A process for canning smoked oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) is described. Cold blanching of dressed fish in brine, smoking followed by drying in hot air or cooking in steam to reduce the moisture content to the required level and subsequent canning yields product with good organoleptic properties. Coconut husk is used as source of smoke

Balachandran, K.K.

Madhavan, P.

Unnikrishnan Nair, T.S.

Aquatic Commons

N lNG F S 0 E SA INE 
T. S. UNNIKRISHNAN NAIR, K. K. BALACHANDRAN AND P. MADHAVAN 
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin-682003. 
A process for canning smoked oil sardine (Sardinella 
longiceps) is described. Cold blanching of dressed fish in brine, 
smoking followed by drying in hot air or cooking in steam 
to reduce the moisture content to the required level and 
subsequent canning yields product with good organoleptic 
properties. Coconut husk is used as source of smoke. 
INTRODUCTION 
Smoking as a means of preservation 
of fish is known from very early times. 
Smoking imparts an attractive colour and 
characteristic flavour to fish besides inst-
illing preservatives. Colour and flavour 
are mostly re~ponsible for the preferential 
consumer appeal for such products. 
Smoke cured as well as smoked and 
canned delicatessen fish products are very 
popular in many of the overseas markets. 
Oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) is the 
single largest fishery of India. Madhavan, 
Unnikrishnan Nair and Balachandran 
(1974 a, b and c) have revi_ewed the 
literature on utilization of this fish. Unni-
krishoan Nair eta!. (1974) have reported 
a process for canning sardine in its own 
JUICe. The work of Kandoran, Solanki 
and Venkataraman (1971) on canning of 
smoked eel is, perhaps, the only work 
on smoked canned fish reported from 
India. No account has been reported on 
VoL 14 No .1 1977 
canning of smoked sardine even though 
this offers great potentialities as a com-
modity for export. This paper presents 
the results of experiments conducted to 
work out a method for canning srr,oked 
sardine. 
MATERIAL AND METHODS 
Oil sardine landed by the country 
crafts near Cochin was utilised for this 
study. In general fish landed had remained 
open without ICing for a period of 
4-5 hours. Smoke chamber used was the 
same type as described by So1anki, 
Kandoran and Venkataraman (1970) for 
smoking eeL Dressed fish after thorough 
washing was dipped in 15% brine for 20 
minutes and then drained by spreading 
over an aluminium mesh. Fish was then 
tentered through the tails using thin iron 
wire and the tenters were fixed on tenter 
frames. 
Smoking 
The tenter frames with fish were kept 
49 
Unnifcrisfll1(d1 Nair, 'Balacfw11clran & Maclfwvan: Canni11g of smoi{ed sardine. 
in the smoke chamber. Smoke generated 
outside, by ·burning coconut husk was 
introduced into the chamber through the 
bottom. Smoking was carried out for 15, 
20, 30 and 40 minutes at a temperature 
of 45±5°C. 
Precooking/Drying 
Smoked fish was packed in 301 x 206 
size cans and cooked in steam at 0.7kg./ 
em.~ pressure, the cans being kept inver-
ted over a grid in the retort for such 
periods as to ensure r~tention of adequate 
smoke flavour, vis a vis reduction of mois-
ture to the extent that drip in the oil 
used as filling media is not significant. 
Alternately the smoked fish was dried in 
an artificial drier at 50- 5YC for t - 2 
hours. 
Refined ground-nut oil, tomato sauce 
and dilute brine were used as filling media. 
The cans after filling with media were 
exhausted in steam, hermetically seamed 
in a double seamer and heat processed 
in steam at 1 kg. I em.~ steam for 45 
minutes. 
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
Observations on the products prepared 
out of· fish brined for varying periods 
showed that to render palatable saltish 
taste to the final product dipping in 15% 
brine for 15 minutes and 20 minutes respe-
ctively are required with respect to fish 
dried in air and cooked in steam after 
smoking. 
Effect of smoking, precooking in steam 
and drying of smoked fish in hot air at 
55°C on the quality of the end product 
is given in Tables I a and I b. 
Th~ quantity of smoke absorbed by 
50 
fish has to be kept at an optimum level 
so that perceptible and universally acce-
ptable smoke flavour prevails in the final 
product after passing through different 
stages of processing. 
Smoking for 15 minutes failed to 
impart adequate smoke flavour to the 
product in the case of fish cooked in 
steam after smoking, whereas fish smoked 
for 30 minutes yielded a product with 
pleasant flavour (Table Ia). Smoking for 
higher periods resulted in intense smoke 
flavour making the product less juicy and 
less acceptable. However, if the smoked 
fish is artificially dried instead of cookina b 
in steam, the smoking time could be 
reduced to 20 minutes (Table I b). 
While studying the suitability of ice 
stored mackerel and sardine for canning, 
Madhavan, Balachandran and Choudhuri 
(1970) suggested pre-cooking of brined 
sardine for 40 minutes at 0.35 kg. f em.~ 
steam. Varma, Choudhuri and Pillai (1971) 
suggested the maintenance of Jess than 
5% water in fill oil so that the hazards 
of rancidity of meat as well as that of 
the fill oil could be minimised. Therefore 
the pre-cooking or drying time of the 
smoked fish has to be so chosen as to 
keep the water in oil to a mrmmum. 
However, this should not be at the expense 
of the desired smoke flavour. From an 
examination of the physical characteristics 
of smoked. and canned sardine it could 
be seen that a period of pre-cooking of 
30 minutes at 0.70 kg. I em.!< steam or 
alternately drying in hot air at 50-45°C 
for 2 hours leaves practically no water in 
filling oil (Table I a and I b). 
Selection of coconut husk as source 
of smoke has been made at random since 
Fish. Techno!. 
Smoking 
min. 
15 
20 
30 
40 
Smoking 
min. 
15 
20 
30 
VoL 14 
Unnilhisfman Nair, 'Balacftandran & Madftavan: Canning of smof!ed sardine 
TABLE I a 
EFFECT OF SMOKING AND PRE-COOKING TIME ON THE 
QUALITY OF CANNED SARDINE 
Time of "Product quality VoL of water 
Pre-cooking in Flavour due Texture 
stream min. to smoke 
15 slight firm 
30 faint firm 
45 very little firm and soft 
15 pleasant firm 
30 moderate firm and soft 
45 faint soft 
15 intense firm 
30 pleasant firm and soft 
45 faint soft 
15 intense soft 
30 intense soft 
45 moderate soft 
TABLE I b 
EFFECT OF SMOKING AND DRYING ON THE QUALITY 
OF CANNED SARDINE 
in oil 
rnl. 
8 
3 
nil 
5 
nin 
nil 
3 
nil 
nil 
nil 
nil 
nil 
Time of Product quality Vol. of water 
Drying in hot Flavour due Texture in oil 
air (at 55°C.)rnin. to smoke mil. 
--------------------------
30 moderate soft 10 
60 moderate firm and soft 8 
120 pleasant firm and soft 3 
30 pleasant firm 10 
60 
" 
firm and soft 6 
120 
" 
firm and soft nili 
30 pleasant firm and soft 6 
60 intense firm nil 
120 intense firm nil 
No. 1 1977 51 
Unnifcrisllnal:l Nair, 'Bal:au:fwndran & MadiDavan: CmntiH() of s.mofied sardine 
it is a good source of smoke, is cheap 
and is available in plenty in all centres 
of sardine landings in India. 
Suitability of different media like brine, 
tomato sauce and refined ground nut oil 
for packing smoked sardine has been 
studied. Brine is not a suitable medium 
for packing smoked sardine since the colour 
as well as the flavour of smoked fish 
gets into the brine and presents poor 
appearance. Groundnut oil in the pack 
absorbs some smoke constituents presenting 
an attractive appearance while the fish 
retains characteristic smoked flavour. 
Tomato sauce has been found to be a 
good packing medium for sardine. The 
colour of the sauce after processing is not 
affected due to the presence of smoke 
and the peculiar fiavom produced as a 
result of the combination of smoke and 
sauce renders a high degree oJ palatability 
to the prod ucL 
REFERENCES 
Girija Varma, P. R., D. R. Choudhuri and 
V. K. PiHai. 1970. Fish. Techno!.~ 1, 
1 : 95. 
52 
Kandoran, M. K., 
Venkataraman. 
8, 1 : 98. 
K. K. Solanki and R. 
1971. Fish. Techno!'., 
Madhavan, P. K. K. Balachandran and 
D. R. Choudhuri. 1970. Fish. Techno!., 
7, 1 : 67. 
Madhavan, P., T. S. Unnikrishnan Nair 
and K. K. Balachandran. 1974a. 
Fish. Techno!., 2 : 88. 
Madhavan, P., T. S. Unnikrishnan Nai:r 
and K. K. Balachandran. 1974 b. 
!'ish. Techno!., 2 : 9-3. 
Madhavan, P., T. S. Unnikrishnan Nair 
and K. K. Balachandran. 1974 c. 
Fish. Techno!., 2 : 102. 
Solanki, K. K., M. K. Kandoran and 
R. Venkataraman. 1970. Fish. Teclv-
nol., 1, 2 : 169. 
Unnikrishnan Nair, T. S., P. Madhavan~ 
K. K. Balachandran and P. V. Prabhu~ 
1974. Fish. Technol., 2: 151. 
Fish. Techno!. 


Canning of smoked sardine

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Canning of smoked sardine

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