When Your Shrimp Won't Peel

[Chris Amirault]

Don't think so. No one is saying that shrimp are consistently hard to peel, which would indicate technique flaws. We're all saying that sometimes they are and we don't know why.

[PopsicleToze]

It might help to understand that hard to peel is an understatement. When boiled shrimp are overcooked, the meat sticks to the peel. You can't just remove the peel as usual because the peel doesn't come off whole -- you yank and it tears leaving bits on the meat. It's definitely not the same as someone just not familiar with peeling shrimp. It's happened to most of us at least once.

Rhonda

[gperls]

I just received my order of fresh-frozen IQF shrimp from CajunGrocer.com. I cooked up these head-on shrimp in a New Orleans BBQ style - butter, herbs, seasonings. The shrimp were not peeled, slit, or beheaded before cooking. They cooked about 6 minutes in this butter/stock mixture.

When I went to eat them, I found the shells very thin, thinner than what I'm accustomed to getting from my other shrimp purchases, and they were very difficult to peel, sort of like a fresh egg that takes off meat along with the shell.

Is this a good indicator or bad indicator of the quality of the shrimp? Any ideas of how to make peeling easier the next time? Should I slit their shells before cooking next time?

Any insight into what is going on here would be appreciated. I still have 24 more pounds of them to go through.

Greg

[KennethT]

I just received my order of fresh-frozen IQF shrimp from CajunGrocer.com. I cooked up these head-on shrimp in a New Orleans BBQ style - butter, herbs, seasonings. The shrimp were not peeled, slit, or beheaded before cooking. They cooked about 6 minutes in this butter/stock mixture.

When I went to eat them, I found the shells very thin, thinner than what I'm accustomed to getting from my other shrimp purchases, and they were very difficult to peel, sort of like a fresh egg that takes off meat along with the shell.

Is this a good indicator or bad indicator of the quality of the shrimp? Any ideas of how to make peeling easier the next time? Should I slit their shells before cooking next time?

Any insight into what is going on here would be appreciated. I still have 24 more pounds of them to go through.

Greg

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I bought 10 pounds of the same thing from CajunGrocer a while ago... I found the same problem - many of the shrimp have thin shells, or rough shells and are pretty hard to peel... Once I finish this amount, I don't knowif I'd get them again... they do have a nice shrimpy taste to them, though...

[Cajun Gourmet]

HOLD UP EVERYONE !! I have the answer. You must put vinegar in the water when you turn off the heat & let them soak. You can use regular or apple cider and use about 2 cups per big boiling pot of shrimp obviously use way smaller amounts if boiling on stove top. I'm from south Louisiana & this is how we do it

[Smithy]

HOLD UP EVERYONE !! I have the answer. You must put vinegar in the water when you turn off the heat & let them soak. You can use regular or apple cider and use about 2 cups per big boiling pot of shrimp obviously use way smaller amounts if boiling on stove top. I'm from south Louisiana & this is how we do it

 

How does that affect the flavor of the shrimp?