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Prawns, to Boil
Have ready a pan of fast-boiling water, salted in the proportion of a table-spoonful of salt to half a gallon of water. Throw in three dozen live prawns, and boil them very quickly for eight minutes. Take them out, drain them on a soft cloth, and set them aside until quite cold.
A bare-bones British method for cooking prawns to be eaten cold — in shells, dressed on a napkin, or picked for potting and sauces. Almost everything depends on the boiling time, which is the one figure worth ignoring.
- The eight minutesEight minutes suited the small common prawn of Victorian fishmongers, and even then it was generous. Small prawns are done in about two to three minutes from the moment the water returns to the boil, larger ones a little longer, and the shell turning opaque pink is the signal. Beyond that the flesh tightens and goes cottony.
- Salt proportionA tablespoon to half a gallon is about 15 g to 2 litres — noticeably under seawater strength. If the prawns are to be eaten cold and plain, closer to 25–30 g per litre gives them the seasoning they need, since none can be added later through the shell.
- Live prawnsSold live only at good coastal fishmongers now, and mostly bought raw and chilled or already frozen. Frozen raw prawns should be thawed fully before boiling or the outside overcooks while the centre is still cold.
- "Prawn" hereIn a British book of this date this means Palaemon serratus or similar — a slim animal a few inches long, sold by the dozen or the pint. Three dozen is a modest dish. Large warm-water tiger or king prawns behave differently and take a minute or so longer than the small ones.
- Fast-boiling, and keeping it soAdding three dozen prawns drops the temperature sharply. Use plenty of water and add them in batches if the pot is small, so the boil recovers quickly.
- CoolingDraining on a cloth and leaving them to cool in air, rather than plunging them into cold water, keeps them from waterlogging. Cool them spread out in a single layer rather than heaped, then refrigerate; the book's kitchen was cooler than ours.
- YieldThree dozen small prawns in the shell serve two or three as a first course, or yield roughly 100–150 g of picked meat for potting, a sauce or a garnish.
Boiled prawns belong to the Victorian cold table: served heaped on a folded napkin with brown bread, butter and a cut lemon, or shelled for potted prawns, prawn sauce for turbot, and the garnish laid round a fish at dinner. The eight-minute figure reflects a period habit of cooking shellfish hard — the same books give lobsters half an hour or more.