There are two prevalent methods of preserving herrings, and fishmongers sell them under the denominations of salted herrings and red herrings. The process employed for the first-named is as follows:-- As soon as the herring is out of the sea, a sailor opens it, removes the gills and the entrails, washes the fish in salt water, and puts it into a brine thick enough for it to float. After fifteen or eighteen hours, it is taken out of the brine and laid in a tub with a quantity of salt. It remains in this tub until the port is reached. There the herrings are placed in barrels, where they are artistically arranged one over another, with fresh salt between each layer. Care is always taken to employ fresh brine. Red herrings are prepared by leaving the fish at least twenty-four hours in the brine; and when they are taken out, little twigs are run through the gills, and then they are suspended in a kind of chimney, made on purpose, under which a small fire is made with wood, which produces a good deal of smoke. The herrings remain in this state until they are sufficiently dry, that is to say, about twenty-four hours. In Sweden and Norway they are somewhat differently prepared. The Icelanders and Greenlanders simply dry them in the air.[XXI-211] ANCHOVY. Sonnini thinks that garum was simply composed of anchovies cooked and crushed in their brine, to which was added a little vinegar, and chopped or pounded parsley. The fishermen of the Mediterranean and the coasts of the ocean salt almost all the anchovies they take. They cut off their heads, which are thought to be bitter, take out the entrails, wash them in soft or salt water, and stratify them in barrels with salt. The fishermen of Provence think it is essential to the good preservation of anchovies that the salt be red; and, consequently, they colour it with ochreous earths. Moreover, these fishermen do not change the brine which is formed in the barrels: they simply fill them up when any is lost by evaporation or leakage. The fishermen of the north only use bay salt, and they change the brine three times, whence it results that their anchovies keep much longer; but the greater acridness of those which have remained in the same brine is esteemed a good quality by most consumers, and therefore they are more sought after. In sea ports, anchovies are eaten either fried or roasted. Salted anchovies are to be preferred when they are new, firm, white outside, vermilion coloured inside, and free from all putrid smell. After having taken out the backbone, and washed them well, cooks commonly make use of anchovies in salads, and to flavour sauces made with butter, cullis, &c. In this case they are employed raw.