[Sca-cooks] Shrimpses

[Marilyn Traber]

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Oh! Oh! Oh!
I can answer that ;-)
[I knew the job with the foodservice company was good for something ;-)]

All shrimpses are not alike.

You has your new world shrimp, frequently from the gulf. Not bad, but
frequently smaller than Indian Ocean shrimps [home of the tiger shrimp] and
prawns & scampi are entirely different.

Goung with gulf shrimps - the ones fairly commonly found in grocery stores
in the medium size. They come from the supplier 2 ways. Wet pack and dry
pack. All this means is that dry pack shrimps are flash frozen in a solid
lump without added water. Wet pack means they have a 'food safe' humectant
added and are sprayed down with water to plump up and look about 1 size
bigger. these shrink heinously when you cook them. On one hand, they are a
bit less expensive than dry packs, on the other hand they have been sprayed
with chemicles. On the gripping hand, since they shrink they are
fractionally easier to peel ;-) The dry packs are excellent in flavor,
minimal shrinkage and few discolorations [they tend to be more carefully
picked over as these are the shrimpses that go for cocktails and looks are
imperative!]

Indian ocean shrimps - the tiger shrimp particularly are decent size,
typically only come wet pack until you hit the huge 'prawns' or 6-8# size
food service packaging [10 to 40 lb boxes] have a good flavor. The regular
non tigers are the 'red lobster' shrimp [we used to supply the local red
lobsters - I could get the 30# size in 10 lb boxes for $20 a box.  Why do
you think that for a few years we were doing the shrimps at pennsic? I
really miss that job ;-( ]

Most fish markets can tell you if you are getting wet or dry pack shrimps,
but grocery stores are clueless. They will 'fess up to them being previously
frozen [duh! I only ran across live shrimpses around the gulf, and only in
fish markets.] You can ask to see the original packaging, and by law they do
have to state on the lable if they are wet pack.

margali
and I miss the premade tempura shrimps too ;-( and the other meats in mass
quantities cheap ;-(

the quote starts here:
A few days ago I had a jumbo shrimp (grilled on my son's new George Foreman
grill) that tasted wonderful. So much so, that I started craving them again
today.  But this time my son bought regular size shrimp (I think it was
31-40
ct vs about 18 ct of the jumbo shrimp) anyway,.... the regular size shrimp
tasted like _Red Lobster_    Hence my question of taste differance and size.
(no breading or frying was involved either time.  The shrimp were cookes "as
is" on the grill)
Thanks a lot!!
Phillipa
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