Species sheet · The Edible Ocean
common shrimp
It is fished on foot, pushed ahead of you in thirty centimetres of water.
- Boiled in seawater, eaten as is
- In Flemish-style croquettes
- Peeled onto buttered bread
- In French
- Crevette grise
- Scientific name
- Crangon crangon
- In the water
- Benthic; brackish; from 0 to 50 m; fine sand, muddy sand and seagrass flats.
- Season & buying
- Fished from spring through autumn, mostly in May and June; ask if it was boiled on board, the head should stay attached and smell of the sea, never ammonia.
- Common length
- ~8.9 cm
- How to identify it
- Small, 5 to 9 cm at most
Speckled sandy grey, near-invisible at rest
Flattened body, no marked rostrum
On the plate
Small, briny and crunchy, eaten whole without peeling.
Avoid: Buying it peeled: industrial peeling often happens in Morocco, a round trip from the North Sea.
It changes colour within hours to match the sand, from pale beige to almost black, and reburies itself every morning at first light.
In Umay recipes
2 Umay recipes call for it.
