The Basics of Cooking Shrimp

No matter how you flavor, savor or enjoy cooking shrimp, there are still basic methods that you can use in order to cook your shrimp right. When you are putting together a feast, you want to make sure that you start with cooking shrimp all the way through, allowing you to add on the right flavors later.

After the preparation of your shrimp is done, you can start cooking shrimp the right way. If it is fresh shrimp, it will be a little different than frozen shrimp because of the need to thaw out the freeze. For frozen shrimp, you will either want to leave it out for a while to thaw on it’s own, put it under cold water until it is not frozen anymore. You will never want to put frozen shrimp in warm water, as this will cause the shrimp to loose flavor. For fresh shrimp, you can skip this step and get to cooking shrimp.

You will begin cooking your shrimp by taking an average of two quarts of water and bringing it to a boil. The amount of water that you use will depend on how much shrimp you have. You will always want to have a little bit of extra water so the shrimp will have something to cook in without drying out. After the water is boiled, you can put the shrimp in and turn the water off, allowing them to take in the heat from the water. Often times, salt, lemon juice, peppers or other spices will be added to the water in order to allow the flavor to seep in.

Once the shrimp are in the water, you can simply let them take in all of the moisture, allowing them to cook for up to five minutes. This is the best way to do it because shrimp is a delicate meat. Letting the meat seep in the water will be more effective than putting it in the boiling water. This way, the shrimp won’t loose their taste or become too chewy after it is done. If you want to be careful, you can leave the shells on the shrimp until after you take them out of the water to make sure that they don’t over cook.

After you wait for the five minute time frame, you can check the shrimp to see if it is completely cooked. You can do this by cutting one of the shrimps in half and making sure that it is the same color throughout the entire meat area. It should be a light white or almost clear color with the meat. Once you notice the same color on the shrimp, remove them from the water completely.

After the shrimp is cooked all the way through, you are ready to eat the shrimp like they are or can add in the flavoring or sauce that you want. For those that want to make sure their shrimp gets cooked with a certain flavor, bringing the shrimp to a boil is the easiest way to make sure everything swims in the right direction.

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