3 Tips for Cooking Perfect Shrimp


Who doesn’t love shrimp? Shrimp are popular because they’re not only delicious but also quite nutritious. Loaded with protein and critical minerals like iodine, they can help you create a healthy low-fat diet plan. Fortunately, shrimp are also a plentiful commodity since most of the earth is covered in seawater and these little crustaceans are readily available around the globe.
Long a vital component of the coastal cuisine of many cultures around the world, shrimp is simple to perfectly prepare if you know what you’re doing. Overcooked shrimp quickly turn tough and rubbery, but with a few tweaks to technique, even an amateur cook can turn out perfectly plump, tender shrimp time after time. Read on to learn how to cook shrimp perfectly in a few simple steps.

Pick the Right Size

Shrimp are sized using a measurement of the number of individual shrimp that comprise a pound. For example, if you buy 19-29 sized shrimp, that means that there will be between 19 and 29 shrimp in a pound. When collecting ingredients, it’s important to know what size shrimp you should purchase to ensure good results. For example, if you’re making gumbo or shrimp stir-fry, small to medium shrimp will work. However, if you plan to grill your shrimp, you’ll need much bigger shrimp to allow for those appealing grill marks without overcooking the tender flesh.

To Peel or Not Peel

While few people eat shrimp with the shells and head still on, there are instances in which leaving the shells on through cooking can render a more flavorful result. For example, you can grill large shrimp in the shell to keep them tender and impart the rich flavor contained in the shell into the shrimp flesh. If you’re cooking etouffee, you simply want the delicious, fluffy shrimp flesh. Therefore, you can peel them before cooking. If you are making a low-country boil, you will want to leave the shells in place to get the maximum flavor.

Short and Sweet

When cooking shrimp, remember that it’s easy to overcook them. And overcooked shrimp are hardly worth eating, as they become tough, rubbery, and utterly devoid of their natural flavor. You should err on the side of undercooking them rather than overcooking them. If you’re new to cooking shrimp, it’s almost guaranteed that your shrimp will be ready before you think they are, so it may be a good idea to pull your shrimp off the heat just before you think they’re done.

It’s easy to learn how to cook shrimp if you use these few tips. Know what size to buy, decide whether you should peel them, and remember to err on the side of undercooking.

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