Types of Cold Seafood Dishes

Appears in

Professional Garde Manger: A Comprehensive Guide to Cold Food Preparation

By Jaclyn Pestka , Wayne Gisslen and Lou Sackett

Published 2010

About

In garde manger work it is useful to focus on the preparation and service types of cold seafood because in most cold seafood dishes, items are interchangeable. For example, a cold poached salmon presentation could be made with steelhead trout or striped bass as well.

Shrimp Facts

While more than 300 species of shrimp are used for food throughout the world, four types of warm-water shrimp are important in North American food service:

Pink shrimp: Small and delicate, with a fine, sweet flavor and firm texture. They are scarce and expensive.
White shrimp: Available in a full range of sizes and excellent for cold service. They have good, full flavor and a firm texture.
Brown shrimp: A tough texture better suited to hot preparations; flavor varies.
Tiger shrimp: Mild to bland in flavor with a soft texture. They are better suited to hot preparations.

Very small shrimp are sometimes called bay shrimp, although they are not usually harvested from bays. Large shrimp are often referred to as prawns. Shrimp sizes are expressed by count per pound.

Size	Count	Average per 1 lb (450 g)	Average Weight per Piece
Jumbo	U/10	5	3.2 oz (100 g)
	U/12	9	1.77 oz (50 g)
	U/15	14	1.14 oz (33 g)
Large	16/20	18	0.88 oz (24 g)
	2½5	23	0.69 oz (20 g)
Medium	26/30	28	0.57 oz (16 g)
	3⅓5	33	0.48 oz (14 g)
	36/40	38	0.42 oz (12 g)
Small	41/50	45	0.35 oz (10 g)
	51/60	55	0.29 oz (9 g)
	61/70	65	0.25 oz (7 g)