ORDER XIV.—MAKERS OF FOODS, DRINKS AND TOBACCO

Sub-order 1.—Makers of Foods

437.—Meat and Fish Curers and Smokers

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bacon curer

(i) stacker; cures large parts of bacon by injecting brine into bacon with a hollow needle syringe; cures thin parts or sides of bacon by laying them flat, stacking and entirely covering each layer with salt; renews salt from time to time and restacks sides;

(ii) (mild curing) bathman; soaks or pickles shoulders, legs or other parts, in tubs containing brine, removing, after two or three days, to tables for draining; in some districts, also bones, skins, rolls and ties up sections of meat.

bacon dryer

(i) washes bacon in warm running water to remove borax from American bacon and stands or hangs it to drain and dry; is responsible for proper drying;

(ii) dusts inside of carcase with pea meal shaken by hand from a sieve, to absorb moisture left from curing; hooks and hauls carcase into position in smoke chamber; removes carcase when smoking process is complete.

bacon smoker, bacon stover ; stoveman

has charge of a number of smoking chambers in which bacon is smoked in fumes of wood fires; superintends drying and hoisting of bacon or ham into chambers, see bacon dryer; spreads sawdust on floor of chambers and ignites; inspects chambers from time to time and regulates smoking by opening doors to direct fumes, burning sawdust, etc.; stokes fires; decides when process is complete and directs unloading of chambers; sweeps out or directs cleaning of chambers.

bathman

see bacon curer.

cobberer

(i) see fish briner;

(ii) cures herrings by covering the stacks (cobs) of prepared fish with salt; obsolescent method.

firer, firer-out

see smoker.

fish briner ; cobberer, fish salter, roarer, rouser

carries split haddocks, herrings, etc., from splitting tables to brine tubs; immerses fish and occasionally turns about until thoroughly salted.

fish curer

general term applied to workers, e.g. fish briner, river, smoker q.v. engaged in curing fish, e.g. herring, haddock.

fish house worker

general term applied to fish curers engaged in fish-house, especially in small houses where the work is not sectionalised, including smoker, pricker-on (449), river q.v.

fish salter

see fish briner.

haddock curer

as for fish curer.

haddock smoker, haddock woman

a smoker q.v. engaged in curing haddocks.

ham curer

as for bacon curer.

ham dryer

as for bacon dryer.

ham smoker, ham stover

as for bacon smoker.

herring curer

a smoker or fish briner q.v. curing herrings.

herring worker

general term applied to all workers in herring-curing yards, including fish gutter, fish splitter (448) q.v.

kipper curer

splits herrings with hand knife, salts in brine for an hour or two and hangs on rods in high kilns; keeps wood fires in kilns at level required; removes cured kippers; usually also cures red herrings similarly, leaving longer in kilns and not splitting; attends one to four (or more) kilns, number varying according to amount of work in hand; cf. fish smoker.

kipperer, kipper woman

a smoker q.v. engaged in curing herrings.

night smoker

a smoker q.v. who attends to smoke houses by night.

retort hand

loads, unloads, and stokes fires or regulates, by steam pressure, heat of retorts or stoves on which cans of fish are cooked in canning factory; unloads retort at end of specific interval.

river ; rodder, spitter, speeter

rieves, i.e. "spaces" prepared herrings by their gills on iron or wooden rods, in readiness for hanging in smoke house by smoker q.v.; in some establishments may also hang rods in smoke house and remove them after curing, see striking hand.

roarer, rouser

see fish briner.

rodder

see river.

smoker, fish smoker ; firer, firer-out

places rows of prepared herrings or haddocks, etc., in closed smoke holes filled with smoke from oak chip and sawdust; lights, replenishes and attends to smoke house fires, keeps fires at required levels and determines period of smoking; precise duties vary according to type of fish being smoked, e.g. in smoking herrings for production of "bickling" (similar to red herring) or in smoking sprats, after a certain period of smoking, damps down fires to colour the fish in the fumes thus produced.

speeter, spitter

see river.

stacker

see bacon curer.

stoveman

see bacon smoker.

striking hand

in some establishments, removes herrings from smoke house after curing; work generally done by river q.v. or tenterer (449) q.v.

tankman

in export curing houses, empties herrings into salting tanks and removes them with a scoop as required; engaged on coast when there is a glut of fish.

trimmer

cuts fish with hand knife and bones, and trims away superflous [sic] parts, precise method depending upon type of fish upon which engaged.

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From: A Dictionary of Occupational Terms Based on the Classification of Occupations used in the Census of Population, 1921,
Ministry of Labour, 1927. Digitised by Peter Christian, August, 2016.   This text is in the Public Domain.