NEW METHOD OF CURING AND PRESERVING HERRINGS AND SPRATTS
Year: 1800

page_text: BATLEY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
BATLEY, of Streatham; in the, County of Surry; Merchant, send greeting.
'
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Eleventh day of September, in the fortieth year of His reign, reciting
that I, the said Benjamin Batley, had, by my petition, humbly represented
unto His said Majesty, that I had, by great study, invented a "NEW METHOD
OF CURING AND PRESERVING HERRINGS AND SPRATTS," which I conceived would
be of public utility and advantage, and praying His Majesty to grant to me,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His Letters Patent for the sole exercise of my
said Invention within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, for the term of fourteen years from the date, of the said Letters Patent,
was graciously pleased to condescend to my request; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the, said Benjamin Batley, should, not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and, cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
Court of Chancery within six months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being there-
unto.had; may and will more fully appear.
-
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Batley, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention to be, as herein-before set forth, a New Method of Curing and Pre-
serving Herrings and Spratts, and I further. declare the operation to be per-
formed in manner following. (that is to say).

page_text: i
After severing the head and taking out the entrails of the herrings or spratts,
salt the body of the fish with bay or rock or the common salt, in the casks (if not
sufficiently salted as sea sticks), but the bay or rock salt is preferable, as the
common is more apt to aborb the pickle and occasion the fish to rust. In
the next place, pack the fish in a cask in the usual way, and between every
layer sprinkle a small portion of salt, and also pickle sufficient to cover the
fish; such pickle to be made with one pound of bay salt, four ounces of salt-
petre, and from two to four pounds of molasses (to suit different palates), to a
gallon of spring water if to be procured, and boil the same till the whole of
the ingredients are dissolved; (river water may answer the purpose, but spring
water is preferable.) When the fish are so packed, leaving a vacum between
two and three inches of the head of the cask, for a full portion of pickle, then
let the cask be headed up and properly coopered, with a cork hole either in
the head or centre, through which may be poured a further supply of the
pickle for the preservation of the fish; and when the herrings or spratts, but
particularly the latter, are intended for travelling, it may be adviseable to put
a false top, bored with holes between the fish and cask head, in order to
prevent their being to much shaken. The same proportion of any sugar might
be used as a substitute for molasses, but the extra price would probably be
considered as an impediment, and from one to three months should be allowed
for curing, in order to give the fish a full flavor before they are used or
smoaked or dried. The above pickle would answer for flavoring the fish in
their original state if needful, but on account of the oil and filth contained
in the heads and roes, the preferable mode of curing and preserving the
body of the fish is, by severing the head from and taking out the entrails, as
the only effectual means of eradicating the noxious qualities which would
otherwise adhere to them; and in curing spratts, it is expedient to sprinkle a
larger quantity of salt in proportion between each layer than is requisite for
the herrings when packed in the cask, and as the spratt casks will seldom
exceed ten gallons, a vacum of about one inch from the head for casks of
that dimension will be sufficient.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seven-
teenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hunddoed

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1800, the aforesaid Benjamin Batley came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Indenture aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
And also the Indenture aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor
of the Statutes made for that purpose.
written.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred.