Shrimp have been the most popular form of seafood consumed in the USA for years. They represent more than a quarter of the seafood eaten in this country. It's also one of the most varied categories: You can find dozens of different species of shrimp, each boasting multiple names and preparations. You can buy them with the head on or off, the shell on or off, the vein removed or intact, tail-on or tailless. Some are available pre-cooked; others are frozen, fresh, or previously frozen. Then there's the matter of shrimp vs. prawns, just to further muddy up the waters (and many species of shrimp, for what it's worth, prefer muddy waters).Shrimp Come in MANY differing sizes. Purchasing them out of the back of a pickup truck or on a street corner guarantees you NOTHING other than perhaps FRESHNESS. Packaged (usually frozen) shrimp labelling is a different story. The USDA has pre-determined the number (range) of shrimp tails that MUST be contained in a pound. The Trade Names of each of the sizes are also pre- determined and cannot vary. Thus: Jumbo Shrimp WILL contain between 21 and 25 HEADLESS shell-on shrimp tails in each pound with the “average” number in each package being about 23. Purchasing shrimp with their heads still on will give you SMALLER shrimp tails in each pound. Shells on/off, tail shells only, cooked, raw etc. WILL result in slight count/size variances. SORT THE CHART BELOW BY CLICKING ON THE ORANGE HEADINGS

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There are over 3,500 Species of Shrimp. The world consumes 850 million pounds of Shrimp each year. In U.S.A. waters we have only White, Brown and Pink Shrimp. Most other “kinds” of Shrimp (Tiger, Chilean Red, Freshwater, etc.) will come from other countries. ALL Shrimp basically taste the same, the differences are caused by what they eat. There are a myriad of different Shrimp packages available at your local Seafood Market and Grocers. In truth, there are only THREE common ways to purchase Shrimp of all sizes. Within each of these 3 choices are a myriad of additional choices to be made. Here we attempt to clarify and assist you with correctly making those choices. #1) FRESH: Fresh Shrimp are normally available only on our sea coasts. While you may well not be guaranteed they are USDA inspected, you CAN with a little effort become your own “inspector”. The Shrimp MUST be stored on a thick layer of FRESH crushed Ice whether in the box or the display case. The Shrimp should all look to be roughly the same size. The Shrimp should SMELL fresh (like the Sea) and the Shells should not be spongy, soft, be heavily pitted or have any black spots. - Ask the vendor to hand you one of the Shrimp and make certain it is taken off of the pile you will be purchasing from. Stick it up under your nose and inhale deeply. FRESH, FRESH, FRESH! If you detect ANY odor, no matter how slight, PASS THEM BY! Press on the Shell, if it bends easily and stays bent, PASS THEM BY. Paper thin Shells are perfectly OK since as Shrimp grow, they shed their entire Shell and slowly grow a new one. As that new Shell grows, it gets thicker - Your Shrimp may have just recently shed their Shells. #2) BLOCK FROZEN: Class Restaurants (AND YOU SHOULD TOO) normally purchase their USDA inspected Shrimp in large frozen blocks (about 10 pounds each - see picture). Block frozen & sealed Shrimp will last for MONTHS in your sub-zero temperature freezer. Block freezing GUARANTEES you the best textured and tasting Shrimp you will ever find. Thawing and refreezing for lesser quantities is easy. #3) INDIVIDUALLY QUICK FROZEN (IQF): Acceptable if they haven’t been improperly thawed or kept frozen for too long a period. If the bag has a clear section, inspect carefully for freezer burning (Milky white areas on the flesh). The majority of Shrimp away from the sea coasts will always be Individually Quick Frozen. Even the “unfrozen” Shrimp you see displayed in your grocers seafood case will have most likely been previously frozen and thawed by your Grocer (properly or improperly is a question you need to determine for yourself). CAN THAWED SHRIMP BE RE-FROZEN? The generic answer is YES - ONCE. Shrimp (and most other Seafoods) are made up of 77% to 88% moisture. Can you freeze, thaw and refreeze water without damage - ABSOLUTELY. The sticking point is in HOW they were thawed…. 1) Slowly thawed from hard frozen in a refrigerator that is below 42 degrees? The answer is YES, their texture and flavor should not change much at all!  This is a one- time deal - Do NOT EVER thaw & refreeze Shrimp more than ONE TIME! 2) Quick-thawed in water or just sitting out on your warm counter top? The answer is a resounding NO! Long story short, thawed Shrimp out of your grocers seafood case - BE SAFE, do NOT refreeze them - Odds are extremely high that he has more still frozen in the back - ask to get those so you can thaw them properly.          10 POUNDS OF BLOCK FROZEN SHRIMP - REALLY? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I know. What family can eat 10 pounds of thawed Shrimp in a single day? None of us unless you happen to be the Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe. The answer here is to PROPERLY THAW the Shrimp Block! then place the thawed Shrimp in freezer bags sized as necessary for your family, fill the bags with water so all of the Shrimp are submerged, stand them upright in the freezer until frozen, seal and they’ll keep for several months. PRE-COOKED SHRIMP Unless it’s an unforeseen catastrophic emergency “OMG I forgot about tonight’s promised Shrimp Cocktail Appetizer”! Never, Ever, NEVER buy pre-cooked Shrimp to serve to someone you care for. ALWAYS use Raw Shrimp for your Dishes & Appetizers and cook them properly.             BAKED, BOILED, BROILED, GRILLED OR STEAMED Broiling is the preferred method for cooking Shrimp for Appetizers (See: Appetizers - Perfect Broiled Shrimp Cocktail for those easy details). Boiling Shrimp tends to leach out most of the flavor into the water that you will be discarding. Broiling Shell on Shrimp is always great tasting, but a bit difficult since the high temperature of a broiler can be slightly different from oven to oven along with the rack distances from that broiler element. Grilling Shell on Shrimp is also great tasting, but very difficult since the temperature of different grills can be extremely variable. Steaming thawed Shrimp with the shells still on WILL give you a much better flavored Shrimp than boiling will, but is very difficult to get ALL of them equally cooked. COOKING STILL-FROZEN SHRIMP Seafoods are EXPENSIVE! Loads of people and even a few uninformed Chefs believe that cooking still-frozen Crab Legs, Lobster Tails, Fish Fillets, Shrimp and other Shellfish is perfectly OK. The truth here is that since you don’t seem to care much about the texture and taste of the Seafood you are eating, THEN BUY SOMETHING LESS EXPENSIVE TO RUIN!. Since Seafoods contain so much moisture, most are considered to be fully cooked as soon as that moisture reaches the correct internal temperature (USDA = 145 degrees F), overcooking even slightly past that temperature causes the texture to begin to turn rubbery. Thick pieces of Seafood, Lobster Tails, King Crab, Huge Shrimp, etc. will slowly thaw towards the center as you cook them. Cooking until the center is the correct temperature means that the outside temperature will end up OVERCOOKED and rubbery! Already thawed Seafood has the same problem, but to a much lesser degree. If thawed, the warm center cooks correctly much quicker than if frozen. The outside cooks for less total time and does not get as tough. DO WHAT YOU MAY! HEADS-ON VS HEADS-OFF SHRIMP Shrimp with their heads still on are popular mostly throughout Asia. Most Asians refer to them in dishes as “Dragons”. Those with the heads already removed are popular in nearly every culture, giving you the most bang for your buck because the overwhelming quantity of edible meat is contained within the tail. 1) PROS: Purchasing Raw Shrimp with their heads still on them? GREAT! The intense flavors contained in the Head will migrate into the tail meat as they cook and you can suck those wonderfully flavored juices out of the separated heads before peeling and eating the Tail. If needed, the separated RAW heads and Shells can be used to create a fantastic flavored Seafood Stock with a myriad of tasty uses! 2)CONS: The USDA “count” per pound contains FAR fewer tails if the heads are still on them. Discarding those raw heads wastes about 1/3 of that expensive purchase price. TO DE-VEIN OR NOT TO DE-VEIN THE HARD RULE: ALWAYS De-Vein your Shrimp if not already done. The dark colored Vein is a Shrimps intestinal tract. “WE” have completely succeeded in poisoning our oceans - The intestinal tract MAY contain large amounts of contaminants (Mercury, PCB’s and Dioxins). It can also be a breeding ground for bacteria such as E-Coli. Consuming raw Shrimp (Sushi, etc.) that has NOT been de- veined can be dangerous! POND RAISED VS WILD CAUGHT SHRIMP Shrimp are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals. Despite their small size, shrimp actually have a large range of food options in their diet. Their favorite foods are algae and other plant particles, plankton and even small fish! It’s these foods, along with the sunny, nutrient-enriched waters of the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Ocean that help shrimp grow naturally and to taste so delicious! A Shrimp will always taste like what it eats! a SINGLE female Shrimp will lay between 100,000 and a million eggs making Shrimp an EASILY sustainable and reliable renewable resource. 1) POND RAISED: Those who farm shrimp in ponds feed them a diet of pelleted “feed” or “meal” containing a variety of ingredients ranging from fish meal, poultry meal, soybean meal, krill meal or plant-based meal. Those meals often contain what are called chemostimulatory and often artificial additives to improve the animals growth rate and make the feed more attractive and palatable to them. Pond raised Shrimp are kind of like cage raised Chickens - Kind of bland and tasteless. Its an industry accepted fact that the sea water contained in the majority of Ponds is HIGHLY polluted since it isn’t changed very often. 2) WILD CAUGHT: Wild-caught shrimp live in a natural environment surrounded by other aquatic creatures, so naturally, in the wild, we humans are competing with other natural omnivores. The natural habitats for our Wild American shrimp are the Gulf of Mexico and the  South Atlantic Ocean. Those relatively small sizes of shrimp are considered prey to a vast variety of larger sea-feeding species. TO BRINE OR NOT TO BRINE THE HARD RULE: Always, Always, ALWAYS Brine your Shrimp without fail. Brining GREATLY improves the flavor and texture of ALL Shrimp. The Brining process is very easy and short (25 minutes maximum) for several reasons (See: Appetizers - Perfect Broiled Shrimp Cocktail for more information): Technically Shrimp are quite small, Some of the proteins in Shrimp will actually “cook” at room temperature. The Meat becomes lightly seasoned. It helps to retain internal moisture. SHRIMP BRINE 2 Cups Cold Water 2 Cups Crushed Ice ¼ Cup Kosher Salt ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar 1 Large Zip Lock Bag Add all of the ingredients into the bag, seal and shake until the Salt & Sugar completely dissolve. Add in the properly THAWED cold Shrimp (peeled or not), reseal and shake. Refrigerate for a maximum of 25 minutes. Drain the Shrimp, rinse off the Brine and then wrap them in paper towels to keep them from drying out. Cook very soon in any chosen recipe.

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