Prawns aren't prawns, Sol

[Dignity]

A mate dropped off some prawns, straight from the trawler at Bribie Island he said. Now I can eat prawns forever but these have been packaged and frozen for grunter bait, they just love cooked prawns. Started to peel them and noticed that most had a lot of dark fluid/muck in the head, found I couldn't de-vein them easily (the missus insists) as the flesh seemed soft and just constantly broke up, and after peeling half a dozen my hands felt like they had sand all over them. Sure enough, tasted a few and they were gritty in flavour, what the hell was going on. Most of them when the head was pulled off had either a very fluid orange to black muck which was very hard to keep off the rest of the prawn. The prawns themselves were soft and not firm, these were tigers.

Now I often see prawns with dark heads and avoid buying them purely because I don't like the muck but have eaten them at parties etc and no problems, but these, no matter how careful I was they just tasted gritty and pulling the heads off was enough to put you off just trying one. End result even I wont eat them and they have been relegated to the bait freezer.

What could be the cause of these symptoms, soft flesh, extremely fluid crap, grittiness. To me I would assume (wrongly) that these were green prawns they had for sale and were a little long in the tooth and got cooked but in all likely hood it is something else as I have never tasted gritty prawns before.

[scorpo92]

A mate dropped off some prawns, straight from the trawler at Bribie Island he said. Now I can eat prawns forever but these have been packaged and frozen for grunter bait, they just love cooked prawns. Started to peel them and noticed that most had a lot of dark fluid/muck in the head, found I couldn't de-vein them easily (the missus insists) as the flesh seemed soft and just constantly broke up, and after peeling half a dozen my hands felt like they had sand all over them. Sure enough, tasted a few and they were gritty in flavour, what the hell was going on. Most of them when the head was pulled off had either a very fluid orange to black muck which was very hard to keep off the rest of the prawn. The prawns themselves were soft and not firm, these were tigers.

Now I often see prawns with dark heads and avoid buying them purely because I don't like the muck but have eaten them at parties etc and no problems, but these, no matter how careful I was they just tasted gritty and pulling the heads off was enough to put you off just trying one. End result even I wont eat them and they have been relegated to the bait freezer.

What could be the cause of these symptoms, soft flesh, extremely fluid crap, grittiness. To me I would assume (wrongly) that these were green prawns they had for sale and were a little long in the tooth and got cooked but in all likely hood it is something else as I have never tasted gritty prawns before.

Ive had the same here in hervey bay once. Apparently they were fresh off the boats too. Terrible

[bondy99]

Hi Dignity.

I'd say most likely they have not been properly done in the first instance.

When I use to work on prawn trawlers we always wash the prawns (after sorting) with seawater hose especially around the head to remove as much grit as possible. Cooked in fresh seawater then pack the prawns in flaked sea ice with extra coarse salt between layers.

We never use Metabisulphite or similar chemical for warding off "black spot", that's something done at a processing place once its past on from the trawler.

Other things deteriorate prawn flesh are the practice of thaw, refreeze, thaw and refreeze. This does knock the quality of prawn meat.

Another thing is time spent on deck prior to refrigeration is this...For every hour the prawn is left on a sorting tray in sunlight/ cloud day is the equivalent of 1 day shelf life of that prawn wasted.

If the prawn has black head, black legs and black tail, stay clear of it , its already got bacteria.

Hope this might help you in your query.

Cheers, Bondy

[kingcray]

that could quite possibly be the most informative thing you've ever said Bondy
We had the same thing not long ago. Father in law was given some trawler prawns and they were exactly as you described, not nice at all.
Pretty sure they came from Bribie way also

[Dignity]

Thanks guys, I just can't figure how the prawns could get so gritty, they didn't feel so on the outside only when peeling them, think I might pass next time I am offered prawns from this source, I have had them fresh off the mooloolaba trawler and they were awesome.

[Crunchy]

Had some from WoolWorths the other day and they were the same, through them out and I paid extra for the "Fresh"ones.

[Noelm]

Of course, there is always the possibility that the Trawler had prawns from elsewhere to sell 'fresh off the boat" I have seen things like that go on before.

[odieman150]

When my father in law ran his trawler he used to keep them alive before cooking (so they didn't go soft) and just prior to cooking in sea water he would swim the prawns in a solution (the name eludes me now and is probably a banned chemical) that made them spew up all the sand and grit. His product was always amazing

[tunaticer]

Old method was to drop the catch into fresh water so they purge the grit before cooking them in sea water.....that was 60 yrs ago tho.
I would imagine at this time of the yr the trawlers will be working outside the river mouths with the prawn runs.
That is the one place you will find extra silty conditions and the prawns eat that crap.

[bondy99]

that could quite possibly be the most informative thing you've ever said Bondy
We had the same thing not long ago. Father in law was given some trawler prawns and they were exactly as you described, not nice at all.
Pretty sure they came from Bribie way also

Your a cheeky bugger Kingcray