These are inquired for by foreigners, and especially by the
Israelites, who are connoisseurs in fish, as generally admitted. If
many are likely to be wanted you may save forty per cent. by purchasing
a barrel of anchovies “first hand,” and feeding them yourself. You have
another advantage also, viz. you would insure the fine racy flavour,
which is gradually lost where the shopkeeper is perhaps two months or
more in selling out a barrel in small quantities. A barrel turns out,
in general, about twenty-two pounds of neat fish, exclusive of the
sauce, and not often more. Acting on this advice, and feeding them, you
will be able to take out what you want, without breaking the rest, and
be careful to keep those in the barrel well covered with the salt, and
after that the slate which you always find in the barrels of genuine
fish.
Run thin wire through the shoulders of the fish, and making a light
temporary frame to hold the wires, smoke them with beech and oak, with
some fern or grass turfs. As no wiping nor washing is required in this
instance, the scales will have adhered to the fish, and a general
rough appearance will be the result, this is a great recommendation to
goods of this class. They must be of a coarse brown mahogany colour,
and should be packed in boxes, the size and shape of cigar-boxes, and
made of wood that has neither smell nor taste. Dried bay leaves must be
packed with them, about forty in each box.