The preservation of fish by means of salt is an excellent method, even in the crude and inexact manner in which the art has hitherto been practiced. Mixed with spices, salt was used for the preservation of food on the shores of the Mediterranean and the outlying country in the time of Christ, reference being made in the Sermon on the Mount to a salt which has lost its savor, meaning a salt in which the spices have lost their aroma by evaporation. It is a low cost form of fish preservation. A bruise on a fish has about the same effect as does a bruise on an apple, promoting rapid decomposition. Now, to make certain that the race mentioned shall always be won by the salt, we may do one of two things, namely, retard the rate of decomposition or accelerate the penetration of salt. Food Preservation If we assume fresh fish to be 75 per cent water and 25 per cent dry protein and express the results in customary units, the figures show the equivalent amount of food-fish flash dissolved in brine to be 15.6, 39.2, and 18.4 ounces, respectively, or from 1 to 2½ pounds to the gallon of brine. . If the membrane is perfectly permeable to all constituents, water will pass through to the salt solution and salt will pass through to the water, and these movements will continue until the two sides are alike and then stop. . The 40 per cent of the dressed fish contains besides water much protein or valuable nitrogenous food. The fat having been split to fatty acid, there are two factors, so far as known–namely, air and light–which promote oxidation. . Less than 25 years after Shakespeare wrote that play the Plymouth Colony landed in America and brought with ​them the arts of sousing and pickling fish. It should be noted that the product prepared by this method is mild and sweet, approaching very closely fresh fish in eating qualities, if it has been properly soaked out. Reducing Post-harvest fish losses for improved Food security, Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa. . In South Africa it is called biltong, in Australia and America it is called jerky. Sold by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing OfficeWashington, D. C. PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE PRESERVATION OF FISHBY SALT.[1]. It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured To complete the evidence in favor of using dry salt, the following table from the, same paper shows the rate of penetration of salt into squeteague when applied dry in comparison with brine: What is the reason for the superiority of dry salt over strong brine or pickle, especially since the dry salt very shortly forms its own pickle? Fish were salted in an incubator room in Washington at a temperature of 90° F. at first, rising to 100° F.–the hottest summer weather. Avoiding air expo- sure is almost unpossible in these dry-salting processes. . If the calcium is held by the tissues at the time of soaking out while the salt is removed, then after soaking there is a much greater amount of calcium present in proportion to the amount of sodium than there was in the original salt and a correspondingly more acrid “salty” taste. . Dry salting is used to draw the moisture out of food, which helps to reduce the growth of unwanted bacteria. Almost any substance can be made into a thin film or membrane. The best way to answer this question is: Other conditions being held constant, which method or methods of cleaning result in least decomposition during the salting process? So far in this paper discussion has been limited to the behavior of the protein or meat constituents of fish. The experience gained in the work already done indicates that the recovery of valuable material from brine would not go well as a part of a small fish business but, having its own peculiar problems, would be more properly conducted as a separate business. Preservation of Meat by Salting Introduction: Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. d. Canning. Salt preservation is one of the natural methods of preserving food and it promises the best results. . Fat that has been removed from the tissue that produced it may be kept under proper condition for a long time, because only a small amount of fat-splitting enzyme goes with the oil, but when the fat is not removed from the original source all the enzyme is present and available to produce ​decomposition. . Department of Food and Marine Sciences, Instituto Tecnolbgico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico. Enough has been said to show that the loss in salting fish by solution of protein in brine is very great. . The climate is excessively warm, and there is an abundance of fish (alewives) adapted to preservation by pickling in a region where an industry might well be built up and where repeated efforts to salt fish in the past had failed. The results of the study of reddened cod only emphasize this advice. 5. Dynamic Aspects of the Salting of Fish. Since the perfectly clean fish decompose only slightly, it may be that only the blood decomposed in such cases as those given in the table, and that the decomposed blood pervading the otherwise sound tissue gave the appearance and odor of decomposition to the whole fish. . . Fish containing blood, or otherwise not well cleaned, spoil at a lower temperature than those thoroughly cleaned and freed from blood. Salting combination with drying is an important preservation method still being used in several places around the world. 17. . A weak sugar solution will readily ferment, but if made concentrated it destroys yeast and bacteria by osmosis and is therefore an excellent preservative of fruits. The salt should not contain impurities, due to iron compounds. It may be possible, also, to take advantage of the removal of soluble products by brine in the salvaging of fish on the point of spoiling. . This aspect of the subject has not been investigated to any great extent, but there is just as much reason to expect valuable results to accrue from work on this problem as have accrued from the work already described. The kidney, a very bloody organ inclosed by a membrane against the backbone, must be scraped out before the fish is washed. However, wrapping the product ~ a plastic bag reduces contact with the air. There are two common methods of salting: dry salting, whereby salt is applied directly onto the fish surface; and, brining, whereby the fish are immersed in a salt/water solution. . It may be said, however, that sodium hypochlorite readily destroys urea, so that this substance might be advantageous in the preservation of grayfish and sharks but is unstable and must be used as soon as it is made. Salting is usually done as such or in combination with drying or as a pretreatment to smoking. . Department of Nutrition and Food Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. The substances which give rise to taste are free fatty acids (decomposition products from fats), amino acids (decomposition products of proteins), highly odoriferous methylamines, and various waste materials classed by the chemist as purines. If cod and haddock escape rusting because of lack of fat, they are subject to another enemy perhaps as bad, namely, reddening, by which large quantities of cod and haddock are lost every year. . Such things as glass, tin-foil, and mica may be exceedingly thin, but are totally impermeable and therefore uninteresting in the present connection. There are two basic methods of preserving food with salt: dry salting and wet salting (brining). . Salting and Pickling processes in food preparation and preservation. 02139. . . 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