Shrimp?


 
Arun L.

Arun L.

TVWBB All-Star
The 2nd to last time I made shrimp, was in August 2019.

They had been in a wet marinade.

I used skewers, don't recall any issues. Here's a pic from then.


xmjzeXw.jpg


In February of this year, I was making a different marinade recipe.

When I was putting the shrimp on the skewers, they would break many of the shrimp.

Here's a picture. I don't know if you can tell, but many of the shrimp did break:

sCFgRCX.jpg


Did I get lucky in 2019?

Is this a common problem?

Someone suggested putting the shrimp on a cast iron griddle (which I now have), and putting that on the grill.

I could do that. But then wouldn't I lose the flame grill marks?

Or is that not very important, and it's more important to have shrimp intact?

Or, is there a technique for the skewers, such as maybe just trying for the "hole" around the center, and not trying to pierce too much of the shrimp itself?

I do use jumbo sized shrimp, with 16 / 20 pieces per lb., so it should be easier to put on skewers.
 
Do you flip them? If not--even though your skewers are high-quality--I wonder for this cook if bamboo skewers would give better results.
 
BFletcher said:
Do you flip them? If not--even though your skewers are high-quality--I wonder for this cook if bamboo skewers would give better results.
Click to expand...
Yes, I flipped them halfway through.

However, the problem was initially putting them on skewers. They were breaking as I tried to put them on initially.

Can you post a link to a set of 3 - 6 bamboo skewers you think would be good? What do you think is different about metal vs. bamboo? Is metal too sharp?
 
Those skewers are just too big for those teeny shrimp. I usually only buy U16 or larger. I get a product from Argentina wild caught. Absolutely delicious and when you have good grates with narrow bar spacing like I do I just throw them right on the grates. Yeah you can do them on cast iron griddle but than what's the point of using the grill? You're not grilling them. You can do the same on your kitchen stove than
 
I don't know if it would help but I skewer from the back (where the "vein" is/was through to where the feet were so they lay on their sides.
Those are either really huge skewers (great for keeping food from spinning), or small large shrimp...
Small large shrimp, lol
 
Arun, I agree with comments above.....those look like 20-22 count shrimp or smaller (I'm with LM, and prefer U16 or bigger.) Your big skewers with those small shrimp would cause some breakage. I also skewer them lengthwise so they lay flat, though that still might not work with those little guys. Wood skewers would be better for small shrimp, and you can use whatever they sell at your local grocery store. I usually soak mine in water for an hour or so to cut down on the wood charring.

You can double up the wooden skewers to keep the shrimp from spinning, like this:

1615078908693.png

....or, if you have larger shrimp, your flat skewers run through the shrimp in a similar fashion will work well, too:

1615079031853.png

Good luck with your next shrimp cook!

R
 
LMichaels said:
Those skewers are just too big for those teeny shrimp. I usually only buy U16 or larger. I get a product from Argentina wild caught. Absolutely delicious and when you have good grates with narrow bar spacing like I do I just throw them right on the grates. Yeah you can do them on cast iron griddle but than what's the point of using the grill? You're not grilling them. You can do the same on your kitchen stove than
Click to expand...
Rich G said:
Arun, I agree with comments above.....those look like 20-22 count shrimp or smaller (I'm with LM, and prefer U16 or bigger.) Your big skewers with those small shrimp would cause some breakage. I also skewer them lengthwise so they lay flat, though that still might not work with those little guys. Wood skewers would be better for small shrimp, and you can use whatever they sell at your local grocery store. I usually soak mine in water for an hour or so to cut down on the wood charring.

You can double up the wooden skewers to keep the shrimp from spinning, like this:

View attachment 23732

....or, if you have larger shrimp, your flat skewers run through the shrimp in a similar fashion will work well, too:

View attachment 23733

Good luck with your next shrimp cook!

R
Click to expand...

What does "U16" mean?

Thanks for posting this picture. It turns out I actually do have skewers like these 2nd metal ones. If you look at my first picture (from 2019), the first 2 skewers at the top are skinnier ones.

When I did my cook in 2021, I used only my bigger skewers.

It looks like I should have used my skinny ones.
 
Arun L. said:
What does "U16" mean?

Thanks for posting this picture. It turns out I actually do have skewers like these 2nd metal ones. If you look at my first picture (from 2019), the first 2 skewers at the top are skinnier ones.

When I did my cook in 2021, I used only my bigger skewers.

It looks like I should have used my skinny ones.
Click to expand...
I think it means 16 shrimp per pound.
Gerry
 
G Schafer said:
I think it means 16 shrimp per pound.
Gerry
Click to expand...
Yep, Gerry's correct. The numbers you see with shrimp give you an idea of how many are in a pound. So 21/25 shrimp would have 21-25 shrimp in a pound. The U16's are convenient, since that means each shrimp is about an ounce.....with the shell, of course. :)
 
Stealing Rich's pic for illustration. I usually use 16-20's and have skewers very similar to yours. When I skewer them 'flat', it seems to go better, and they sit nicely on the grill grates. I like the added bonus of having each shrimp skewered in two spots, so they hang on a little better.

1615123071226.png
 
Thanks everyone.

Next time, I'll use the skinny skewers I have, instead of the fatter skewers, and also lay them like the pics from @Rich G and @JimK .

If that doesn't work, then I'll just lay them on the grate like @Todd NC .

The 16/20 per lb. that I get are already peeled and de-veined. So they are ready to put in a marinade.
 
I have always read 30 minutes in citrus , I suspect they get tough, Rich G has the picture the way I do it, skewers take a little more time to do but are easier to cook imo. I take 5 or so Jalapeno's a couple garlic cloves salt lemon juice and run thru the ninja blender then marinate for 30 minutes then grill, remove seeds or it might be hotter than you like, more flavor than heat with the seeds removed, you can baste a little while grilling but they cook quick and I try to leave as much marinade on them as I can while putting them on the grate. I have some small oval shaped skewers that wont let the shrimps spin when you go to flip
 
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