I recently bought a bag of large, raw, unpeeled frozen white shrimp, at the upper end of the U9-14 range. Today I tried Kenjii’s quick lemon-garlic prep on the Big Green Egg.
The results were very tasty. I like shrimp and prawns cooked in or with their shells. I think it keeps the flesh moist, and tossing after cooking boosts the flavor. And I actually like the ritual of peel-and-eat. Grilling in the shells made for a great appearance when these biggzuns came off the skewers–partially charred, yet still white inside.
But… these bugs proved exceptionally difficult to peel.
Assuming the shrimp were not overcooked, most likely culprit was the sugar in lemon-garlic marinade, which probably caramelized during the cooking process, making for a natural adhesive between flesh and shell.
Even simpler than that…the outer membrane between the meat and the shell dries out and sticks to the shell. Ive had it happen when i added bothing but a brushing of oil. (It will happen with baked and broiled shrimp tool.
As much as I love thr flavor and completely agree with thr preferencw to leave the shells on, ive just started peeling them if theyre going on the grill.
(If theyre steamed or boiled I’ll do anything I can to get them head on…which means they have to be crazy fresh. I live 30 min from the docks and its hard to dol
I grill without the shell because I have run into the same issue. I would imagine it is a similar one to that of grilling or roasting lobster - the proteins bond with the shell. Kenji solves the issue for lobster by steaming and then finishing in the oven. Since shrimp cook faster, you would probably need to adjust cooking times.
