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

Give them a continuance of this smoke for two days and nights, and although while in the chimney the colour of the inside face may not be so deep as you might wish, yet, when drawn out and exposed to the common air, the shade will be greatly altered, and a fine bright red will succeed it. BLOATERS. This process is generally conducted in so negligent and rough a manner――excepting at Yarmouth and Lowestoft――that a little advice on the subject may not be out of place. As the barrels are emptied of their contents, the largest fish should be picked out from the rest, and pickled separately, for otherwise the consumer gets the finest herrings hardly tasting of salt, and most likely in a state of decay, while the small ones are so much oversalted, as to be scarcely eatable. As the fish generally come to hand far from clean, they should be washed by means of round baskets agitated in tubs of salt and water, and turned into separate pickling vats, which should have false bottoms in them, perforated here and there with holes, taps also being introduced to let off the pickle when required. The safest and best method is to make use of _saturated solutions_ of salt, which are made by adding twenty-nine pounds of common salt to seventy-one pounds of water. The herrings will float in this pickle, but must be totally immersed by battens of wood laid on the top of them, and held down by little bags of salt, which, being gradually dissolved, will maintain the strength of the solution, which is always lessened as the fish imbibe the muriatic property thereof, and all pickles of this description are weaker at the surface than at the bottom, and may in this way be rectified. (See Note, No. 4.) As to the length of time the fish should remain in the pickle, that depends whether they came to hand with coarse salt scattered amongst them, at the sea coast, a precaution necessary in hot weather; a good criterion is when the fish begin to be stiff or rigid while being handled, but to try one or two cooked is certainly a sure proof. Pure _fresh_ water must never be added or made use of in this process after salt has been imbibed, or the heads will all be broken when putting them on the spits. When salt enough, run off the brine, and shortly commence putting your fish on the rods, and hang them up in a current of air, then remove them to your chimney, and smoke them with Oak lops 2 parts Beech chips 2 parts Fern or grass turfs 2 parts When they have been smoked enough, return them to the air currents, as they keep much better on the rods until wanted. If a constant and full smoke has been kept up, twelve hours will be sufficient for the smaller fish, and sixteen to eighteen hours for the large ones. They are not intended to keep good more than four or five days, but in perfection should be eaten the day after being cured. KIPPERED HERRINGS. The herring is so favourite a fish with the majority of society, that any improvement in the modes of curing them is a valuable acquisition. The getting rid of the gut and other objectionable parts recommends itself, and claims a decided preference over the old practice of sending the fish to table _whole_, and, in fact, carrying to the parlour what ought to have been left in the scullery. The salting process should be conducted in a similar manner to that for bloaters, and when taken out of pickle, should be wiped dry, and then split open at the backs, leaving the bone bare as possible; yet, an inch from the tail, the thin side should remain attached to the thick side, this adds much to the appearance of the fish when at table, and saves the curer some trouble in the succeeding stages of process. Clean out all the offal and gills, and wipe with cloths dipped in salt and water, and suspend them by the shoulders upon the tenter hooks of your rods, thus avoiding the trouble caused by the old plan of keeping the fish open by splints of wood. Hang them in a free current of air, and when dried enough――one night is generally sufficient for that purpose――hang them in the chimney, and smoke them of a nice chesnut brown colour, and keep them on the rods, but _not_ in a current, though in a dry room and cold air; when packed it should be insides faces together, with strips of dry oiled paper between each two fish. SUPERIOR SPICED KIPPERED HERRING. This is a more troublesome, but withal a delicious preparation of the herring, and should be practised on the best and freshest fish, as on the Isle of Man――“Manx herrings”――in July and August, and the Yarmouth later on in the season. Select two dozen from out of a lot of fish, the largest and roundest, wash them a minute in salt and water, having taken out the eyes and gills, wipe them, and lay them open at the back, wipe clean out, and put them into a pickle made by boiling water for twenty minutes, skimming, and then straining through a sieve, Rock salt or bay salt 1½ lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Allspice, ground 2 oz. Fifteen bay leaves, shred Six laurel leaves, shred Water, 5 quarts Let the fish remain in this six hours, then hang them by their shoulders, and stretched widely open, to dry in a quick current of air. In this, and all similar cases, where the _inside_ is to be acted upon by the atmosphere, those sides should be placed on the hooks so as to receive the full advantage of the air current. When dried as you think sufficiently, hang them in the chimney, and smoke them till of a fine bright brown; return them to the air, and next day take them off the hooks, lay them on their backs, and brush them all over the inside with essence of allspice and water, two parts of the former to one part of the latter; repeat this, and when absorbed, brush them over again liberally with this mixture: Essence of cassia 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of cloves 4 tablespoonfuls Essence of mace 2 tablespoonfuls Essence of bays 4 tablespoonfuls Water 6 tablespoonfuls repeating this three or four times, according to your taste. Any of