So I’m too lazy to look this up and I’m not sure where to look so I’m gonna ask. How come shrimp come in a myriad of colors uncooked but all turn shades of orange-pink when cooked?
Thanks,
dins
The flesh of shrimp is generally uniform, and that is what you see turning whitish/pink.
The shells are a myriad of colors and do not all turn pink when cooked. As an experiemtn go buy one of each kind of shrimp sold at a local fish market and cook them. Tiger prawns still look like tiger prawns after cooking.
But what’s happening on the chemical side that causes the color change?
Coagulation of protein I think; same as when you cook egg whites.
FWIW, I remember reading that Pink Flamingos get their coloration from eating shrimp and other shellfish, so there must be something else going on there.
Sam: The particular shrimp that pink flamingos eat are full of carotine, as are most of the shellfish in the same habitat.
As a fun test I suggest you go on a strict diet of carrots and carrots alone for one month. At the beginning take a pghotograph of yourself and then anpother at the end. I had an orange cousin once upon a time who just happened to have a mother who thought loads of carrot juice was just the ultimate thing to feed a toddler.
It is simply a case of that particular bird eating a very narrow group of foods and absorbing byproducts found in that food group. But this does not mean that all shrimp are or become pink when cooked as was origininally stated.
It looks to be that shellfish like shrimp, lobster, and others are naturally red to begin with - the color coming from the carotenoid pigment astaxanthin. When the shellfish is laying down it’s new shell/s, the pigment combines with proteins in the shell which alters the reflected color to the blue-green color you see. Cooking heats up the shell which breaks down the proteins and releases the pigment, which then reflects it’s reddish-orange color.
Here are the two web pages I’ve gleamed this from, one being the intro to a grad student’s PHd thesis , the second being a cooking webpage (see bottom) that already has the answer to the question this guy spent 4+ years working on :D:D:D!
(of course to be fair this guy’s research will be much more detailed than the seconds webpage’s explanation)
Not all shrimps turn pink when cooked. There is a type of shrimp caught off the east coast of England that stays brown even when boiled. They do not look a appetizing as the pink variety but I am told they taste just as good if not better. This link takes you to a recipe using both sorts
http://www.lesliegeddesbrown.com/recipes03-01-01.htm