shrimp, or even peeled and deveined shrimp, stop
right this instant! I mean it!
Precooked shrimp are unfailingly pre-overcooked
shrimp and make it impossible to add flavor to a dish
the way you can with raw shrimp. Shrimp that are
raw but peeled and deveined are a small step up, but
they often get mangled and beat up in the cleaning.
And shrimp shells hold tons of flavor, so you are
robbing yourself of some of the best part of the
beast. You are much better off buying whole
headless shrimp (or at the very least “EZ peel ” )
and cleaning them yourself. It’s a little more work,
but worth the effort.
There are a number of choices to make when it
comes to buying shrimp:
Frozen Versus Fresh
The vast majority of shrimp are processed and
frozen right at the farm or on the boat before they
ever get anywhere near your fishmonger or
supermarket. This means that the “fresh” shrimp
you’re seeing at the fish counter are simply frozen
shrimp that have been defrosted and put on display.
There’s no way to know how long they’ve been
there, so you’re better off buying frozen shrimp and
defrosting them at home. Placed in a bowl under cold
running water, shrimp should take about 10 minutes
to defrost. A small price to pay for freshness.