The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-01
YANKEE sARDINEs.
How Small HeFriHgs = Made 80
Resemble the Famous Little French
Eish

Resemble the Famous little French
Fish.
Nine-tenths Of the sardines consumed
in the United States come from Maine.
Very few of the real French fish are inn
ported now. These Yankee sardines
are nothing but small herring put up in
boxes with gaudy labels and french in.
scriptions. In Eastport there are nine
teen places where they turn cut sar-
dimes, besides three at Lubbock, two at
Janesport and one each at Millbridge,
Lamoine and Robinston. In199776 a New
York firm did a lucrative business pack
ing Russian sardines'' in EsstFort.
These were little herring packed insmall
wooden kegs and preserved WITH specs
of different Kinds. 1t occurred to one
member of the firm that these httle fish
might be utilized to better advantage by
cooking them and packing them in olive
ell, like the French sardines. The ex-
pertinent had been tried several years
before without success. The difficulty
was to eradicate the taste of the herring.
This gave rise to the couplet:
You may spice and may call it sardine
if you will. But the taste of the herring
will cling to il still!
It was easy to cock the herring, pack
them in olive oil in tin cans, and seal
them air tight, but when they were
opened they had not the rich, spicy fla
vor of the regular French sardines. At
ter : great many experiments, one of
the manufacturers succeeded In produc-
ing q mixture Of oils and spices which
removed the difficulty.
The herring used tor making sardiues
are about four inches long, and are TAX
en- in great quantities along the Maine
and New Brunswick coast. They can
be bought of the fisherman for about s.
a hogshead, although when the fish are
scarce, as they often are in the spring
they bring as much as SIS q hogshead.
10 catch the fish small trees
or brush are thrown into the
sandy bottom of the sea, arranged in a
line running out from the shore some
seventy-hve or one hundred feet, and
then curved back like a horseshoe. In
side this trap is a net. When the tide is
falling the net is raised, and the fish are
taken out with huge scoop nets. The
catch is always very uncertain; some
times only a bushel or two will be taken;
and often SO many are caught as to en-
danger the net.
There is another way of capturing the
fish. Herring. like m~aekrerel, go in
schools, and, for some reason, always
follow a light. Two or three fishermen
provide themselves with torches made
of cotton batting saturated with kero-
sene, and on dark nights row along the
shores with a torch in the bow of the
boat. When a school is found the
herring dart after the boat, coming SO
close that they are dipped up in nets
attached to short poles.
After being captured the fish are
taken Immediately to the factory and
laid in heaps upon long tables. The
first thing is to deeapitate and clean
the fish. The dexterity with which
this operation is performed by the chill
dren who are employed, is remarkable.
On an average seventy-6ye fish are
cleaned and decapitated every minute
by each child. Both operations are per-
formed with one stroke OF a sharp knife.
Al box holding about a bushel lies at the
feet of each operator, and as the clean
ing is completed the fish slides into this
box. The pay for this work is ten cents
q box, and some of the children make
$3.50 q day.
After being washed, the herring are
picked for half an hour, and are then
laid npon trays and placed in a large
drying-room and heated by steam. At
ter the fish are dry they are thrown in
to large, shallow pans of boiling oil and
thoroughly cooked. They are then pack
ed in tin boxes by girls and women, and
in each box i5 pohred a quantity of the
patent mixture of oils and spices. Cow
ers are then fitted to the boxes and
sealed on by men. AS air must be ex-t
claded, the cans, when sealed, are
placed in a tank of boiling water, where
they remain half an hour and are then
removed and placed on an inclined
plane, so that the air insiae rushes to
one corner Of the box. This corner Is
punctured with an aWl, the hot air es-
capes, and The can il made alright by a
drop OF solder. The boxes are then or
namented with attractive French labels,
saying that the incloSed are "Sardines Il
la Francaise;" some are labeled "a
Phutlle d olive The oil used is cotton
seed oil. such as is made in South Caro-
lima. It is not always the best quality OF
oil. The best oil is used, however, for
fish cold as prime"
There arc prepared at these factories
other varieties of fish known as mus
tards," .'maranees " and sssea trouS,n
The mustard are prepared like the sar-
dimes until they are put in the cans.
They are packed In a preparation made
of mustard, vineger and oil, with a soup
con of spice. The mustards are larger
fish then the sardiues. The maraLees
are qacked in saucs made OF vinegar,
lemon and sugar, and the sea
trout are large herring put up in oval
boxes with still another sauce.
Almost the entire produce Of these
factories is shipped to New York,
whence it is sold to retailers ali through
the country. One of the Lubec houses.
prepares about 1900 boxes 4 day