Can't seem to ever cook Ruby Red shrimp right

Are you boiling them, or steaming them?

Royal Reds have a different texture and flavor. They're sort of close to a lobster type texture. They cook VERY quickly. If they were mushy, they may have been overcooked rather than undercooked. They're a bit tricky.

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This is pretty much all shrimp unless you find some shop that gets them from a local guy that goes out every single night.

ETA: At least the flash frozen part.

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I live in S Louisiana, so yeah that's not really the norm on the shrimp we get.

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As I understand it, these are pretty much all essentially cooked and then flash frozen on the boats. All you're supposed to be doing in "cooking" them is thawing them. Should not take more than a minute or two in boiling salted water.

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How sure are you of that? I fish and eat seafood all the time, I've shrimped myself before recreationally and these shrimp looked fresh to me. Translucent, soft, etc.

Whenever I've had them overcooked, the shell sticks to them very very badly. Almost impossible to eat badly. We baked these for like 20-30 minutes. Recipe called for normal shrimp to be cooked for 30-40 minutes depending on size.

*Royal Reds not ruby, my bad on that. My understanding is that shrimpers fish for 3-4 nights at a time and put all shrimp into coolers with ice. That's how all the shrimp I've ever bought on the coast are.

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We baked these for like 20-30 minutes. Recipe called for normal shrimp to be cooked for 30-40 minutes depending on size.

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I think you cooked them too long. Like I said, they cook very quickly and the texture is quite different from "normal shrimp".

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think you cooked them too long. Like I said, they cook very quickly and the texture is quite different from "normal shrimp".

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Could be but I don't think so. In the past when I've over boiled them, as I said the shell sticks to the meat horribly. Very similar to lobster how the meat sticks to the shell.

Some of these were perfect, but about half were like 3/4 cooked normal shrimp. White but still really soft and somewhat goey. I nuked them for a couple seconds and just ate them.

It just seems like they are very very finicky to cook?

These were from Sexton's in Destin, the next thing I see in there that's not fresh as can be will be the first thing.

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Royal reds require very little prep. Bring some water to a boil,cut the fire and put the Reds in that water. Stir around over no heat and in 2 1/2 minutes you can have the butter melted and the shrimp out. I've been where you are and know this method guarantees a positive out come.

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This. Pretty much cook in hot water, not even boiling.

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You're sadly mistaken, except maybe during inshore season.

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I agree. There's way more times you are buying IQF's from the merchants than fresh caught shrimp. All you have to do is look at the shrimp in the boxes to see their long feelers/whiskers are all broken off at or near the head.

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I live in S Louisiana, so yeah that's not really the norm on the shrimp we get.

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Eh depends on who is providing it. There are a ton of S Louisiana shrimpers that IQF their shrimp. As I said, unless you are buying your shrimp from a local provider who gets his shrimp from someone who comes to port daily, your shrimp are going to be frozen at some point. It just isn't feasible for shrimpers to do it daily anymore. They need to be able to stay out days at a time.

Yeah, gramma taught me how to tell if the shrimp was ever frozen when I was young walking with her at the fisherman's market.
Also a lot of shrimp we did get was caught in last 24 hours.