Has anyone tried it? I've purchased the little dried shrimp at asian grocers before for making stock. Wondering how well it might work with small to medium size cooked shrimp. Would be great for some soups or pasta or even shrimp n grits.

I have not. For one thing, the house would smell awful. The other thing would be the texture of rehydrated shrimp. If you were truly wanting to eat them as reconstituted shrimp I think that the texture would be unpleasant. I assume you are thinking of dehydrating shelled shrimp.

If you want to use dehydrated shrimp for stock, then you should leave the shells on. Not sure if that would pose any infection control issues.

I agree the smell in the house would be horrible when dehydrating. Plus I would worry about contamination/getting sick from them. This is one of those things where I would feel more comfortable buying it already dehydrated.

I dehydrate shrimp in the jambalaya that is the most fought over meal on any trip we take. The only issue is that it tends to stay a bit chewy if we don't leave it soaking long enough.

As an aside- any food including shrimp is safe if properly dehydrated. This means no moisture is left and the shrimp is then sealed to prevent moisture from accumulating. I keep anything that has meat in it in the freezer- even after it is vacuum sealed- just to be extra safe.

I dehydrated shrimp once. When reconstituted, it had the texture of an old pencil eraser ... and about the same flavor.

I have. Many times for jambalaya and a seafood rice wrap I make. My recommendation is to not use the small salad shrimp. Use a decent sized med or lg shrimp and cut into small pieces. I agree with Ripple, if not properly rehydrated they can be chewy...sometimes chewy is good. In this way it is good as an accent, but might not be as appetizing as the main protein. I have dehydrated canned crab as well, no problems.

quote ripple: "I dehydrate shrimp in the jambalaya that is the most fought over meal on any trip we take. The only issue is that it tends to stay a bit chewy if we don't leave it soaking long enough.

As an aside- any food including shrimp is safe if properly dehydrated. This means no moisture is left and the shrimp is then sealed to prevent moisture from accumulating. I keep anything that has meat in it in the freezer- even after it is vacuum sealed- just to be extra safe.

"

We tried Jambalaya (w/dehydrated shrimp) for the first time this past fall. It was EXCELLENT!!

Agree with the slightly chewy factor. Learning curve on re-hydration. :)

DH shrimp is also a great add-in for Gumbo. Always my favorite meal of the trip.

Those of you who dehydrate the little critters, do you do them whole, or sliced or cut into chunks? I used to be able to find shrimp n a foil pouch (not dried), and dehydrated my shrimp creole sauce, and added them to the mix. Haven't seen shrimp packaged like that in quite a while.

I buy pre-cooked, frozen shrimp; medium-sized (51/60 count an 71/90 count/LBS). Just take the tails off and cut them in to 2 or 3 pieces about 3/4 inch or less. They "do" smell-up the basement while I am dehydrating - not a funky stench to my nose... but you may not want to have guests over while you are dehydrating them...

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I have been experimenting w/ dehydrating "imitation crab meat" (made from polluck i think). Have decided i prefer it to DH shrimp. ... DOesnt have the same chewyness that DH shrimp can have And superior flavor retention over shrimp. . IMitation crab also much less costly.

Curious if others have tried imitation crab ?

quote TangoCharlie: "Curious if others have tried imitation crab ? "

IMHO, imitation crab is sort of like passing up a beautiful woman in favor of a blow-up doll.

quote OBX2Kayak: "

quote TangoCharlie: "Curious if others have tried imitation crab ? "

IMHO, imitation crab is sort of like passing up a beautiful woman in favor of a blow-up doll."

There are things to be said for low maintenance options... :)

I think I might actually try the imitation crab thing as well, goes well in some soups, and might pair with the shrimp for some things too.

Is suppose u could try "real" crab w/ equal success.

ps on the lighter side: i tried your blow-up doll suggestion but that was epip fail that first evening by the campfire: one hot ember and "whoosh!" thats all she wrote!

quote keth0601: "

quote OBX2Kayak: "

quote TangoCharlie: "Curious if others have tried imitation crab ? "

IMHO, imitation crab is sort of like passing up a beautiful woman in favor of a blow-up doll."

There are things to be said for low maintenance options... :)"

LOL! Good one!

I have posted this site before. Went looking for it as I want to try to make a couple of the "barks" and give them a trial run here at home.

They do have a section on meats including shrimp and imitation crab.

Back Packing Chef

Thinking that I will try the adding bread crumbs to my hamburger like they talk about as well.

quote KevinL: "I have posted this site before. Went looking for it as I want to try to make a couple of the "barks" and give them a trial run here at home.


They do have a section on meats including shrimp and imitation crab.


Back Packing Chef


Thinking that I will try the adding bread crumbs to my hamburger like they talk about as well. "

That's a great site. The bread crumbs in the meat works really well too.

+1 on the bread crumbs.

The Hungry Hammock Hanger has a jumbalaya recipe that he uses shrimp in and it looks really good. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to.

booo220: "Hi!
If somebody want to Boil Shrimps - i found good advice."

I have learned to add shrimp to boiling water and cook until most are floating. Rinse quickly in cold, ice water to stop the cooking process.

All depends on how fresh your shrimp are. I’ve had chefs boil my shrimp for only 10 seconds and they are cooked. I like my shrimp cooked a little more than that but have never cooked for over a minute.

Do a search for simplyshrimpmn

Never frozen, fresh shrimp grown right here in Minnesota.

I have. I find it one of the more challenging food items. As part of a Jumbalaya, the shrimp don't rehydrate as well as other food components. It's not BAD, it's just noticeably "not as good".

Shrimp with Knorr Creamy Garlic Shells is one of our standard trip dinners. A bag of the shells and half a pound of shrimp (pre-dehydrating weight) makes a great meal for the two of us. It took us a few tries to get the shrimp dehydration down; here's our method:

Lightly season peeled/deveined shrimp (we use salt, pepper, & a roasted garlic & herb seasoning), then grill the shrimp. (We originally tried pan frying the shrimp, but that adds lots of oil to an already oily meat.) When cool, slice the shrimp into 1/4" thick coins; dehydrate on parchment paper. DO NOT OVER-DEHYDRATE; we stop when the coins still flex a bit, like jerky. Bag or vacuum pack the dehydrated shrimp. If not using the shrimp for a couple weeks, freeze it to avoid spoiling. On the day you plan to have this meal for dinner, start rehydrating the shrimp at lunch. We add water to the zipper bag of dehydrated shrimp, but put the bag into a 1.3 oz Rubbermaid container we found at Target (Note: we use one of these for ALL our meat rehydration while paddling).

In camp, cook the Knorr shells per package instructions, adding the shrimp (and some crumbled dehydrated spinach).

TZ