3-078-214 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French Sardine Industry, 1890. '9. Boiling. 10. Withdrawing from Boiler. 11. Placing in Tin Boxes. 12. Sardine Fisherman. 13. Soldering Tins. 14. Packing. 15, Shipping. On the western coasts of France and Brittany...this fishery...probably...supports more than 100,000 of the population...They are...sprinkled with salt; the heads are taken off and salted. The fish...are washed, and are then placed on gridirons to be dried...[then] fried in boiling oil, of good quality, during two, three, or four minutes, according to their size...in a well- fitted establishment, 150,000 or 200,000 sardines can be cooked in a day. They are next laid in the tin boxes, filled up with best olive oil; it is now for the solderers to put on the lids and solder them up. This must be done with great care ; but the most perfect hermetical closure might not suffice to ensure the preservation of the sardines for an unlimited time...A great number of boxes, four or six thousand together, are plunged into large boilers, filled with boiling water, and remain there for a time varying from three quarters of an hour to over two hours...The boxes are then packed, to be sent all over the world, sardines being a favourite article of food with rich and poor of all nations'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.