Culinary Chemistry / The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.

by Friedrich Christian Accum

PICKLING OF FISH.

Fish may be preserved either by dry salting or in a liquid pickle. The former method is employed to a great extent on the banks of Newfoundland, and in Shetland. When a liquid pickle is used, the fish, as fresh as possible, are to be gutted, or not, and without delay plunged into the brine in quantity so as nearly to fill the reservoir, and after remaining covered with the pickle five or six days, they will be so completely impregnated with salt as to be perfectly fit to be re-packed in barrels, with large-grained solid salt, for the hottest climates and longest voyages.

The brine becomes frequently somewhat weaker at the top; to remedy this, some of the salt may be suspended in bags or otherwise, just under the surface, which will saturate whatever moisture may exude from the fish, and thus the whole of the brine will continue fully saturated and of the most strength.

Such brine, although repeatedly used, will not putrify, nor the fish, if kept under the surface, become rancid.

By this process great quantities of herrings may be salted when salt or casks are not on the spot, and the fish may remain for a great length of time immersed in this brine without the least injury.

From Mr. London’s statement, it appears that the brine ought always to contain a redundancy of salt; and in such case there is not the least danger of the fish putrifying or growing rancid, as the extra lumps of solid salt in the brine immediately act upon any watery or other liquors which proceed from the fish when inclosed in the cask.

For judging of the relative strength of different solutions of common salt, Mr. London recommends a glass bottle, with a ground-glass stopper, to be filled with brine made from a solution of solid salt in water; within this bottle are three glass bubbles, of different specific gravities, so graduated, that supposing the temperature of the air to be at sixty degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, and only one bubble floats on the surface, and that it indicates the specific gravity of the brine to be 1.155, containing about 20 parts salt, and 80 of water, which is insufficient to cure animal matters with certainty by immersion in it.

When the second bubble floats, it indicates the specific gravity of the brine to be 1.180, or about 24 parts salt, and 76 parts water, which may be used for the purpose of immersion.

This brine will fully answer the purpose in the hottest weather in most climates, provided the meat or fish is always completely covered with the brine.