The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-08-20
FEELING A SHRIMP.


Several Ways of Doing 1t, but 1t In
Really "a Matter of Practice.
"While in one of the restaurants one
day." remarked rotund, good natured
fellow yesterday, II heard stranger ask
one of the walters a question that at
tracted my attention because have often
pondered over the same weighty problem.
Which is the best way to peel shrimpF
asked the stranger, and the waiter pro-
ceeded to drawl out long explanation
which amounted, after all, to the Quint-
essence of equivocation which Dickens
put into the mouth of one Of his charac-
ters-'still, at the same time, to certain
extent and as far as it goes, of course
Really this problem of the best method
of peeling shrimp is very important to
the man who Is fond Of tickling his pal
ate with these brown dainties. Fashion
has practically given the question over to
individual taste and simply calls on every
fellow to do the best he can under the
circumstances.
1.-THE nicer properties usually observed
by the well bred man or woman at the
table cannot be respected when one sails
into a dainty dish of shrimp, and hence
even the ultra fashionables are extremely
liberal in the matter. allowing each fellow
to use his own judgment. So there are
ways and ways Of shocking shrimp, II
l may use a corncrib expression. Ask
one friend and he will tell you that the
quickest and best way is to begin at the
head and work your way gradually
around the circle to the point of begin
ming. Ask another friend and he will
probably tell you to pinch off the tip OF
the tail first, remove few of the short
claws, and then rip the monster up the
back, as the saying goes, until the head
Is reached, and then pull off the two side
scales that protect the gills-if shrimp
have gills-and there you are. He is then
skinned from the tip Of his tail to his
dark brown eyes. One may then pounce
upon him without further delay.
"Still another friend will insist that the
head should be pinched off first. This,
1t is commended, will produce a sort Of re-
taxation In the compactness and rigidity
of the vertebr@, loosening the cemented
joints, as it were, and leaving the lower
part Of the body practically unattached
to the thin shell which incases the meaty
and eatable part of the shrimp. But
other men who are equally as well yersed
in the anatomy of the shrimp insist that
Just the reverse is true, and that pinching
the head off first produces certain mus
cular rigidity which greatly delays the
peeling process and makes the task more
difficult.
$50 there are many ways Of peeling q
shrimp, and the fellow described in the
old saw who was SO stingy that he would
skin fea for its hide and tallow' was
confronted by no more difficult undertake
ing than the average man who sits down
with a dish Of river shrimp before him.
For the benefit of those who are not &C.
customed to handling shrimp at the table
and who rarely have an opportunity to
enjoy this delicacy would suggest that
In the first place they remove the thingo-
mado, then pinch of the dofunnys. slit
the INTERCHANGEABLE and pull 1t of. and
then you have the whole cauoodle. But
really peeling shrimp is matter Of prac-
tice. and every fellow does It In bis own
way after all" - New Orleans Times
Democrat