This is a British delicacy and extremely simple to make, though I'll go into some detail because it's worth getting these things correct eh! Even if it will probably be of little use to anyone outside the UK and northern Europe because you only get this kind of small 'Brown Shrimp' here.
The quantities listed at the end are a guesstimate to make about two starter size pots or one main course size, and you can just up them as required. In the pics I'm making 3 main course size ones.
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Brown Shrimp, sometimes called 'Morecambe Bay Shrimp' in the UK, are very small and intensely flavoured shrimp/prawn things. They're relatively cheap to buy with the shells on, but quite expensive to buy unshelled because they have to be done by hand and it's a somewhat delicate operation, there aren't machines that can do it. This what they look like peeled, about the size of a fingernail:
Potting shrimps is effectively a method of preservation using spiced butter. You can use other spices in addition, but the four main ones are; pepper (ideally white though black will do), nutmeg and/or mace, and cayenne pepper. Mace is like a hot or peppery version of nutmeg - it's from the same plant - so if you use just nutmeg then you'll want to up the amount of cayenne, if using just mace then less cayenne:
If you're eating them straight away you don't need to clarify the butter, but Potted Shrimps can keep in the fridge for up to a month if you do. To clarify butter you heat it up to a low simmer and scoop the solids off the top. You can see in the vid below that when the butter is only just melted the solids are on the bottom, as it starts to bubble they rise to the top. Sieving or straining can help with this too:
Then add your spices to the butter and keep simmering at a very low heat. This is the time to taste and adjust your seasoning / spicing accordingly. If you use salted butter you won’t need any more salt, brown shrimp are quite salty. Depending on exactly how much spice you use it'll look something like this after about 10 mins:
Then add your shrimps. Brown shrimp are almost always sold cooked, traditionally boiled in seawater on board the boat immediately after being caught. So you don't want to leave them in the simmering butter too long or else they’ll overcook, just a minute or so to let some flavours mingle:
Spoon the shrimps out into small pots, ramekins, kilner jars, or indeed coffee cups, and then cover with the rest of the spiced butter:
And put in the fridge to set, after which they'll look something like this:
Potted shrimps can be eaten either at room temperature, or warmed up again so that the butter melts which is how I like them. Usually with toast, though I'm going to have mine with another British classic: The Crumpet.
A crumpet is a little difficult to describe to those who haven't come across them, though certainly worth looking out for if you can find one available to purchase in the colonies. It's kinda like an 'English Muffin', but it's not bready like a muffin, more chewy, and has a slightly savoury yeasty flavour. Like a muffin you toast them, but you don't need to cut them in half. And they have a distinct advantage over the muffin in that the bubbling of yeast (or sometimes bicarb) in the dough means they have an awful lot of holes in them, so the inside of a crumpet looks almost identical to a natural sponge. And it’s going to soak up all the delicious melted spiced butter from my Potted Shrimps.
Here is a crumpet:
And served with a simple cucumber salad my grandmother used to make:
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Potted Shrimps (Serves one as a main course, or two as a starter)
100g peeled Brown Shrimp
100g salted butter
Pinch of white pepper
Pinch of mace
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Chopped parsley and a slice of lemon to serve.
Cucumber Salad (per person)
1/4 of a cucumber very finely sliced
30ml brown malt vinegar
Ground black pepper
Mix and leave in the fridge for at least 1/2 an hour before serving.
The quantities listed at the end are a guesstimate to make about two starter size pots or one main course size, and you can just up them as required. In the pics I'm making 3 main course size ones.
---
Brown Shrimp, sometimes called 'Morecambe Bay Shrimp' in the UK, are very small and intensely flavoured shrimp/prawn things. They're relatively cheap to buy with the shells on, but quite expensive to buy unshelled because they have to be done by hand and it's a somewhat delicate operation, there aren't machines that can do it. This what they look like peeled, about the size of a fingernail:
Potting shrimps is effectively a method of preservation using spiced butter. You can use other spices in addition, but the four main ones are; pepper (ideally white though black will do), nutmeg and/or mace, and cayenne pepper. Mace is like a hot or peppery version of nutmeg - it's from the same plant - so if you use just nutmeg then you'll want to up the amount of cayenne, if using just mace then less cayenne:
If you're eating them straight away you don't need to clarify the butter, but Potted Shrimps can keep in the fridge for up to a month if you do. To clarify butter you heat it up to a low simmer and scoop the solids off the top. You can see in the vid below that when the butter is only just melted the solids are on the bottom, as it starts to bubble they rise to the top. Sieving or straining can help with this too:
Then add your spices to the butter and keep simmering at a very low heat. This is the time to taste and adjust your seasoning / spicing accordingly. If you use salted butter you won’t need any more salt, brown shrimp are quite salty. Depending on exactly how much spice you use it'll look something like this after about 10 mins:
Then add your shrimps. Brown shrimp are almost always sold cooked, traditionally boiled in seawater on board the boat immediately after being caught. So you don't want to leave them in the simmering butter too long or else they’ll overcook, just a minute or so to let some flavours mingle:
Spoon the shrimps out into small pots, ramekins, kilner jars, or indeed coffee cups, and then cover with the rest of the spiced butter:
And put in the fridge to set, after which they'll look something like this:
Potted shrimps can be eaten either at room temperature, or warmed up again so that the butter melts which is how I like them. Usually with toast, though I'm going to have mine with another British classic: The Crumpet.
A crumpet is a little difficult to describe to those who haven't come across them, though certainly worth looking out for if you can find one available to purchase in the colonies. It's kinda like an 'English Muffin', but it's not bready like a muffin, more chewy, and has a slightly savoury yeasty flavour. Like a muffin you toast them, but you don't need to cut them in half. And they have a distinct advantage over the muffin in that the bubbling of yeast (or sometimes bicarb) in the dough means they have an awful lot of holes in them, so the inside of a crumpet looks almost identical to a natural sponge. And it’s going to soak up all the delicious melted spiced butter from my Potted Shrimps.
Here is a crumpet:
And served with a simple cucumber salad my grandmother used to make:
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Potted Shrimps (Serves one as a main course, or two as a starter)
100g peeled Brown Shrimp
100g salted butter
Pinch of white pepper
Pinch of mace
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Chopped parsley and a slice of lemon to serve.
Cucumber Salad (per person)
1/4 of a cucumber very finely sliced
30ml brown malt vinegar
Ground black pepper
Mix and leave in the fridge for at least 1/2 an hour before serving.
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looks like a cool recipe tho, thanks for the detailed write up, might try making this now!
