Curing up some shrimp...

[fish_4_all]

Decided to go out and get some fresh shrimp and give a shot at curing them. Have followed the directions from Pro Cure so hopefully they will come out right. Just had to find something that wasn't processed, washed, preserved, flash frozen and thawed and frozen who knows how many times. Shouldn't hurt that the shrimp were caught locally so hopefully they smell like dinner to some summer runs and fall fish later this year.



The whole ones haven't taken a lot of color but it is day 1 of at least 3 days in the brine so I hope they get more pink over the next few days. The half ones are very bright on the ends and hope that the entire things gets a lot brighter pink before opening day here on Saturday.

They smelled so good the whole time it was hard to brine them but the fish are calling and cleaning them to eat would have taken way too long.

 

[Admin]

Yaammmyyy

 

[eugene1]

Those look like what we call Prawns down here. Great for summer runs even unbrinned, yours look especially deadly!

 

[fish_4_all]

I guess you could call them prawns but they called them salad shrimp where I got them. Took me forever to finally find them raw in the shell. Biggest one was only 3 inches or so with a lot of them a whole lot smaller. Whole lot cheaper than sand shrimp even with the cost of cure and salt.

 

[eugene1]

Nice, I can't find whole head-on ones in a supermarket here. I get them at the bait shop, they are maybe a bit bigger than yours, but look the same. They cost me the same as sandshrimp, but they are easier to use and they store a long time. Mine are individually frozen so they are not fresh though.

Someone said asian food markets also sometimes have them, but I haven't checked that yet. Where did you get em?

 

[fish_4_all]

I froze a bunch of mine also, just because I didn't want to deal with curing up 2,500 shrimp at one time. Lesson learned on how many to buy next time.

I got mine right from the processor out at Westport. I have never seen these in markets and only other time I have ever gotten them was right off the shrimp boat when it pulled into the marina.

 

[eugene1]

That's pretty awesome 2,500!

That would cost me $750 @ $0.30 each, but it would last dang near a lifetime,

 

[troutdude]

I wonder if you could find an Asian restaurant owner; that you could buy some from? Just a thought...

 

[fish_4_all]

The size I was told was from the seller was 120-260 count per pound. A few are larger than that count, maybe 90-110, as seen in the picture but a lot were very small. Perfect for a summer run bait whole, about the same size as a medium female sand shrimp in length.

Try out at the docks and at any seafood processor on the coast. They should be running shrimp right now also.

 

[RunWithSasquatch]

I'd eat them.

 

[fish_4_all]

Well they are all done. Perfect color for what I was shooting for. Not too much but just enough pink to make them more visible and a more attractive color. Will see if they work better than plain or not. Not sure the color will improve catch rates as much as the scent and other stuff from the pro cure will.