Everything about Prawns totally explained
Prawns are
crustaceans, belonging to the
sub-order Dendrobranchiata . They are similar in appearance to
shrimp, but can be distinguished 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.
The largest prawn is commonly called the
giant tiger prawn, which can weigh up to 650 g (23 ounces).
Commercial and culinary use
As used in commercial
farming and
fishery, the terms prawn and
shrimp are generally used interchangeably. In European countries, particularly the
United Kingdom, the word “prawns” is far more common on menus than the term “shrimp”, which is generally only used in
North America. The term “prawn” is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer) to the pound (also called “king prawns”).
Australia and other
Commonwealth countries follow this European/British use to an even greater extent, using the word “prawn” almost exclusively. (
Paul Hogan’s use of the phrase
“I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you” in a television advertisement was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say.) In Spain,
gambas al ajillo (translated to garlic prawns) is a popular dish with both the locals and tourists, traditionally served as
tapas. In South Asia and Southeast Asia, prawn
curry is a very popular dish.
Etymology
In various forms of English, the name “prawn” is often applied to shrimp as well, generally the larger species, such as
Leander serratus. In the
United States, according to the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, the word “prawn” usually indicates a
freshwater shrimp or prawn. In
Middle English, the word “prawn” is recorded as
prayne or
prane; no
cognate form can be found in any other
language. It has often been connected to the
Latin perna, a ham-shaped
shellfish, but this is due to an old scholarly error that connected
perna and
parnocchie with prawne-fishes or shrimps. In fact, the
Old Italian perna and
pernocchia meant a shellfish that yielded nacre, or
mother-of-pearl.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Prawns'.
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