day, when they must again be rubbed and laid for another twenty-four hours. Then take one up and try if the flavour is high enough for your approbation, if not, let remain a few hours longer in pickle. When enough, wipe them dry and stick them as kippered herrings, on your tenters; dry them a day or two and smoke them well with Oak lops 2 parts Fern 2 parts Beech chips 1 part Peat 1 part SUPERIOR PRESSED MACKEREL. In the midst of the mackerel season take twenty fine fresh fish, split them open at the belly, only as far as to the backbone, remove the gills and entrails, clear out well, particularly the blood lying on the bone, wash them with salt and water, and hang them up to drain. Make a pickle by boiling for twenty minutes, Rock salt or common salt 2 lb. Coarse sugar, foots 1 lb. Saltpetre 1 oz. Jamaica pepper, bruised 2 oz. Bay leaves 1 oz. Laurel leaves 1 oz. Water 1 gall. Lay the fish in a vessel, and pour the liquor, when luke warm, upon them; keep the fish down by a board, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then pour off the liquor, boil it up, skimming well, and return it on to the fish for twenty-four hours more. Then take them up and hang them to dry, exposing the insides well to the current of air by wooden splints placed inside. When sufficiently dried both inside and outside, remove them to your chimney and smoke them a dark colour with Oak sawdust 1 part Fern 2 parts Beech 2 parts Peat 1 part When cold, take a pair of large scissors, and cut off the sides of the belly part, to extent of an inch; take off the heads, lay the fish on their backs, packed side by side, and saturate the backbones with this mixture by means of a camel’s-hair tool: Essence of cassia 1 tablespoonful Essence of allspice 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of cloves 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of nutmeg 1 tablespoonful Essence of mace 1 tablespoonful Repeat this twice a-day for three days, and when dry, coat the fish with gelatine composition, and keep in a dry place. BRITISH AMERICAN SALMON. Annually, in November, we get from St. John’s, N.B., excellent salted salmon in tierces, dexterously split at the backs, and which, if treated in the following manner, makes tolerable kipper. If it is your purpose to convert two or more fish at once, choose them nearly of the same size, and lay them in a shallow tub with plenty of soft water and salt, so that they are totally immersed for twenty-four hours; then take one up, lay it on a table, scale side downwards, and with scalding hot water and a middling soft brush clean the face of the red side, by drawing the instrument down always in the same direction with the grain of the fish; it will be quite necessary to use a small knife in paring away loose films which attach to the middle of the belly and about the vent. This done, turn over, and brush the skin side until clean, and looking well to the fins and gills. Now lay the fish in plenty of cold water, in which three-quarters of an ounce of common washing soda to each gallon has been dissolved; change the water every twelve hours for thirty-six hours, if the fish weigh about nine pounds each, and so in proportion for greater or less weight. You will now let the fish lie in _pure_ cold water for six hours, then hang them up to drip for twelve hours, and, taking them down, brush the red side quite smooth, stretch open at the back by means of wooden splints, and hang them to dry in a free current of air, watching the inside faces to prevent their getting clammy or sticky, and presenting them to the fire should that be the case. In a day or so you may proceed to smoke them, after you have gained a well-dried face on the red side; this must be done with Oak lops or sawdust 1 part Beech chips 2 parts Fern or grass turfs 2 parts Peat 1 part