I love shrimp—shrimp on the barbie (cue Paul Hogan), shrimp scampi, fried shrimp with French fries, shrimp cocktail, shrimp gumbo, and shrimp sandwiches. But prawns? Prawns are fancy. They’re hard to find, pricy, and somewhat confusing shellfish. Are prawns really shrimp? Are shrimp really prawns? What’s the difference between prawns and shrimp?
Shrimp vs. Prawns
Prawns (for all you scientists, they are a suborder of the dendrobranchiata) and shrimp are generally used interchangeably, but that’s not exactly accurate. Yes, both prawns and shrimp have 10 legs and an exoskeleton, but “their gills are arranged differently, the number of legs with claws is different (shrimp have two pairs with claws and prawns have three), and the segments on their bodies overlap in different ways,” explains Robert DiGregorio, Director of Seafood Quality at Fulton Fish Market.
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