Cooling shrimp in oil

darreneatschicken
darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys,

I just used 30 grams of oil to cook some shrimp. However, I only ate about 1/3rd of the shrimp weight (because most of it was shell, which I threw away).

Therefore, should I just enter 10 grams of oil in my food diary?

Replies

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    Are you saying that 2/3 of the total weight of the shrimp you bought is shell? Therefore, your words, you consumed 1/3 of the oil?? What's the connection in your mind?

    Anyway, shells weight practically nothing when compared to the meat weight in a shrimp so not sure your motive behind that observation. Drain the oil into a container and weigh it, now you'll know, right.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2021
    neanderthin wrote: »
    Are you saying that 2/3 of the total weight of the shrimp you bought is shell? Therefore, your words, you consumed 1/3 of the oil?? What's the connection in your mind?

    Anyway, shells weight practically nothing when compared to the meat weight in a shrimp so not sure your motive behind that observation. Drain the oil into a container and weigh it, now you'll know, right.

    So if you were me, you would just enter 30 grams of oil into your diary?

    The raw shrimp weighed 444 grams, but I only ate 176 grams (the rest was shell, which I threw away).
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    Did you purchase the shrimp with the heads on ?
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2021
    neanderthin wrote: »
    Did you purchase the shrimp with the heads on ?

    Yes. That's why so much of the weight wasn't actual meat. Sorry, I should've been more specific.

    So 444 grams was the weight of the raw shrimp. 268 grams of that 444 grams was shell and heads (which I didn't eat), meaning I ate 176 grams worth of meat.

    176/444 = 0.33

    So I'm thinking that I only consumed 10 grams of oil, despite having cooked the shrimp with 30 grams of oil (because most of the oil would've been absorbed by the heads and shells, which I threw away)... Does that make sense to you?
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    Ok, cool. You could just add all the oil to your diary in this specific case and call it a day, or like I said you could weigh what's left over in the pan, mind you some of that weight could be residual pan juices from the shrimp itself.

    There was a study done a decade ago, or there about where they took 2 groups and asked them how much they ate and one group were dietitians. Both groups unreported their food intake. regular group was 400 calories under reported and the dietitians were 200 calories under reported.

    Basically everyone under reports what they eat, so yeah you could just add the 30g's
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,840 Member
    Regarding your math: you state yourself that you think the heads/shells absorbed oil, so when you weighed the shells, you were actually weighing the shells and the oil you didn't consume.

    But yeah, these kind of cases are impossible to log accurately :smile: To 'ballpark' it, I would probably log 200gr of shrimp and half of the oil, if it were me.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    No need to cook shrimp in any oil. Saute pan with no water if frozen or 1 tbsp water if fresh then drizzle 7 grams of oil or butter on them and continue the saute.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    yeah, I was wondering why so much oil, too.

    I've never cooked shell-on shrimp in oil...do you wait until they're cool to peel them? So many questions...
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Yea, you either eat them as you peel them of give them a few minutes to be easier to handle. I always buy frozen peeled deveined tail on shrimp since everything outside of Florida and S. Caroline is frozen anyway. Even it is in a fresh seafood display in the grocery.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Bubba Gump comes to mind. :)


    I just can't see why you'd cook them in oil with the skins on. Even if they're frozen it just takes a couple minutes under running cold water to thaw them enough to skin them. I'm so cheap I won't buy them pre-peeled when I can save a couple dollars a pound and peel them myself.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    cheap frugal, I mean. Yeah, that's it.
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
    @cmriverside I grew up in Asia and getting cooked shrimp/prawns still in the shell was very common. It's like cooking bone-in meat - keeps more of the flavor. You usually cut the shell down the back or butterfly it prior to cooking so the shell is easy to peel off. Here's a recipe if you're curious: https://tasteasianfood.com/pan-fried-shrimps/
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    edited May 2021
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Bubba Gump comes to mind. :)


    I just can't see why you'd cook them in oil with the skins on. Even if they're frozen it just takes a couple minutes under running cold water to thaw them enough to skin them. I'm so cheap I won't buy them pre-peeled when I can save a couple dollars a pound and peel them myself.

    It's because the shell adds quite a bit of flavour which doesn't escape and is there when you peel them. Especially when you have the opportunity to buy them fresh with the heads on, they don't come that way frozen, kind of a no brainer.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    edited May 2021
    Thanks, @chocolate_owl - I don't think I can source shrimp that's fresh. I guess I've eaten oil-cooked skin-on before when I lived in Florida or on trips to New Orleans, I just probably wouldn't do it at home.


  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    Well, I think about price too, but the shell on has a lot of waste and the shrimp are sometimes pieces and, deveining after cooking tends to water them down unless you just use a thumb which is unsanitary. Top quality flash frozen tail on here are about $10/pound.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    Is this something you eat several times a week, or only occasionally? If only occasionally, personally I'd just ballpark some semi-reasonable number (all, half, 1/3, whatever), and move on. Yeah, it's a lot of calories each time, but if infrequent . . . meh. Just my opinion.
  • Sixteen_Tons
    Sixteen_Tons Posts: 64 Member
    I think accuracy is key, after cooking I peel them and weigh them. If I'm using oil for any part of the cooking if it's not so incorporated in the dish that you can't tell which, I use the before/after weight of the oil as the amount I've consumed.

    I always try and be conservative with any deductions, I'd rather be a little high in my estimations of food consumed.

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