Boiling/steaming shrimp

Get a Zataran's Shrimp and Crab boil bag. MAke the water a little saltier than the ocean and bring to a boil. Add bag to water and boil it for maybe five minutes to release the spices. They make a hot bag that has more pepper if you want it really spicy. Add lemons if you like or don't. I like them fine with nothing other than salt and the spice bag. When the water is at a full boil, add the shrimp and cook for a minute or two. As soon as the first shrimp rises to the surface (maybe one minute), turn the heat off and add some ice to chill the water. Get it cool or they will continue to cook and you don't want that. Let then soak in the chilled water for maybe ten minutes and then remove.
I like my shrimp col, so we peel all of them and chill in the fridge for an hour and serve them cold.

If I don't like you enough to peel your shrimp for you, you don't get invited to my house for shrimp.

If we are doing potatoes, I cook them before the shrimp, or drain water off before cooling the shrimp and cook the potatoes in that. Honestly, I like them cooked in water with a little slap yo momma and salt, so I hardly ever use the shrimp water.

I roast corn wrapped in foil with butter and a sprinkle of salt in oven or on grill and never boil it. Never do frozen corn, only fresh.

As important as how you boil your shrimp is the sauce for boiled shrimp:

1 Tablespoon Hellman's
6 Tablespoons Ketchup
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
2 teaspoons Lawry's Garlic Salt
1 or 2 Tablespoons prepared Horseradish

Mix well and chill Might want to triple this recipe. I never measure the ingredients, but this is the recipe.

Sometimes I will crush a teaspoon of capers and add those also

I'm partial to the Gulf as opposed to the Ocean on my saltiness

Local grocer steamed with seasoning on outside years back. Use Slap yo momma or Tony's. Apply liberally and use steamer. Steam a few minutes and then remove. My experience is they were almost always steamed too much.

I don't like overcooked shrimp. I also like them seasoned well and wasn't always happy with steamed shrimp.

I won't get into seasoning because there are a thousand different theories. I'll give you my thoughts on how to cook the fixins and the shrimp.

The most important thing when cooking shrimp is making sure the shells don't stick. This is directly related to how long the shrimp cook. You can adjust the spice by how long you soak them for. But perfectly spiced shrimp that you can't peel ain't worth a shite.

Any shrimp boil recipe that tells you to boil for a certain amount of time is flawed. You have to boil shrimp by sight. You put the shrimp in the boiling water and watch them. When the meat separates from the shell, cut the fire and put in the ice. Sometimes the water doesn't get back to a boil, sometimes it might boil for a min or two. It just depends how much water you have and how much shrimp you have. But if you keep your eye on it, you'll nail it every time.

I boil shrimp 10-20 times per year and this method works if you boil 5 lbs in a small stovetop pot to 60 lbs in a big crawfish pot.

And don't listen to people that say that if you salt the water, the shells will stick. That's stupid and those people are stupid and their shells stick because they don't know how to cook.


On the ice, a good rule of thumb is about 1lb per 2lb shrimp.

Eta: forgot my timeline
Get water boiling, once boiling:
0:00 put potatoes in pot
0:15 put rest of fixins in pot (corn/sausage/onio)
0:20 put shrimp in pot
Follow method above shrimp cookin
Start testing shrimp for spice 10 min after fire is off.
Pull by 20 min.