Prawns are shrimp, right?

[Caslon]

What’s the Difference Between Shrimp and Prawns? | Food & Wine

Let us all waste bandwidth discussing, hehehehe.

I ask this because some major restaurant chain is now tv advertising a delicious lo0king steak and prawn meal commercial. Not steak and shrimp....steak and prawns.

Shrimp and prawns.
A rose by any other name.

 

[caseydog]

Since my brain is packed with information that in no way benefits me financially, I already knew shrimp and prawns were different animals. Brits like to call our Gulf coast shrimp prawns, but they also pronounce aluminum wrong.

I like them both, by the way.

CD

 

[giggler]

picture of a prawn

picture of a prawn

 

[giggler]

picture of a shrimp

 

[giggler]

picture of a Scampi

 

[buckytom]

We've had this discussion here once a long time ago.

Some people call the big shrimp prawns, and some people call the little shrimp prawns, and vice versa.

A few people got upset because they felt they were more correct.

And then there's Dublin Bay Prawns, which is a slightly different animal.

 

[Andy M.]

Yes, they are different animals.

The way the name is used is not necessarily correct. Restaurants will use one name over the other because they like the sound of it better. Maybe steak and prawns sounds cooler or MORE EXPENSIVE than steak and shrimp.

Misusing or creating new names for foods is not a new thing, but is is annoying.

 

[RPCookin]

picture of a prawn

That photo is a spiny lobster - or in the Bahamas they call it a crayfish. Certainly isn't a prawn.

From Wikipedia:

The term "prawn"[2] is used particularly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Commonwealth nations, for large swimming crustaceans or shrimp, especially those with commercial significance in the fishing industry. Shrimp that fall in this category often belong to the suborder Dendrobranchiata. In North America, the term is used less frequently, typically for freshwater shrimp. The terms shrimp and prawn themselves lack scientific standing. Over the years, the way shrimp and prawn are used has changed, and nowadays the terms are almost interchangeable.

In the United Kingdom, prawn is used more commonly on menus than shrimp, while the opposite is the case in the United States. The term prawn also loosely describes any large shrimp, especially those at 15 (or fewer) to the pound[citation needed] (such as king prawns or jumbo shrimp).

According to the crustacean taxonomist Tin-Yam Chan, "The terms shrimp and prawn have no definite reference to any known taxonomic groups. Although the term shrimp is sometimes applied to smaller species, while prawn is more often used for larger forms, there is no clear distinction between both terms and their usage is often confused or even reverse in different countries or regions."[3] Writing in 1980, L. B. Holthuis noted that the terms prawn and shrimp were used inconsistently "even within a single region", generalising that larger species fished commercially were generally called shrimps in the United States, and prawns in other English-speaking countries, although not without exceptions.[4]

The terms true shrimp or true prawn are sometimes used to mean what a particular person thinks is a shrimp or prawn.[2] This varies with the person using the terms. But such terms are not normally used in the scientific literature, because the terms shrimp and prawn themselves lack scientific standing. Over the years the way shrimp and prawn are used has changed, and nowadays the terms are almost interchangeable.

There's more HERE if you want to read it.

 

[RPCookin]

Yes, they are different animals.

The way the name is used is not necessarily correct. Restaurants will use one name over the other because they like the sound of it better. Maybe steak and prawns sounds cooler or MORE EXPENSIVE than steak and shrimp.

Misusing or creating new names for foods is not a new thing, but is is annoying.

This is the real answer to the question the OP posed. If a restaurant wants an upscale image, they use "prawn" on the menu, and if they want to keep that image, those prawns had better be a lot more than bite size. Otherwise they are still just shrimp with a God complex.

 

[giggler]

here is a picture of a Crayfish. Round here they are called Crawdads.

note, craw dads are the same size as shrimp

 

[buckytom]

This is the real answer to the question the OP posed. If a restaurant wants an upscale image, they use "prawn" on the menu, and if they want to keep that image, those prawns had better be a lot more than bite size. Otherwise they are still just shrimp with a God complex.

Well, that would depend on where the restaurant is located.

More from Wiki: "Although the term shrimp is sometimes applied to smaller species, while prawn is more often used for larger forms, there is no clear distinction between both terms and their usage is often confused or even reverse in different countries or regions."[3] Writing in 1980, L. B. Holthuis noted that the terms prawn and shrimp were used inconsistently "even within a single region", generalising that larger species fished commercially were generally called shrimps in the United States, and prawns in other English-speaking countries, although not without exceptions.[4]"

The discussion we had here pretty much played that out. Although there were more international members back then.

 

[RPCookin]

here is a picture of a Crayfish. Round here they are called Crawdads.

note, craw dads are the same size as shrimp

I know the difference... in the Bahamas a spiny lobster is a crayfish in the local vernacular. If you see crayfish on a menu, it's a spiny lobster. They grow very large, can be 2 feet long not counting the feelers, but they are still crayfish to a Bahamian. In that country, it has to have claws to be called a lobster.

In the US, crayfish are crawdads (and some people call them crawfish to add more confusion), and both are freshwater crustaceans.

This is a spiny lobster or Bahamian crayfish (scuba divers just call them "bugs"):

 

[caseydog]

here is a picture of a Crayfish. Round here they are called Crawdads.

note, craw dads are the same size as shrimp

In Louisiana, they are called crawfish. Apparently what they call a crayfish in Australia is a somewhat different beast.

CD

 

[buckytom]

When I was a kid, people called them crayfish in NJ and NY state, but I haven't heard it said in a very long time. It's crawfish.

Btw, I miss Mudbug, a member who hasn't been around in a long time.

And lol, a mudbug is defined as a freshwater crayfish, not crawfish.

 

[caseydog]

When I was a kid, people called them crayfish in NJ and NY state, but I haven't heard it said in a very long time. It's crawfish.

Btw, I miss Mudbug, a member who hasn't been around in a long time.

And lol, a mudbug is defined as a freshwater crayfish, not crawfish.

When I lived in NJ as a kid, we also called them crayfish. When I lived in Port Arthur (cajun country) everyone called them crawfish. After very heavy rains, we would see them in my backyard. And, they would leave behind these mounds where they came out of the ground that would harden when dry, and were real lawnmower blade killers.

I rarely heard anyone in cajun country call them mudbugs. It is almost always crawfish.

Here is a shot of my crawfish boil rig in action down on Bolivar Peninsula. The crawfish were kind of small that year, but tasty.

CD

 

[dragnlaw]

When I was about 9 (+/-) my Dad called them "crawdads". We found them in the creek behind our summer place. They were quite small and we did not eat them, which says a lot as my Dad would have caught and eaten them had they been worth while. This was in Ontario, the '12 Mile Creek' ran down between Hamilton and Toronto.

 

[CakePoet]

Scampi isnt a square block it is a Nephrops norvegicus, a type crustacean.

 

[buckytom]

Lol, that's another one.

CP, I think giggler meant a scampi sauce, which is primarily butter and garlic.

 

[CakePoet]

Or surimi?

 

[Mad Cook]

picture of a prawn

No it isn't. Looks like what we call crayfish in the UK.

To all intents and purposes prawns are a large version of shrimps, the latter being probably 1/2 and inch long when shelled.

In the past we've been greatful for Americans invading Britain but this time we'd like you to de-mob the American breed of crayfish which have decimated our British ones.

Google "Signal Crayfish - Inland Waterways Association" for the whole sorry story.