How to choose prawns shrimps

Prawns/Shrimps are one of the most popular seafood that people love to eat and finding them at the supermarket is easy. Are you sure about the methods of choosing the fresh ones? You wont know until you bite it and taste it. We will be giving you some tips to choosing prawns at the supermarket

1. Identifying what type of prawns are you looking for. There are difference in breed as well as location from where it comes from, check your recipe before hand.

Cold water shrimps are small sweet shrimps that can be pre cooked. They are mainly used in cold dishes such as salads.

Tiger shrimps or tiger prawns are striped shrimps, they are really large looking but shrink when you cook them, perfect for mild tasting recipes. Pastas usually use tiger prawns.

2. Dont purchase pre cooked prawns, unless you are choosing it for cold dishes. Prawns are more flavourful if it is cooked for the first time when it is made for the meal

3. Choose prawns that has shell on. Many a times it might be more convenient for you to get the shelled prawns that is easy for you to just go home and cook it but you’re taking convenience over the taste and the best tasting ones are the ones with shells on because the oils are not gone. Choose the ones with full shell on.

4. When you are looking for prawns, find one that isnt in the freezer section, it might be more expensive to buy from the meat section but it might be a better prawn with better quality

5. Find and buy the prawns that are placed on ice, you wont want prawns that are packaged up, as they wont be as fresh as those on ice, it need to be slightly above freezing to stay fresh and retain its flavor

6. Always choose the right color, it should be white or greyish or brown when it is a brown prawn. It should have white meat, shouldnt have any black sports, ask the counter person if you are not familiar, some How to choose prawns shrimps methods

7. If possible always ask to touch one of the piece of prawns, you should look out for a firm shell and not slimy, if there is signs of sliminess dont buy it! It will not taste good if its slimy!

8. Spend time to look at how shiny the shell is. When you buy more prawns you might begin to realise that sometimes the shells are shinier than other times and also notice that the shinier ones are the ones that taste better, choose the ones with the shiny shell over the ones with darker shells.

9. Choose the prawn with the heads on, normally people don’t want to handle the head of the prawn when they are cooking. Even though it is tougher to handle, the one with the full prawn and cutting head off yourself allows you to have the better flavor. Also looking at the head can help you to tell whether the prawn was frozen then thawed , very mushy prawns can indicate that.

10. SMELL the prawn, ask for samples to smell if possible, if it smells salty and reminds you of the ocean, its fresh if it smells fishy, its probably going bad.