Home Sweet Homemaker

We tend to eat more steak and seafood when we are “actively pursuing” the South Beach Diet lifestyle. Shrimp was on sale this week and that’s what is for dinner tonight. I’ve always meant to learn what those numbers mean on the front of the package. Turns out, it is really quite simple. I think the only reason why the numbers throw me off is because the use of the slash(/). It makes me think I need to divide something. The numbers mean exactly what they say: 26/30 means that you will have between 26 and 30 shrimp per pound. My package was 26/30 and was 2 pounds, which means I should have between 48-60 shrimp. I counted 58 shrimp so there you go.

As I was thawing the shrimp, I noticed a little tiny chart on the back that I could barely read which I found helpful. It is the average number of shrimp per serving based on size. A little bit of “googleing” found that the accuracy of the terms given to shrimp (Colossal, Jumbo, Extra Large, Large and Medium) is questionable depending on the manufacturer. The term “Large Shrimp” may result in numbers anywhere between 21/25 to 31/40. That is a pretty large variance, so my nowhere near professional advice would be to rely on the numbers instead.