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Classic
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page 56
FISH.
TO CURE HERRINGS.
THE best method for preserving herrings, and which may be followed with ease,
for a small family, is to take the brine left of your winter stock for beef, to
the fishing place, and when the seine is hauled, to pick out the largest
herrings, and throw them alive into the brine; let them remain twenty-four
hours, take them out and lay them on sloping planks, that the brine may drain
off; have a tight barrel, put some coarse alum salt at the bottom, then put in a
layer of herrings--take care not to bruise them; sprinkle over it alum salt and
some saltpetre, then fish, salt, and saltpetre, till the barrel is full; keep a
board over it. Should they not make brine enough to cover them in a few weeks,
you must add some, for they will be rusty if not kept under brine. The proper
time to salt them is when they are quite fat: the scales will adhere closely to
a lean herring, but will be loose on a fat one--the former is not fit to be
eaten. Do not be sparing of salt when you put them up. When they are to be used,
take a few out of brine, soak them an hour or two, scale them nicely, pull off
the gills, and the only entrail they have will come with them; wash them clean
and hang them up to dry. When to be broiled, take half a sheet of white paper,
rub it over with butter, put the herring in, double the edges securely, and
broil without burning it. The brine the herrings drink before they die, has a
wonderful effect in preserving their juices: when one or two years old, they are
equal to anchovies.
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