the others may be used singly or in combination. The backbone must be well saturated. Stow away, wrapped in paper, in malt cooms and charcoal; they will keep a long time, and repay your trouble well. CAPE BRETON, OR DIGBY HERRINGS. St. John’s, N.B., and Cape Breton furnish us with these highly flavoured fish, smoked with the pine branches of that region. Small herrings visit our coasts soon after Christmas, and being “shot,” or without roes, are not much esteemed, but will serve well for curing in this way. Let them lie in a saturated solution of common salt so long as just to taste of the brine, then put them on spits, dry them a week, and smoke them for a month with deal chips, having much turpentine in them, from carpenters’ shops, and with the fruit of the larch fir tree, fir cones, and top branches of any of our firs, and some oak sawdust to smother the flame. These fish are generally eaten without being cooked, and will keep a long time, packed in small boxes, or buried in malt cooms, &c. &c. ABERDEEN REDS. For this purpose the herrings should be large, full-roed, and fresh. Immerse them in a pickle of twenty-nine pounds of common salt to seventy-one pounds of water, and to every pound of salt add half an ounce of saltpetre. When they become rigid and moderately flavoured, run off the pickle, put them on the spits, dry them a day or two, and smoke them with Oak lops 2 parts Fern 2 parts Sawdust 2 parts until they are of a deep red. SPELDINGS. At present we are not aware of any superior method of curing the haddock to the “finnin haddock,” which, if procured soon after they are drawn from the smoke, are very fine eating. But some seasons produce these fish in such abundance that it induces curers to save them by various processes; the small ones may be converted as follow: Split them open at the belly, right over the backbone, clean away all the garbage, gills, &c, and lay them in a strong brine of common salt until nicely flavoured, then hang them on your tenters, dry them a day or two, taking care they do not become clammy, as these fish very soon are spoiled. Make a fire in your chimney with oak lops, sawdust, and beech chips, and when you have brought it to embers put in the rods, and first dry and then smoke them highly. Whitings are often done the same way, when the markets are glutted with the fresh fish. SMOKED SPRATS. This is a remunerative business when conducted on the best principles, employing children at trifling wages. I have found the following to be the best method: Provide a wooden trough eight feet long by a yard wide, and eighteen inches deep; fix strips of wood an inch square along the sides, lengthwise of the vat, and six inches above one another. On these will rest the spits, which must be of iron wire, a yard long, and so as just to go within the vat. Pick out all the small fish and rubbish, and wash the bulk in salt and water, as for bloaters, but not too many at once, as they are apt to sweat if lying long together, and then would never be bright when smoked. Use a saturated solution of common salt, or, preferably, of rock salt, and if you intend to produce “bloated sprats,” two hours will be sufficient to let them remain in pickle; run off the brine, and put the fish on the spits, which may be a little pointed at one end. Hang them in a free current of air till next day, and smoke them with Oak lops 2 parts Sawdust 2 parts Beech or birch chips 2 parts. until they are the colour of new sovereigns. These will not keep well more than four or five days, and are generally esteemed. If you want _dried_ sprats for commerce, let them remain in the brine four hours, dry them well when on the spits, in a current of air, and when they begin to lose their plumpness, smoke them with similar fuel till of the colour of Spanish mahogany. These when packed in boxes, like cigar boxes, will suit for exportation to the European Continent, where many thousands of boxes are sent every winter. ALDBOROUGH SMOKED SPRATS. Many gentlemen who delight in highly smoked relishes, inquire for these articles, and as they are seldom to be procured north of the metropolis, I subjoin an easy way of getting them. In the beginning of the sprat season――November――take a bushel of fish, pick out all the largest ones, and with a dozen pounds of common coarse salt or rock salt at hand, throw a layer of it into the bottom of your salting tub, then a layer of fish, and so on in alternate layers to the end; let them lie four hours, mixing them about in the tub two or three times, this will fix the scales, which are cleared off the fish by the “washing” process. Now take the sprats up, and with a basket wash them quickly in very strong salt-and-water, using the same salt if you choose, and get them on to your spits, and dry them as soon as a strong current of air will accomplish it. Smoke them with oak alone, lops and sawdust, until they are of a very dark red colour, and when quite cold, pack them in round shallow kits, in circles, the heads lying all one way, and the fish on their backs. The appearance of them is anything but inviting, yet they are very good, and are always eaten without cooking. Vast quantities used to be exported to the Netherlands, Holland, and the German States; they are also well adapted for sea-stores. BRITISH ANCHOVIES. If it were worth while to favour the deception, you must select your fish from out of half a bushel of the freshest you can get, retaining only the middle-sized ones, for the real Gorgona fish are never so large as our _large_ sprats, and never so small as our little ones, and your’s should also be all of the same size. Pull off the heads――not cutting them――in a rough manner, and draw out the gut. Wash not and wipe not the fish, but put them in straight-sided unglazed earthen jars, wood is preferable, in layers alternately with this mixture: Bay salt 2 lb. Sal prunelle 2 oz. Cochineal, in fine powder 2 oz. pressing them down as you proceed, and letting the top layer of the mixture be at least two inches thick. Get cork bungs cut to fit well, and