The times., 1899-10-15
WHALE AND SHARK MEAT.
Steaks and Soups Therefrom Comfna
Into Favor.
(From the Fishing Gazeite.)

Steaks and Soups Therefrom Coming
Into Favor.
(From the Fishing Gaze;te.)
The latest advance along lines of scien-
! tific dietetics is the utilization of the flesh
of sharks and whales for food. For long
| period the flesh OF whales has been used
| by the people of extremely cold countries,
! this being particularly true of the Esqui-
maus, but the civilized man has never in
| dulged in whale steak. partly because ii Is
| very fat and probably, also because o.
| prejudice. But iconoclastic science comes
along and proves that whale flesh can BE-
| placed upon the market in appetizng and
nourishing shape by reducing it 10 the
! form of meat extract" number o.
! factories have been recently established in
! Europe, notably in Scotland and Sweden,
/ and their products are already on the mar
1 ket According to recent investigations
! made by the United States Fish Commis-
| sion, the product of these factories closely
| resembles the wellknown beef prepaTa
tions, having no flavor of fish whatever,
/ and affording an excellent base for soups.
| The experiments have demonstrated taat
! when whale meat is treated chemically it
does not differ materially from meat stun.
! 1t has all the flavor of meat extract. and
can be made much more chesply.
| The statements already made apply
| equally to shark meat. Heretofore the
shark has been universally considered To
be the pirate of the sea-a destructive mon-
ster, whose purpose has been to destroy,
and who was of no possible utility in the
economy of nature. But with the growth
of wisdom the sharks body has been found
to contain generous juices which can be
served up at the beginning of a meal 70
vary the monotony of consomme, mulliga-
tawney, and mock turtle soups Many or
our readers can remember the time, rot
so long ago when the flesh of the sword
fish was considered 10 be unfit to eat. But
now fleets of vessels are engaged in the cap
ture of swordish off the New England
coast, the catch finding a ready market in
all the Eastern towns and cities. The
most extensive experiments regarding the
utilization of the shark are being made In
Sweden. The process consists in chopping
the flesh into very small pieces, and stir
ring it in vat with distilled water, the
mixture having the consistency Of thin
Cruel The clear liquor is then drawn Oft
The oil which the liquor contains is re-
movable by passing it through a centri-
fugal apparatus. 1t is then boiled and FL
tered. The process is completed by evap-
Grating the fluid thus obtained in vacuum
until it reaches the consistency Of molasses.
Salt for fiavoring and sugar for preserving
are added.
The concentrated extract of shark and
whale flesh is put up in sealed jars One
of the chief advantages of the new food is
| said to be its cheapness, as it can be
placed upon the market at a much lower
rate than meat extracts. The agents Of the
/ Fish Commission at Washington have been
! very fayorably impressed by the new in
! dustry, and when detailed report has
been made there is very little doubt that
RoI.s I'D,
along the Atlantic seaboard and factories
erected for the reduction of the flesh sim
| liar to those in Scotland and Sweden.
! The chief value of these new processes
! lies in the fact that they utilize food ma
/ terials which have heretofore been regard
I ed as useless. Although whales are COM
paratively scarce in the waters of North
| America, the sea fairly teens with sharks.
| Up to the present time this fish has been
vaIueless except for the infnitesimal utii-
| ity of its skin as burnisher The waters
! of New York and other bays are filled
! with sharks every summer, the blue shark
/ the shovel-nose, and the leopard sharks
! abounding, not to mention the dogfish a
/ species of small shark. II the new indus
/ try in Europe proves TO be success COM
/ mercially, the enterprising Yankee Will,
/ no doubt, soon be emulating the example
! of the canny Scot and the thrifty Swede
/ in the manufacture of fish ''meat extract
/ But the new process alluded to has
i many precedents in this country in the
i utilization of hitherto waste material. II
! is only very recently that fish eggs have
! been used in America for food but now
they are utilized in number of valuable
ways. Those who are unacquainted with
4 The facts will no doubt be surprised TO
/ learn that three hundred thousand pounds
! of sturgeon eggs, valued at $3.50 900, are
/ sold annually in the United States. Until
I recently the manufacture of sturgeon eggs
! into So called caviare was monopolized by
| the Russians, most of it being prepared
/ on the Caspian Sea and the Volga River.
! The Russians export annually more than
| eight million pounds of cayiaTe. Fifty
years ago the eggs of sturgeon were pre-
| pared in the form of caviare on the Hud-
son River, because of the abundance of
| the fish in that stream. The process of
! manufacture was a secret one and large
| prices were paid for initiation into the
mystery. But although the taste for
/ cayaire is an acquired one, since that
! time the waters of the United States where
sturgeon abound have been industriously
fished, because of the high price paid for
| them. On the Delaware River $50 is
| not uncommon price for a single roe tsh,
| while $40 is a common sum for a female
| sturgeon. Sturgeon roe is the most costly
product of the fisheries of this country,
| and is largely relished by epieures. The
| roe of the lake sturgeon furnishes the best
American eaviare.
In connection with the manufacture OF
| eaviare il is said that the dealers have
met with a severe drawback recently in
the scarcity of sturgeon eggs. This scare
ity has led to many attempts at counter
! feiting by the willy dealers, but so far with
| little success because of the difficulty of
finding imitation sturgeon eggs. The eggs
| of the garflsh have been tried and found
wanting, because they lack the required
flavor. while the eggs of horseshoe fail to
fill the requirements. as they are too
! small and become hard and tasteless when
salted. The inventive Yankee can make
wooden nutmegs, hams, and mahogany
coffee beans, but it has remained for the
clumsy sturgeon to fool him.
In many economical devices Americans
are far behind Europeans in the preparation
of foods. In the northern portion of Eu-
rope nutritious pastes and extracts are
| made from fish, of the science of which
| Americans know nothing. For instance,
the fishmeal of Norway, composed of the
| flesh OF fish reduced TO powder, is said 10
| contain four times as much nutriment "a
| beef and sixteen times as much as milk or
| rye bread number of other preparations
of which Americans are entirely ignorant
! are also made in Scandinavian countries
| which would add materially TO the value or
| our food products. Indeed, the science of
food economics is very little understood in
| America, or, indeed, by the Angio-Saxon
| races, excepting perhaps the French. Dur
| ing the Crimean war the French soldiers
got fat on the same rations on which Eng