Shrimp Stock

[Andy M.]

Every time we have shrimp for dinner or as an appetizer I save and freeze the shells. That bounty of little ziplock bags full of raw shrimp shells was overflowing the freezer and SO's pleadings finally got to me.

Today I'm making shrimp stock which I will freeze for use in the cooler days ahead.

I'm looking forward to shrimp bisque and other seafood based soups.

Sure does smell fishy in here!

 

[taxlady]

That sounds really handy. I don't have any crustacean shells in my freezer. Stirling doesn't like crustaceans (he says he doesn't eat arthropods) and I never learned to cook shrimp. I do have bags of various kinds of bones in the freezer. Stirling got used to that, but I really should deal with some of them soon.

 

[Andy M.]

I have a horde of chicken bones and parts in the freezer. Chicken stock is next on the list.

 

[bbqcoder]

I would be interested knowing what recipes you follow for chicken/shrimp stock. In the past, I've made chicken stocks by buying a whole chicken. It would be nice to find a way to use scraps instead.

 

[Andy M.]

For the shrimp stock, I saved the shells in the freezer until I had a good quantity. I do the same with chicken bones and parts (such as the necks, hearts and gizzards that come packed with a whole chicken).

I put them into a pot with celery, onion, carrots, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns and water to cover. Bring it to a boil and reduce it to a simmer. Simmer the chicken stock for 4-6 hours and the shrimp for 30 minutes. Strain and freeze in ziplock bags.

For added flavor, sauté the shrimp shells over high heat until they get brown spots. You can roast raw chicken bones as well.

 

[GotGarlic]

I do the same as Andy but I also add white wine and fresh thyme sprigs to both shrimp and chicken (and turkey) stock. Whenever we have bone-in chicken, I put the bones in the freezer bag until I have a few pounds of bits and pieces and then I make stock.

Oh, except for the gizzards and livers. Neither DH nor I like those, so we sauté them and divide them among the pets.

 

[bethzaring]

When a cook bone in, skin on chicken parts, as soon as the parts are cool enough to handle, I de-bone all the parts and put the bones in the freezer. I have quite a few bags of them now. I make the stock like Andy describes and I pressure can the stock. Lately I have been using the canned chicken stock to make canned green chile sauce. Green chile season has just begun here. I am waiting for my carrots to grow up a bit, before I tackle canning chicken stock.

 

[taxlady]

I don't put veg in my meat stocks. I make a separate veg stock. I got in that habit when I was composting. We have suburban wildlife here, so we are discouraged from putting meat and bones in the compost. I hate wasting those vegi bits, that I feel should go in the compost. The veg stock takes much less time to make than the meat stocks do. I freeze my stock in an old silicone muffin baking thingee. I add some of the frozen, vegi stock "pellets" when I use meat stock, to make up for the fact that it doesn't have any veg.

 

[CraigC]

For shrimp stock, I buy fresh heads on like Key West pinks or Georgia freshies and use both heads and shells. We won't make Emeril's BBQ shrimp unless we can get the fresh heads on. Don't usually bother unless we also have some of his homemade Worcestershire either.

 

[traceyphillips]

Every time we have shrimp for dinner or as an appetizer I save and freeze the shells. That bounty of little ziplock bags full of raw shrimp shells was overflowing the freezer and SO's pleadings finally got to me.

Today I'm making shrimp stock which I will freeze for use in the cooler days ahead.

I'm looking forward to shrimp bisque and other seafood based soups.

Sure does smell fishy in here!

I bet your freezers smells! I love the smell of fish though! I should work in a fish market!

 

[Andy M.]

I bet your freezers smells! I love the smell of fish though! I should work in a fish market!

The freezer doesn't smell, everything is frozen! I was informed the whole house stunk yesterday. SO Febrezed the whole house.

 

[GotGarlic]

The freezer doesn't smell, everything is frozen! I was informed the whole house stunk yesterday. SO Febrezed the whole house.

Do you have a grill? I may do it on the side burner on the grill to avoid that problem.

 

[Andy M.]

Do you have a grill? I may do it on the side burner on the grill to avoid that problem.

I do have a grill. It doesn't have a side burner.

 

[CWS4322]

I like to add pickling spice to my stock. I horde mussel shells, crab shells, shrimp, and walleye bones to make my "fish" stock.