Dried Shrimp and Beer

[TAPrice]

I've been told that those little bags of dried shrimp you see next to register at New Orleans grocery stores as intended as a snack to go with beer. Is this true? How widespread is this practice? Do bars ever put out little bowls of dried shrimp, or is this something people eat in the privacy of their homes?

[patti]

Todd, I'm a couple of hours southwest of New Orleans, but I've seen those little packets of dried shrimp for years and years and only ever bought my first a bag a few months ago. I tasted one shrimp and decided I'd eat the rest later. Later never came. Perhaps it's an acquired taste.

I really don't know many people who eat them or even know what to do with them, but SOMEBODY must be eating them. I did have one co-worker a few years back who said that she always used dried shrimp as an additional bit of seasoning in her seafood gumbo. I can't say I've tried it in my seafood gumbo, though.

[fifi]

A little history here...

Back in the late 60s, I worked for the FDA in New Orleans. We were the regional lab. There were extensive "drying platforms" out in the swamps in deep south Louisiana. These were essentially plain wood frames with wire cloth for the platform. Highly salted smallish shrimp, briefly boiled in brine as I recall, were spread out to dry. They were then "tumbled" in a contraption that removed the heads and shells. The debris was sold to zoos and such for flamingo feed. It seems that flamingoes need a certain amount of crustacean in their diet to maintain their color. They are also ok with all of the salt since their native habitat is in salt marshes, sometimes in arid places where the salt concentrates, so they have evolved to deal with it. Then the dried shrimp are packaged for bar snacks. However, that was the destination for a very small part of the production. Most of the dried shrimp were then shipped to various Asian destinations. At least, that is the way it was then.

What with the platforms just being out in the swamp and subject to all sorts of "critter visits" we kept thinking that there should be something wrong here. Shouldn't there be a chance for contamination with, at least, Salmonella? Well, we never found anything. The things were, for all practical purposes, sterile. We speculated that it was the high salt content. The critters seemed to leave them alone.

I don't frequent enough bars to know how widespread they are as a bar snack. I know they are not uncommon in south Louisiana.

As to how they taste... eh!

[Dr. Funk]

I first encountered dried shrimp as a snack with beer in Mexico in 1966 (specifically - Guaymas). I love the stuff. For years, the only place I could find them in the Denver area was in the Asian markets and they were much more expensive than the Mexican ones. Actually, they go better with Mexican beer than the domestic stuff.

[Mayhaw Man]

I have been kind of watching waiting for some gourmand to post a wildly enthusiastic post professing their love of those shriveled up little devils. Since one is, apparently, not forthcoming I feel the need to come to their defense.

I love the things. Chewy, salty, kinda smell like a seafood dock (in sort of a good way), really good to eat. They go great with beer, but also, oddly, I discovered a year or two ago that they go great with citrus fruit. Especially Louisiana satsumas (just coming into season) and navel oranges (month or two to go on those).

They aren't cheap though. A little bag costs a buck or more usually (and when I say little I am talking like, a little bag. I really like them though.

[Chris Amirault]

As with many things, dried shrimp as a beer snack is an acquired taste that, once you've got it, is tough to beat. My absolute favorite beer snack is dried cuttlefish, which to most people has the flavor and texture of the bottom of the boots of fishermen and women who work on that seafood dock that Mayhaw Man mentioned. But they are amazing things -- again, once you've acquired the tongue for the suckers.

[Mayhaw Man]

which to most people has the flavor and texture of the bottom of the boots of fishermen and women who work on that seafood dock that Mayhaw Man mentioned.

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Don't be a poseur. No fisherman worth his salt would be caught in anything but these fine cajun houseslippers" from the fine folks at LaCrosse.

And I love those shrimp. (just to keep it food related, on topic as always!)