Ellie,
I did freeze the headless shrimp with their shells one year and when they thawed, the shells had maintained their shape somewhat but the meats were mushy. Since the flesh have a primarily water-based composition, I feel they freeze and thaw at a different rate than calcium-based exoskeletons. Since I failed to preserve the beasties as they were in season, it's peeled only.
The larger commercially available shrimp are flash frozen in a nitrogen-fired freezer that does the job in a fraction of the time my old GE can do it, thus the displays of shell-on tiger (and other species) shrimp at your local seafood purveyor.
Recent Shrimp Auctions:3/18/05 - 10,327lbs - 5 boats, 3 trucks
Low price: $0.53
Average: 0.53
High: 0.53
3/21/05 - 14,478lbs - 5 boats, 2 trucks
Low price: $0.41
Average: 0.41
High: 0.41
3/22/05 - 10,590lbs - 4 boats, 2 trucks
Low price: $0.40
Average: 0.47
High: 0.55
Made a chowder y'day with pollack (@$2.49/lb, I couldn't pass it up) and about a pound of peeled Maine shrimp. I use a variation of a mid-Cape recipe that adds finely diced green pepper and carrot to bacon rendering, to which I add diced fennel and large dice potato. I used four cups of shrimp-head stock I made last week and two cups heated milk, plus some fresh thyme leaves and a bayleaf. When it was all said and done, I realized I'd forgotten onion, and the vegies I had used were too far front-and-center. Hrrmph. It'll have a whole different character today, so we'll see what can be done to the quart I blithely put in the freezer before tasting the whole batch first! I never said I was that bright now, did I...?
Edited by johnnyd, 23 March 2005 - 06:53 AM.