secure them with plenty of melted resin. Bury the jars in dry sand in your cellar or store room, “out of the way,” and do not disturb them for nine months, or till the next sprat season. A fortnight before you would broach your “prize,” dissolve Gum dragon 2 oz. Sal prunelle 2 oz. Red sanders 1 oz. in a pint of boiled water, and strain it through flannel, pour it evenly over the contents of your jars or vessels; secure the bung again, and in a week or less, turn the receptacles upside-down for a day or two, and then again set them upright. This is called “feeding” them. And when all is done, without the aid of “brick-dust,” or what is as bad, “Armenian Bole,” to give them a fine red colour, the said “British anchovies” may do to make anchovy sauce of, with other ingredients, but to bring to table, with dry or buttered toast, as Gorgona fish――Oh never! See Note, No. 7. TURBOT FINS. This idea will naturally suggest itself, that “a pretty expensive product this will be, by cutting off the fins of a turbot at such a cost;” but there are fish to be got at much less price that will answer the purpose, for instance, the brill or brett, and even good firm plaice, in hard frosty weather, will afford the “amateur” an opportunity of testing the value of the venture. In a private family, if such a fish came to table minus its fins it would eat quite as well, even though to the eye it might not be exactly a handsome dish. Scale the fish, and cut off the extreme edge of the fins, lay a piece of wood an inch thick on the body, just to act as a guide to the knife――which must have a very sharp point――and cut off the fins with an inch and half, or rather more, of the solid attached; place these upon their bases upright in a pie dish, a foot long, and pour in as much of this pickle as will cover to the extent of the inch and half taken out of the fish, viz. Bay salt ½ lb. Coarse sugar ½ lb. Jamaica pepper, bruised 1½ oz. Water 2 quarts boiled twenty minutes, skimmed, strained, and got cold. Let them remain in this state twelve hours, basting the part which is not in the pickle three or four times with plenty of the liquor. Then take out the fish, wipe it dry, and place it again in the same position, in the same dish emptied and washed out. Now pour in the dish as much of the following as will cover as before, viz. Bay leaf, shred ½ oz. Laurel leaf 1 oz. Cayenne pepper ¼ oz. Table salt 1 oz. Garlic, minced 1 dessert-spoonful Porter 1 quart Saltpetre 1 oz. boiled fifteen minutes, slammed, and gone cold. Let them rest in this eight hours, and then laid flat in and covered by the pickle four hours longer. Now take them up, wipe them dry, suspend them in draft of air until they are fit, and coat them nicely with the gelatine composition. They should be kept a month at least, but three months would be better, and then broiled lightly, first being rubbed over well with pure olive oil. Observe, the same pickles and trouble would have done a dozen fins. RIVER EELS SMOKED. This a nice preparation of the richest fresh water fish we have, and will fully repay the amateur for the trouble and trifling expense. I have said “river eels,” because those fish of ponds or waters nearly stagnant, when they run to large sizes, are said to taste of the mud they inhabit. I have experienced the truth of this. Take fresh eels of two pounds each and upwards, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, split them open at the belly to the backbone, from the vent upwards, and clean them out, well washing them also in salt and water a minute or two. Next make a pickle of Bay salt 1 lb. Saltpetre 1 oz. Allspice 2 oz. Bay leaves 1 oz. Green laurel 2 oz. Water 5 pints by boiling fifteen minutes, skimming and going cold. Cut the fish into pieces six inches long, put them into a deep earthen pan, and pour the liquor over them. Let them lie thirty hours, then take them up, wipe them dry, and with little splints of wood extend the sides well open, hang them in free current of air for twenty-four hours, watching the insides do not remain damp. Then take them down, lay them on their backs packed up one against another, and with a flat camel-hair tool brush the insides over plentifully with Essence of allspice 4 tablespoonfuls Essence of cayenne pepper ½ tablespoonful Water 6 tablespoonfuls repeat this in four hours, and when it is absorbed, mix Essence of cassia 1 dessert-spoonful Essence of mace 1 dessert-spoonful Essence of bays 2 dessert-spoonfuls Essence of cloves 2 dessert-spoonfuls and apply it with the brush three times at least, as it becomes necessary by absorption――particularly regard the bone. The parts from the vent to the tail may be cut open at the back, and treated in the same manner four times, with each combination of the essences. Hang the pieces in your chimney, and smoke them thoroughly with beech chips, grass turfs and fern, and coat them with the gelatine composition effectually. GORGONA FISH SMOKED. These are inquired for by foreigners, and especially by the Israelites, who are connoisseurs in fish, as generally admitted. If many are likely to be wanted you may save forty per cent. by purchasing a barrel of anchovies “first hand,” and feeding them yourself. You have another advantage also, viz. you would insure the fine racy flavour, which is gradually lost where the shopkeeper is perhaps two months or more in selling out a barrel in small quantities. A barrel turns out, in general, about twenty-two pounds of neat fish, exclusive of the sauce, and not often more. Acting on this advice, and feeding them, you will be able to take out what you want, without breaking the rest, and be careful to keep those in the barrel well covered with the salt, and after that the slate which you always find in the barrels of genuine fish. Run thin wire through the shoulders of the fish, and making a light temporary frame to hold the wires, smoke them with beech and oak, with some fern or grass turfs. As no wiping nor washing is required in this instance, the scales will have adhered to the fish, and a general