re: Individually Frozen Shrimp Advice.

So they are IQF frozen tails and not head on? If they are IQF, are they salt frozen IQF or nitrogen frozen IQF?

It does makes a difference in boiling. Salt frozen IQF will never boil as good as fresh or even nitrogen frozen. Some of the differences:

IQF Salt Water: Frozen on shrimp boats through an IQF machine/tunnel and frozen with salt water. The salt content in the shrimp makes them harder to peel and boil. The best way I could boil them at my old place was to bring the water to a boil (make sure water is very spicy), let it sit for a minute or two and spray down the pot to cool, then put the shrimp in and let them soak with no fire for 15-20 minutes. If you try to boil IQF salt water shrimp you will overcook (Will be very hard to peel) them very quickly or will need to use a lot of ice to cool down. Probably 75% or greater of seafood places sell salt water IQF because they are the most available shrimp. IF you ice or follow my method they will peel ok but will still not peel as good as fresh shrimp.

Nitrogen IQF: Shrimp frozen in tunnel with nitrogen gas or even liquid nitrogen. Peel just like fresh because no salt is used in the process. Usually done by seafood companies that buy from fisherman.

Block frozen tails/headless: Will also peel better than salt water frozen and will usually peel just as well as fresh. It's because most tails are frozen while fresh at shrimp plants and not with salt water or the same process as salt water IQF.

Hope this helps.