Not OOP--serving shrimp (was Re: [Sca-cooks] OP: shrimps

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

Mightily wrenching the topic around to something vaguely period:

In C. Anne Wilson's  _Food in Britain_, she talks about shrimp being eaten 
in period and that they were served with vinegar. But that's all that she 
says. How would one go about cooking and serving shrimp, for, say, a 13th 
c. feast? Or would this have been considered low-class and not served?

Margaret

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, Barbara Benson wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> Having spent my formative years on the east coast on an island with a major
> shrimp industry I can vouch for the fact that it is possible to pull the
> entirety of the shrimp out of the tail shell. You have to use your fingers,
> and I was just trying to describe how to do it and failed miserably - I
> could show you! It takes pratice, just like taking the very last bit out of
> hard shell crabs. It has never occured to me that it might be non-polite,
> there are just some things you eat with your fingers: shrimp, fried chicken,
> french fries, sandwiches, cookies, corn on the cob.....ummm getting hungry
> now!
> 
> Now, as to why they are left on, the only thing I can guess is presentation.
> 
> Now, if we are ever on the coast together I will teach you how to throw a
> cast net and pop their little heads off just before you put them into the
> boil.
> 
> Glad Tidings,
> Serena da Riva
> 
> 
> > Ok, why _are_ large shrimps (prawns for non-US people) served with their
> > stupid little tails still on? And is there a polite way to remove them? I
> > am an absolute pig about shrimp and hate to cut the shrimp off with my
> > knife before the tail joint (which is often a messy process anyway), but I
> > suspect that that's the way Miss Manners says to do it.
> >
> > -- Jadwiga, agreeably full of Pad Thai with Shrimp