The harvest of the sea; a contribution to the natural and economic history of the British food fishes, with sketches of fisheries & fisher folk by Bertram James Glass 1824-1892

Author:Bertram, James Glass, 1824-1892. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fisheries, Fishes, Fish culture
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Published: 1869-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

THE r.ADID.E FAMILY.

The old belief in the migratory habits of fish comes again into notice in connection with the haddock Pennant having taught us that the haddock appeared periodically in great quantities about mid-winter, that theory is still believed, although the appearance of this fish in shoals may be easily explained, from the local habits of most of the denizens of the great deep. It is said that ** in stormy weather, the haddock refuses every kind of bait, and siBeks refuge among marine plants in the deepest parts of the ocean, where it remains until the violence of the elements is somewhat subsided." This fish does not grow to any great size ; it usually averages about five pounds. I prefer it as a table fish to the cod ; the very best haddocks are taken on the coast of Ireland. The scarcity

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of fresh haddocks may in some degree be accounted for by the immense quantities which are converted into "Finnan baddies'* —a well-known breakfast luxury no longer confined to Scotland. It is diflScult to procure genuine Finnans, 'smoked in the original way by means of peat-reek ; like everything else for which there is a great demand, Finnan haddocks are now ** manufactured" in quantity ; and, to make the trade a profitable one, they are cured by the hundred in smoking-houses built for the purpose, and are smoked by burning wood or sawdust, which, however, does not give them the proper goiU, In fact the wood-smoked Finnans, except that they are fish, have no more the right flavour than Scotch marmalade would have were it manufactured from turnips instead of bitter oranges. Fifty years ago it was difierent; then the haddocks were smoked in small quantities in the fishing villages between Aberdeen and Stonehaven, and entirely over a peat fire. The peat-reek imparted to them that peculiar flavour which gained them a reputation. The fisher-wives along the north-east coast used to pack small quantities of these delicately-cured fish into a basket, and give them to the guard of the " Defiance" coach, which ran between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and the guard brought them to town, confiding them for sale to a brother who dealt in provisions ; and it is known that out of tlie various transactions which thus arose, individually small though they must have been, the two made, in the course of ,

time, a handsome profit. The fame of the smoked fish rapidly |

sjjread, so that cargoes used to be brought by steamboat, and |

Finnans are now carrried by railway to all parts of the country |

with great celerity, the demand being so great as to induce |

men to foist on the public any kind of cure they can manage to |

accomplish ; indeed smoked codlings are extensively sold for |

Finnan haddocks. Good smoked haddocks of the Moray Firth |

or Aberdeen cure can seldom now be had, even in Edinburgh, under the price of sixpence per pound weight.

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The common cod {Morrhua vulgaris) is, as the name implies, one of our best^known fishes, and it was at one time very plentiful and cheap.

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