Prawns & Shrimp

[cheekycow]

What is the difference between a Prawn & a Shrimp?

[WoWo]

Technically they are different animals, a prawn has a thinner body and longer legs. Also prawns generally swim in fresh water with shrimps in salt water.

In terms of food in the UK we tend to use the prawn for the larger examples and shrimps for the smaller but in the US they tend to use Shrimp for any thing.

Here is a more technical explanation....

Prawns are edible, shrimp-like crustaceans, belonging to the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. They are distinguished from the superficially similar shrimp by the gill structure which is branching in prawns (hence the name, dendro="tree"; branchia="gill"), but is lamellar in shrimp. The sister taxon to Dendrobranchiata is Pleocyemata, which contains all the true shrimp, crabs, lobsters, etc.

[heathfield]

In the UK, it used to be the case that the selling description was based on size and weight. I seem to remember the crossover point was something like 180 to the pound (weight). If they were small, and there were more than 180 per pound, they were called shrimp, and if they were bigger and there were less than 180 per pound, they were called prawns. I don't remember when the change to calling everything prawns occurred, but I recall being very surprised when I first saw tiny shrimp being called prawns on a packet in a supermarket.

[Backdrifter]

Change to everything being called prawns? I hadn't noticed. If you go to a restaurant and order potted shrimp, you get the tiny little ones. (And what a great dish that can be).