The Absolute Best Way to Cook Shrimp, According to So Many Tests Never eat an overcooked, rubbery shrimp agan. Never!

food52 ^

[mylife]

n Absolute Best Tests, our writer Ella Quittner destroys the sanctity of her home kitchen in the name of the truth. She's seared more porterhouse steaks than she cares to recall, tasted enough types of bacon to concern a cardiologist, and ranked potatoes from “most forgettable” to “potatoes we’d like to marry.” Today, she tackles shrimp.

Humankind’s first known shellfish feast occurred sometime around 163,000 B.C., in a cave on the southern coast of South Africa. Many millennia later, excavators found a bowl of roughly two dozen edible creatures, including mussels and at least one barnacle that had previously resided on the belly of a whale.

Humankind’s most bizarre known shellfish feast occurred sometime around 7 a.m. last Tuesday in my apartment. It consisted of just me, a whole pound of butter, and more shrimp than would comfortably fit in my crisper drawer. I emerged several hours later, grease-battered, weary, and surprised by several of my findings. It was, in other words, an average Absolute Best Tests trial day.

Let’s make like a crustacean and dive in:

[mylife]

Hell, theys good raw, but scampi is my way

[mylife]

[Telepathic Intruder]

You boil it until it turns the right color, take it out and pour cold water over it quick.

[mylife]

dont want it over cooked...

[doorgunner69]

I can cook them fine, it is the heating of any leftovers that rubberizes them.

[V_TWIN]

This is gonna be worse than a gun porn thread

[V_TWIN]

As a rule when I cook shrimp there’s usually no leftovers

[mylife]

Indeed, cpdiii makes a fine shrimp gumbo.

what leftovers?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Steamed MD crab style.

But yes, they are often overcooked and split open.

Also, big shrimp = overrated. The smaller the better. Same with lobster, etc. (Not crabs - they have ZERO nasty spongy meat.) Bigger = older = tougher. Spongy enough already! Yuck.

[BobL]

The engines in Alaska told me to throw it in boiling water and the moment it floats, take it out, let it cool a bit, and EAT IT. Of course they were right.

[bramps]

Hell, theys good raw, but scampi is my way

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Even the shrimp in a shrimp cocktail are cooked.

[Hatteras]

Steamed in a pot with beer and Old Bay. Done.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Yum!

[mylife]

[Lurker]

Grilled with a simple marinade of garlic, S&P, and olive oil. No more than 2 minutes on a side depending on size.

L

[mylife]

I’ll eat em raw

[V_TWIN]

George Costanza is my hero!

[mylife]

works for me but I use red pepper flakes’ and a bit of with wine at the end...

[Lurker]

As long as the wine is in a glass I’m fine with it.

Best,

L

[mylife]

stupid autoerect!